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- 1. Behold the beginning of sentient formless life (a).
- First, the divine (vehicle) (b), the one from the mother-spirit Atman) ; then the Spiritual — ( Atma-Buddhi, Spirit-soul ) * (c) ; (again) the three from the one (d), the four from the one (e), and the five ( f ), from which the three, the five and the seven ( g ) — these are the three-fold and the four-fold downward ; the “ mind-born sons of the first Lord ( Avalôkitêswara ) the Shining Seven ( the “ Builders ”). † It is they who are thou, me, him, O Lanoo ; they who watch over thee and thy mother, Bhumi (the Earth ).
(a) The hierarchy of Creative Powers is divided into seven (or 4 and 3 ) esoteric, within the twelve great Orders, recorded in the twelve signs of the Zodiac ; the seven of the manifesting scale being connected, moreover, with the Seven Planets. All this is subdivided into numberless groups of divine Spiritual, semi-Spiritual, and ethereal Beings.
The Chief Hierarchies among these are hinted at in the great Quaternary, or the “ four bodies and the three faculties ” of Brahmâ exoterically, and the Panchâsyam, the five Brahmâs, or the five Dhyani-Buddhas in the Buddhist system.
The highest group is composed of the divine Flames, so-called, also spoken of as the “ Fiery Lions ” and the “ Lions of Life,” whose esotericism is securely hidden in the Zodiacal sign of Leo. It is the nucleole of the superior divine World (see Commentary in first pages of Addendum). They are the formless Fiery Breaths, identical in one aspect with the upper Sephirothal Triad, which is placed by the Kabalists in the “ Archetypal World.”
The same hierarchy, with the same numbers, is found in the Japanese system, in the “ Beginnings ” as taught by both the Shinto and the Buddhist sects. In this system, Anthropogenesis precedes Cosmogenesis, as the Divine merges into the human, and creates —
* This relates to the Cosmic principles.
† The seven creative Rishis now connected with the constellation of the Great Bear
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midway in its descent into matter — the visible Universe. The legendary personages — remarks reverentially Omoie — “ having to be understood as the stereotyped embodiment of the higher (secret) doctrine, and its sublime truths.” To state it at full length, however, would occupy too much of our space, but a few words on this old system cannot be out of place. The following is a short synopsis of this Anthropo-Cosmogenesis, and it shows how closely the most separated notions echoed one and the same Archaic teaching
.
When all was as yet Chaos (Kon-ton) three spiritual Beings appeared on the stage of future creation : (1) Ame no ani naka nushi no Kami, “ Divine Monarch of the Central Heaven ” ; (2) Taka mi onosubi no Kami, “ Exalted, imperial Divine offspring of Heaven and the Earth ” ; and (3) Kamu mi musubi no Kami, “ Offspring of the Gods,” simply.
These were without form or substance (our arupa triad), as neither the celestial nor the terrestrial substance had yet differentiated, “ nor had the essence of things been formed.”
In the Zohar — which, as now arranged and re-edited by Moses de Leon, with the help of Syrian and Chaldean Christian Gnostics in the XIIIth century, and corrected and revised still later by many Christian hands, is only a little less exoteric than the Bible itself — this divine “ Vehicle ” no longer appears as it does in the “ Chaldean Book of Numbers.” True enough, Ain-Soph, the Absolute Endless No-thing, uses also the form of the One, the manifested “ Heavenly man ” (the first cause) as its chariot (Mercabah, in Hebrew ; Vahan, in Sanskrit) or vehicle to descend into, and manifest through, in the phenomenal world. But the Kabalists neither make it plain how the Absolute can use anything, or exercise any attribute whatever, since, as the Absolute, it is devoid of attributes ; nor do they explain that in reality it is the First Cause (Plato’s Logos) the original and eternal idea, that manifests through Adam Kadmon, the Second Logos, so to speak. In the “ Book of Numbers ” it is explained that En (or Ain, Aiôr) is the only selfexistent, whereas its “ Depth ” (Bythos or Buthon of the Gnostics, called Propator ) is only periodical. The latter is Brahmâ as differentiated from Brahma or Parabrahm. It is the Depth, the Source of Light, or Propator, which is the unmanifested Logos or the abstract Idea, and not Ain-Soph, whose ray uses Adam-Kadmon or the manifested Logos (the objective Universe) “ male and female ” — as a chariot through which to manifest. But in the Zohar we read the following incongruity : “ Senior
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occultatus est et absconditus ; Microprosopus manifestus est, et non manifestus.” (Rosenroth ; Liber Mysterii, IV., 1.) This is a fallacy, since Microprosopus or the microcosm, can only exist during its manifestations, and is destroyed during the Maha-Pralayas. Rosenroth’s Kabala is no guide, but very often a puzzle.
