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Thus Number Seven, as a compound of 3 and 4, is the factor element in every ancient religion, because it is the factor element in nature. Its adoption must be justified, and it must be shown to be the number par excellence, for, since the appearance of “ Esoteric Buddhism,” frequent objections have been made, and doubts expressed as to the correctness of these assertions.
And here let the student be told at once, that in all such numerical divisions the One universal Principle, — although referred to as (the) one, because the Only One — never enters into the calculations. It stands, in its character of the Absolute, the Infinite, and the universal abstraction, entirely by Itself and independent of every other Power whether noumenal or phenomenal. It “ is neither matter nor spirit ; It is neither Ego nor non-Ego ; and It is neither object nor subject,” says the author of “ Personal and Impersonal God,” and adds : —
“ In the language of Hindu philosophers it is the original and eternal combination of Purusha (Spirit) and Prakriti (matter). As the Adwaitees hold that an external object is merely the product of our mental states, Prakriti is nothing more than an illusion, and Purusha is the only reality ; it is the One existence which remains in the universe of Ideas. This . . . then, is the Parabrahm of the Adwaitees. ”
“ Even if there were to be a personal God with anything like a material upadhi (physical basis of whatever form), from the standpoint of an Adwaitee there will be as much reason to doubt his noumenal existence, as there would be in the case of any other object. In their opinion, a conscious God cannot be the origin of the Universe, as his Ego would be the effect of a previous cause, if the word conscious conveys but its ordinary meaning. They cannot admit that the grand total of all the states of consciousness in the Universe is their deity, as these states are constantly changing, and as cosmic ideation ceases during Pralaya. There is only one permanent condition in the Universe, which is the state of perfect unconscious-ness, bare Chidakasam (the field of consciousness) in fact. When my readers once realize the fact that this grand universe is in reality but a huge aggregation of various states of consciousness, they will not be surprised to find that the ultimate state of unconsciousness is considered as Parabrahmam by the Adwaitees.” *
Being itself entirely out of human reckoning or calculation, yet this “ huge aggregation of various states of consciousness ” is a Septenate,
* “ Five Years of Theosophy,” Art. “ Personal and Impersonal God.”
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in its totality entirely composed of Septenary groups ; simply because “ the capacity of perception exists in seven different aspects corresponding to the seven conditions of matter ” (ibid), or the seven properties, or states, or conditions of matter. And, therefore, number 1 down to number 7 begins in the esoteric calculations with the first manifested principle, which is number one if we commence from above, and the seventh when reckoning from below, or from the lowest Principle.
The Tetrad is esteemed in the Kabala, as it was by Pythagoras, the most perfect, or rather sacred number, because it emanated from the one, the first manifested Unit, or rather the three in one. Yet the latter has been ever impersonal, sexless, incomprehensible, though within the possibility of the higher mental perceptions.
The first manifestation of the eternal monad was never meant to stand as the symbol of another symbol, the Unborn for the Element-born, or the one Logos for the Heavenly man. Tetragrammaton, or the Tetractys of the Greeks, is the Second logos, the Demiurgos. The Tetrad, as Thomas Taylor thought (vide the “ Pythagorean Triangle ”), “ is the animal itself of Plato, who, as Syrianus justly observes, was the best of the Pythagoreans ; it subsists at the extremity of the intelligible triad, as is most satisfactorily shown by Proclus in the third book of his treatise on the theology of Plato. And between these two triads (the double triangle), the one intelligible, and the other intellectual, another order of gods exists which partakes of both extremes.” “ The Pythagorean world,” Plutarch tells us (in De anim. procr., 1027) “ consisted of a double quaternary.” This statement corroborates what is said about the choice, by the exoteric theologies, of the lower Tetraktis. For : — “ The quaternary of the intellectual world (the world of Mahat) is T’Agathon, Nous, Psyche, Hyle ; while that of the sensible world (of matter), which is properly what Pythagoras meant by the word Kosmos — is Fire, Air, Water, and Earth. The four elements are called by the name of rizomata, the roots or principles of all mixed bodies,” i.e., the lower Tetraktis is the root of illusion of the world of matter ; and this is the tetragrammaton of the Jews, and the “ mysterious deity,” over which the modern Kabalists make such a fuss !
“ Thus number four forms the arithmetical mean between the monad and the heptad, as this contains all powers, both of the productive and produced numbers ; for this of all numbers under ten, is made of a certain number ; the duad doubled makes a tetrad, and the tetrad doubled or unfolded makes the hebdomad (the septenary). Two multiplied into itself produces four ; and retorted into itself makes the first cube. This first cube is a fertile number, the ground of multitude and variety, constituted of two and four (depending on the monad, the seventh). Thus the two principles of temporal things, the pyramis and
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cube, form and matter, flow from one fountain, the tetragon (on earth) the monad (in heaven) . . . . ” (See Reuchlin, “ Cabala ” 1, ii.).