(b) As in the Japanese system, in the Egyptian, and every old cosmogony — at this divine flame, The “ One,” are lit the three descending groups. Having their potential being in the higher group, they now become distinct and separate Entities. These are called the “ Virgins of Life,” the “ Great Illusion,” etc., etc., and collectively the “ Six-pointed Star.” The latter is the symbol, in almost every religion, of the Logos as the first emanation. It is that of Vishnu in India (the Chakra, or wheel), and the glyph of the Tetragrammaton, the “ He of the four letters ” or — metaphorically — “ the limbs of Microprosopos ” in the Kabala, which are ten and six respectively. The later Kabalists however, especially the Christian mystics, have played sad havoc with this magnificent symbol. * For the “ ten limbs ” of the Heavenly Man are the ten Sephiroth ; but the first Heavenly Man is the unmanifested Spirit of the Universe, and ought never to be degraded into Microprosopus — the lesser Face or Countenance, the prototype of man on the terrestrial plane. † Of this, however, later on. The six-pointed Star refers to the six Forces or Powers of Nature, the six planes, principles, etc., etc., all synthesized by the seventh, or the central point in the Star. All these, the upper and lower hierarchies included, emanate from the “ Heavenly or Celestial Virgin,” ‡ the great mother in all religions, the Androgyne, the
* Indeed, the Microprosopus — who is, philosophically speaking, quite distinct from the unmanifested eternal Logos “ one with the Father,” — has been finally brought, by centuries of incessant efforts, of sophistry and paradoxes, to be considered as one with Jehovah, or the one living God (!), whereas Jehovah is no better than Binah, a female Sephiroth. This fact cannot be too frequently impressed upon the reader.
† The Microprosopus is, as just said, the Logos manifested, and of such there are many.
‡ Sephira is the Crown, kether, in the abstract principle only, as a mathematical x (the unknown quantity). On the plane of differentiated nature she is the female counterpart of Adam Kadmon — the first Androgyne. The Kabala teaches that the word “ Fiat Lux ” (Genesis ch. i.) referred to the formation and evolution of the Sephiroth, and not to light as opposed to darkness. Rabbi Simeon says : “ Oh com-
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Sephira-Adam-Kadmon. In its Unity, primordial light is the seventh, or highest, principle, Daivi-prakriti, the light of the unmanifested Logos. But in its differentiation it becomes Fohat, or the “ Seven Sons.” The former is symbolised by the Central point in the double-Triangle ; the latter by the hexagon itself, or the “ six limbs ” of the Microprosopus the Seventh being Malkuth, the “ Bride ” of the Christian Kabalists, or our Earth. Hence the expressions :
“ The first after the ‘ One ’ is divine Fire ; the second, Fire and Æther ; the third is composed of Fire, Æther and Water ; the fourth of Fire, Æther, Water, and Air.” * The One is not concerned with Man-bearing globes, but with the inner invisible Spheres. “ The ‘ First-Born ’ are the Life, the heart and pulse of the Universe ; the Second are its Mind or Consciousness,” †
as said in the Commentary.
(с) The second Order of Celestial Beings, those of Fire and Æther (corresponding to Spirit and Soul, or the Atma-Buddhi) whose names are legion, are still formless, but more definitely “ substantial.” They are the first differentiation in the Secondary Evolution or “ Creation ” — a misleading word. As the name shows, they are the prototypes of the incarnating Jivas or Monads, and are composed of the Fiery Spirit of Life. It is through these that passes, like a pure solar beam, the ray which is furnished by them with its future vehicle, the Divine Soul, Buddhi. These are directly concerned with the Hosts of the higher world of our system. From these twofold Units emanate the threefold.
In the cosmogony of Japan, when, out of the chaotic mass, an egg-like nucleus appears, having within itself the germ and potency of all the universal as well as of all terrestrial life, it is the “ three-fold ” just named, which differentiates. “ The male æthereal ” (Yo) principle
panions, companions, man as an emanation was both man and woman, Adam Kadmon verily, and this is the sense of the words ‘ Let there be Light, and it was Light.’ And this is the two-fold man.” (Auszüge aus dem Zohar, pp. 13-15.)
* See next footnote. These elements of Fire, Air, etc., are not our compound elements.
† This “ Consciousness ” has no relation to our consciousness. The consciousness of the “ One manifested,” if not absolute, is still unconditioned. Mahat (the Universal Mind) is the first production of the Brahmâ-Creator, but also of the Pradhâna (undifferentiated matter).
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ascends and the female grosser or more material principle (In) is precipitated into the Universe of substance, when a separation occurs between the celestial and the terrestrial. From this the female, the mother, the first rudimentary objective being is born. It is ethereal, without form or sex, and yet it is from this and the mother that the Seven Divine Spirits are born, from whom will emanate the seven creations, just as in the Codex Nazaræus from Karabtanos and the Mother Spiritus the seven evilly disposed (material) spirits are born. It would be too long to give here the Japanese names, but once translated they stand in this order : —
(1.) The “ Invisible Celibate,” which is the creative logos of the non-creating “ father,” or the creative potentiality of the latter made manifest.
(2.) “ The Spirit (or the God) of the rayless depths ” (of Chaos) ; which becomes differentiated matter, or the world-stuff ; also the mineral realm.
(3.) “ The Spirit of the Vegetable Kingdom,” of the “ Abundant Vegetation.”
(4.) This one is of dual nature, being at the same time “ The Spirit of the Earth ” and “ the Spirit of the Sands,” the former containing the potentiality of the male element, the latter that of the female element, the two forming a combined nature.
These two were one ; yet unconscious of being two.
In this duality were contained (a) the male, dark and muscular Being, Isu no gai no Kami ; and (b) Eku gai no Kami, the female, fair and weaker or more delicate Being. Then, the : —
(5th and 6th.) Spirits who were androgynous or dual-sexed, and, finally : —
(7.) The Seventh Spirit, the last emanated from the “ mother,” appears as the first divine human form distinctly male and female. It was the seventh creation, as in the Purânas, wherein man is the seventh creation of Brahmâ.
These, Tsanagi-Tsanami, descended into the Universe by the celestial Bridge (the milky way), and “ Tsanagi, perceiving far below a chaotic mass of cloud and water, thrust his jewelled spear into the depths, and dry land appeared.” Then the two separated to explore Onokoro, the newly-created island-world ; etc., etc. (Omoie).
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Such are the Japanese exoteric fables, the rind that conceals the kernel of the same one truth of the Secret Doctrine. Turning back to the esoteric explanations in every cosmogony : —
(d) The Third order corresponds to the Atma-Buddhi-Manas : Spirit, Soul and Intellect, and is called the “ Triads.”
(e) The Fourth are substantial Entities. This is the highest group among the Rupas (Atomic Forms *). It is the nursery of the human, conscious, spiritual Souls. They are called the “ Imperishable Jivas,” and constitute, through the order below their own, the first group of the first septenary † host — the great mystery of human conscious and
* It is worthy of notice that, while rejecting as a superstition of Occultism, and religion too, the theory of substantial and invisible Beings called Angels, Elementals, etc. — without, of course, having ever looked into the philosophy of these incorporeal Entities, or thought over them — modern chemistry, owing to observation and discovery, should have unconsciously been forced to adopt and recognize the same ratio of progression and order in the evolution of chemical atoms as Occultism does, both for its Dhyanis and Atoms — analogy being its first law. As seen above, the very first group of the Rupa Angels is quaternary, an element being added to each in descending order. So are the atoms, adopting the phraseology of chemistry, monatomic, diatomic, and tetratomic, progressing downwards. Let it be remembered that Fire, Water, and Air, or the “ Elements of primary Creation ” so-called, are not the compound Elements they are on Earth, but noumenal homogeneous Elements — the Spirits thereof. Then follow the septenary groups or hosts. Placed on parallel lines in a diagram with Atoms, the Natures of those Beings would be seen to correspond in their downward scale of progression to composite elements in a mathematically identical manner, as to analogy. This refers, of course, only to diagrams made by the Occultists ; for were the scale of Angelic Beings to be placed on a parallel line with the scale of the chemical atoms of Science — from the hypothetical Helium down to Uranium — they would of course be found to differ. For these have, as correspondents on the Astral plane, only the four lowest orders — the higher three principles in the atom, or rather molecule or chemical element, being perceptible only to the initiated Dangma’s eye. But then, if Chemistry desired to find itself on the right path, it would have to correct its tabular arrangement by that of the Occultists — which it may refuse to do. In Esoteric Philosophy, every physical particle corresponds to and depends on its higher noumenon — the Being to whose essence it belongs ; and above as below, the Spiritual evolves from the Divine, the psycho-mental from the Spiritual — tainted from its lower plane by the astral — the whole animate and (seemingly) inanimate Nature evolving on parallel lines, and drawing its attributes from above as well as from below.