Here Reuchlin, the great authority on the Kabala, shows the cube to be matter, whereas the pyramid or the triad is “ form.” With the Hermesians the number four becomes the symbol of truth only when amplified into a cube, which, unfolded, makes seven, as symbolizing the male and female elements and the element of Life. *
Some students have been puzzled to account for the vertical line, which is male, becoming (vide infra) in the cross a four-partitioned line — four being a female number, while the horizontal (the line of matter) becomes three-divisioned. But this is easy of explanation. Since the middle face of the cube unfolded is common to both the vertical and the horizontal bar, or double-line, it becomes neutral ground so to say, and belongs to neither. The spirit line remains triadic, and the matter line two-fold — two being an even and therefore a female number also. Moreover, according to Theon, the Pythagoreans who gave the name of Harmony to the Tetraktis, “ because it is a diatessaron in sesquitertia ” — were of opinion that “ the division of the canon of the monochord was made by the tetraktis in the duad, triad, and tetrad ; for it comprehends a sesquitertia, a sesquialtera, a double, a triple, and a quadruple proportion, the section of which is 27.” “ In the ancient musical notation, the tetrachord consisted of three degrees or intervals, and four terms of sounds called by the Greeks diatessaron, and by us a fourth.” Moreover, the quaternary though an even, therefore a female (“ infernal ”) number, varied according to its form. This is shown by Stanley (in Pythag. p. 61). The 4 was called by the
* In the “ Hebrew Egyptian Mystery, the Source of Measures,” the Author shows (on p. 50) that the figure of the cube unfolded in connection with the circle . . . . “ becomes . . a cross proper, or of the tau form, and the attachment of the circle to this last gives the ansated cross of the Egyptians . . . . while there are but 6 faces to a cube, the representation of the cross as the cube unfolded, as to the cross-bars, displays one face of the cube as common to two bars, counted as belonging to either . . . (i.e., once counted horizontally, and once vertically) . . . 4 for the upright, and 3 for the cross bar making seven in all,” adding — “ Here we have the famous 4, and 3, and 7.” Esoteric philosophy explains that four is the symbol of the Universe in its potential state, or chaotic matter, and that it requires Spirit to permeate it actively, i.e., the primordial abstract triangle has to quit its one dimensional quality and spread across that matter, thus forming a manifested basis on the three dimensional space, in order that the Universe should manifest intelligibly. This is achieved by the cube unfolded. Hence the ansated cross 
as the symbol of man, generation and life. In Egypt ank signified soul, life and blood. It is the ensouled, living man, the Septenary.
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Pythagoreans the Key-Keeper of Nature ; but in union with the 3, which made it seven, it became the most perfect and harmonious number — nature herself. The four was “ the Masculine of Feminine Form,” when forming the Cross ; and Seven is “ the Master of the Moon,” for this planet is forced to alter her appearance every seven days. It is on number seven that Pythagoras composed his doctrine on the Harmony and Music of the Spheres, calling “ a tone ” the distance of the Moon from the Earth ; from the Moon to Mercury half a tone, from thence to Venus the same ; from Venus to the Sun 1½ tones ; from the Sun to Mars a tone ; from thence to Jupiter ½ a tone ; from Jupiter to Saturn ½ a tone ; and thence to the Zodiac a tone ; thus making seven tones — the diapason harmony. All the melody of nature is in those seven tones, and therefore is called “ the Voice of Nature.”
Plutarch explains (de Plac. Phil., p. 878) that the Achæan Greeks regarded the tetrad as the root and principle of all things, since it was the number of the elements which gave birth to all visible and invisible created things. With the brothers of the Rosy Cross, the figure of the Cross, or Cube unfolded, formed the subject of a disquisition in one of the theosophic degrees of Peuret, and was treated according to the fundamental principles of light and darkness, or good and evil.
“ The intelligible world proceeds out of the divine mind (or unit) after this manner. The Tetraktis reflecting upon its own essence, the first unit, productrix of all things, and on its own beginning, saith thus : Once one, twice two, immediately ariseth a tetrad, having on its top the highest unit, and becomes a Pyramis, whose base is a plain tetrad, answerable to a superficies, upon which the radiant light of the divine unity produceth the form of incorporeal fire, by reason of the descent of Juno (matter) to inferior things. Hence ariseth essential light, not burning but illuminating. This is the creation of the middle world, which the Hebrews call the Supreme, the world of the (their) deity. It is termed Olympus, entirely light, and replete with separate forms, where is the seat of the immortal gods, ‘ deûm domus alta,’ whose top is unity, its wall trinity, and its superficies quaternity.” (Reuchlin, Cabala, p. 689).