† The number seven does not imply only seven Entities, but seven groups or Hosts, as explained before. The highest group, the Asuras born in Brahmâ’s first body —
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intellectual Being. For the latter are the field wherein lies concealed in its privation the germ that will fall into generation. That germ will become the spiritual potency in the physical cell that guides the development of the embryo, and which is the cause of the hereditary transmission of faculties and all the inherent qualities in man. The Darwinian theory, however, of the transmission of acquired faculties, is neither taught nor accepted in Occultism. Evolution, in it, proceeds on quite other lines ; the physical, according to esoteric teaching, evolving gradually from the spiritual, mental, and psychic. This inner soul of the physical cell — this “ spiritual plasm ” that dominates the germinal plasm — is the key that must open one day the gates of the terra incognita of the Biologist, now called the dark mystery of Embryology. (See text and note infra.)
(f) The Fifth group is a very mysterious one, as it is connected with the Microcosmic Pentagon, the five-pointed star representing man. In India and Egypt these Dhyanis were connected with the Crocodile, and their abode is in Capricornus. These are convertible terms in Indian astrology, as this (tenth) sign of the Zodiac is called Makara, loosely translated “ crocodile.” The word itself is occultly interpreted in various ways, as will be shown further on. In Egypt the defunct man — whose symbol is the pentagram or the five-pointed star, the points of which represent the limbs of a man — was shown emblematically transformed into a crocodile : Sebakh or Sevekh “ or seventh,” as Mr. Gerald Massey says, showing it as having been the type of intelligence, is a dragon in reality, not a crocodile. He is the “ Dragon of Wisdom ” or Manas, the “ Human Soul,” Mind, the Intelligent principle, called in our esoteric philosophy the “ Fifth ” principle.
Says the defunct “ Osirified ” in ch. lxxxviii., “ Book of the Dead,” or the Ritual, under the glyph of a mummiform god with a crocodile’s head : —
(1) “ I am the god (crocodile) presiding at the fear . . . at the arrival of his Soul among men. I am the god-crocodile brought for destruction ” (an allusion to the destruction of divine spiritual purity
which turned into “ Night ” — are septenary, i.e., divided like the Pitris into seven classes, three of which are arupa (bodiless) and four with bodies. (See Vishnu Purâna, Book I.) They are in fact more truly our Pitris (ancestors) than the Pitris who projected the first physical men. (See Book II.)
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when man acquires the knowledge of good and evil ; also to the “ fallen ” gods, or angels of every theogony).
(2) “ I am the fish of the great Horus (as Makara is the “ crocodile,” the vehicle of Varuna). I am merged in Sekten.”
This last sentence gives the corroboration of, and repeats the doctrine of, esoteric Buddhism, for it alludes directly to the fifth principle (Manas), or the most spiritual part of its essence rather, which merges into, is absorbed by, and made one with Atma-Buddhi after the death of man. For Se-khen is the residence or loka of the god Khem (Horus-Osiris, or Father and Son), hence the “ Devachan ” of Atma-Buddhi. In the Ritual of the Dead the defunct is shown entering into Sekhem with Horus-Thot and “ emerging from it as pure spirit ” (lxiv., 29). Thus the defunct says (v. 130) : “ I see the forms of (myself, as various) men transforming eternally . . . I know this (chapter). He who knows it . . . takes all kinds of living forms.” . . . And in verse 35, addressing in magic formula that which is called, in Egyptian esotericism, the “ ancestral heart,” or the re-incarnating principle, the permanent Ego, the defunct says : —
“ Oh my heart, my ancestral heart necessary for my transformations, . . . . . . do not separate thyself from me before the guardian of the Scales. Thou art my personality within my breast, divine companion watching over my fleshes (bodies). . . . . . .”
It is in Sekhem that lies concealed “ the Mysterious Face,” or the real man concealed under the false personality, the triple-crocodile of Egypt, the symbol of the higher Trinity or human Triad, Atma, Buddhi and Manas. * In all the ancient papyri the crocodile is called Sebek (Seventh), while the water is the fifth principle esoterically ; and, as already stated, Mr. Gerald Massey shows that the crocodile was “ the Seventh Soul, the supreme one of seven — the Seer unseen.” Even exoterically Sekhem is the residence of the god Khem, and Khem is Horus avenging the death of his father Osiris, hence punishing the Sins of man when he becomes a disembodied Soul. Thus the defunct
* One of the explanations of the real though hidden meaning of this Egyptian religious glyph is easy. The crocodile is the first to await and meet the devouring fires of the morning sun, and very soon came to personify the solar heat. When the sun arose, it was like the arrival on earth and among men “ of the divine soul which informs the Gods.” Hence the strange symbolism. The mummy donned the head of a crocodile to show that it was a soul arriving from the earth.
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“ Osirified ” became the god Khem, who “ gleans the field of Aanroo,” i.e., he gleans either his reward or punishment, as that field is the celestial locality (Devachan) where the defunct is given wheat, the food of divine justice. The fifth group of the celestial Beings is supposed to contain in itself the dual attributes of both the spiritual and physical aspects of the Universe ; the two poles, so to say, of Mahat the Universal Intelligence, and the dual nature of man, the spiritual and the physical. Hence its number Five, multiplied and made into ten, connecting it with Makara, the 10th sign of Zodiac.
(g) The sixth and seventh groups partake of the lower qualities of the Quaternary. They are conscious, ethereal Entities, as invisible as Ether, which are shot out like the boughs of a tree from the first central group of the four, and shoot out in their turn numberless side groups, the lower of which are the Nature-Spirits, or Elementals of countless kinds and varieties ; from the formless and unsubstantial — the ideal thoughts of their creators — down to the Atomic, though, to human perception, invisible organisms. The latter are considered as the “ Spirits of Atoms ” for they are the first remove (backwards) from the physical Atom — sentient, if not intelligent creatures. They are all subject to Karma, and have to work it out through every cycle. For, as the doctrine teaches, there are no such privileged beings in the universe, whether in our or in other systems, in the outer or the inner worlds, * as the angels of the Western Religion and the Judean. A Dhyan Chohan has to become one ; he cannot be born or appear suddenly on the plane of life as a full-blown angel. The Celestial Hierarchy of the present Manvantara will find itself transferred in the next cycle of life into higher, superior worlds, and will make room for a new hierarchy, composed of the elect ones of our mankind. Being is an endless cycle within the one absolute eternity, wherein move numberless inner cycles finite and conditioned. Gods, created as such, would evince no personal merit in being gods. Such a class of beings, perfect only by virtue of the special immaculate nature inherent in them, in the face of suffering and struggling humanity, and even of the lower creation, would be the
* A world when called “ a higher world ” is not higher by reason of its location, but because it is superior in quality or essence. Yet such a world is generally understood by the profane as “ Heaven,” and located above our heads.
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symbol of an eternal injustice quite Satanic in character, an ever present crime. It is an anomaly and an impossibility in Nature. Therefore the “ Four ” and the “ Three ” have to incarnate as all other beings have. This sixth group, moreover, remains almost inseparable from man, who draws from it all but his highest and lowest principles, or his spirit and body, the five middle human principles being the very essence of those Dhyanis. * Alone, the Divine Ray (the Atman) proceeds directly from the One. When asked how that can be ? How is it possible to conceive that those “ gods,” or angels, can be at the same time their own emanations and their personal selves ? Is it in the same sense in the material world, where the son is (in one way) his father, being his blood, the bone of his bone and the flesh of his flesh ? To this the teachers answer “ Verily it is so.” But one has to go deep into the mystery of being before one can fully comprehend this truth.