The “ superficies ” has thus to remain a meaningless surface, if left by itself. Unity only “ illuminating ” quaternity ; the famous lower four has to build for itself also a wall from trinity, if it would be manifested. Moreover, the tetragrammaton, or Microprosopus, is “ Jehovah ” arrogating to himself very improperly the “ Was, Is, Will be,” now translated into the “ I am that I am,” and interpreted as referring to the highest abstract Deity, while esoterically and in plain truth, it means only periodically chaotic, turbulent, and eternal matter with all its potentialities. For the Tetragrammaton is one with Nature or Isis, and is the exoteric series of androgyne gods such as Osiris-Isis, Jove-Juno Brahmâ-Vâch, or the Kabalistic Jah-hovah ; all male-females. Every anthropomorphic god, in old nations, as Marcelinus Vicinus well observed,
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has his name written with four letters. Thus with the Egyptians, he was Teut ; the Arabs, Alla ; the Persians, Sire ; the Magi, Orsi ; the Mahometans, Abdi ; the Greeks, Theos ; the ancient Turks, Esar ; the Latins, Deus ; to which J. Lorenzo Anania adds the German Gott ; the Sarmatian, Bouh, etc., etc.
The Monad being one, and an odd number, the ancients therefore called the odd, the only perfect numbers ; and — selfishly, perhaps, yet as a fact — considered them all as masculine and perfect, being applicable to the celestial gods, while even numbers, such as two, four, six, and especially eight, as being female, were regarded as imperfect, and given only to the terrestrial and infernal deities. In his eighth eclogue, Virgil records the fact by saying, “ Numero deus impare gaudet,” “ Unequal numbers please the gods.”
But number seven, or the heptagon, the Pythagoreans considered to be a religious and perfect number. It was called “ Telesphoros,” because by it all in the Universe and mankind is led to its end, i.e., its culmination (Philo. de Mund. opif.). Being under the rule of seven sacred planets, * the doctrine of the Spheres shows, from Lemuria to Pythagoras, the seven powers of terrestrial and sublunary nature, as well as the seven great Forces of the Universe, proceeding and evolving in seven tones, which are the seven notes of the musical scale. The heptad (our Septenary) was regarded “ as the number of a virgin, because it is unborn ” (like the Logos or the “ Aja ” of the Vedantins) ; “ without a father or a mother, but proceeding directly from the Monad, which is the origin and crown of all things.” (Pythag. Triangle, p. 174.) And if the heptad is made to proceed from the Monad directly, then it is, as taught in the Secret Doctrine of the oldest schools, the perfect and sacred number of this Maha-Manvantara of ours.
The septenary, or heptad, was sacred indeed to several gods and goddesses ; to Mars, with his seven attendants, to Osiris, whose body was divided into seven and twice seven parts ; to Apollo (the Sun), between his seven planets, and playing the hymn to the seven-rayed on his seven-stringed harp ; to Minerva, the fatherless and the motherless, and others.
Cis-Himalayan Occultism with its sevening, and because of such sevening, must be regarded as the most ancient, the original of all. It is opposed by some fragments left by Neo-Platonists ; and the admirers of the latter, who hardly understand what they defend, say to us : “ See, your forerunners believed only in triple man, composed of
* The seven planets are not limited to this number because the ancients knew of no others, but simply because they were the primitive or primordial houses of the seven Logoi. There may be nine and ninety-nine other planets discovered — this does not alter the fact of these seven alone being sacred.
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Spirit, Soul, and body. Behold, the Taraka Raja Yoga of India limits that division to 3, we, to 4, and the Vedantins to 5 (koshas).” To this, we of the Archaic school, ask : —
Why then does the Greek poet say that “ it is not four but seven who sing the praise of the Spiritual Sun,” ῾ΕΠΤΑΜΕ ? He says —
“ Seven sounding letters sing the praise of me, |
Why again is the triune Iao (the Mystery God) called the “ fourfold,” and yet the triad and tetradic symbols come under one unified name with the Christians — the Jehovah of the seven letters ? Why again in the Hebrew Shebâ is the Oath (the Pythagorean Tetraktis) identical with number 7 ; or, as Mr. G. Massey has it, “ taking an oath was synonymous with ‘ to seven,’ and the 10 expressed by the letter Yod, was the full number of Iao-Sabaoth, the ten-lettered God ” ? In Lucian’s Auction, Pythagoras asks, “ How do you reckon ? ” The reply is, “ One, Two, Three, Four.” “ Then, do you see,” says Pythagoras, “ in what you conceive Four there are Ten ; then, a perfect triangle and our Oath (tetraktis, four ! ),” or Seven. Why does Proclus say in Timæus, c. iii. — “ The Father of the golden verses celebrates the Tetractys as the fountain of perennial nature ” ?
Simply because those Western Kabalists who quote the exoteric proofs against us have no idea of the real esoteric meaning. Because all the ancient Cosmologies — the oldest Cosmographies of the two most ancient people of the Fifth Root Race, the Hindu Aryans and the Egyptians, adding to them the early Chinese races (the remnants of the Fourth or Atlantean Race) — based the whole of their mysteries on number 10 : the higher triangle standing for the invisible and metaphysical world, the lower three and four, or the Septenate, for the physical realm. It is not the Jewish Bible that brought number seven into prominence. Hesiod used the words “ The seventh is the sacred day,” before the Sabbath of “ Moses ” was ever heard of. The use of number seven was never confined to any one nation. This is well testified by the seven vases in the temple of the Sun, near the ruins of Babion in Upper Egypt ; the seven fires burning continually for ages before the altars of Mithra ; the seven holy fanes of the Arabians ; the seven peninsulas, the seven islands, seven seas, mountains, and rivers of India ; and of the Zohar (See Ibn Gebirol) ; the Jewish Sephiroth of the Seven splendours ; the seven Gothic deities, the seven worlds of the Chaldeans and their seven Spirits ; the seven constellations mentioned by Hesiod and Homer ; and all the interminable sevens which the Orientalists find in every MS. they discover.
What we have to say finally is this : Enough has been brought forward to show why the human principles were and are divided in the
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esoteric schools into seven. Make it four and it will either leave man minus his lower terrestrial elements, or, if viewed from a physical stand-point, make of him a soulless animal. The Quaternary must be the higher or the lower — the celestial or terrestrial Tetraktis : to become comprehensible, according to the teachings of the esoteric ancient school, man must be regarded as a Septenary. This was so well understood, that even the so-called Christian Gnostics had adopted this time-honoured system (Vide § on “ The Seven Souls ”). This remained for a long time secret as, though suspected, no MSS. of that time spoke of it clearly enough to satisfy the sceptic. But there comes to our rescue the literary curiosity of our age — the oldest and best preserved gospel of the Gnostics, Pistis Sophia ΙΙΙCΤΙC CΟΦΙΑ. To make the proof absolutely complete, we shall quote from an authority (C. W. King) — the only archæologist who had a faint glimmer of this elaborate doctrine, and the best writer of the day on the Gnostics and their gems.
According to this extraordinary piece of religious literature — a true Gnostic fossil — the human Entity is the Septenary ray from the One, * just as our school teaches. It is composed of seven elements, four of which are borrowed from the four Kabalistical manifested worlds. Thus “ from Asia it gets the Nephesh or seat of the physical appetites (vital breath, also) ; from Jezirah, the Ruach, or seat of the passions ( ? ! ) ; from Briah, the Neshamah, and from Aziluth it obtains the Chaiah, or principle of spiritual life ; ” (King). “ This looks like an adaptation of the Platonic theory of the Soul’s obtaining its respective faculties from the Planets in its downward progress through their Spheres. But the Pistis-Sophia, with its accustomed boldness, puts this theory into a much more poetical shape (§ 282).” The Inner Man is similarly made up of four constituents, but these are supplied by the rebellious Æons of the Spheres, being the Power — a particle of the Divine light (“ Divinæ particula auræ ”) yet left in themselves ; the Soul (the fifth) “ formed out of the tears of their eyes, and the sweat of their torments ; the ᾽Αντίμιμον Πνεύματος, Counterfeit of the Spirit (seemingly answering to our Conscience), (the sixth) ; and lastly the Μοῖρα, Fate † (Karmic Ego), whose
* The Seven Centres of Energy evolved, or rendered objective by the action of Fohat upon the one element ; or, in fact, the “ Seventh Principle ” of the Seven Elements which exist throughout manifested Kosmos. We may here point out that they are in truth the Sephiroth of the Kabalists ; the “ Seven gifts of the Holy Ghost ” in the Christian system ; and in a mystical sense, the seven children or sons of Devaki killed before the birth of Krishna by Kamsa. Our seven principles symbolize all of these. We have to part or separate from them before we reach the Krishna or Christ-state, that of a Jivanmukta, and centre ourselves entirely in the highest, the Seventh or the One.
† Μοῖρα is destiny, not “ Fate,” in this case, as it is an appellation, not a proper noun. (See Wolf’s transl. in Odyssey 22, 413). But Moira, the Goddess of Fate, is a deity
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business it is to lead the man to the end appointed for him ; if he hath to die by the fire, to lead him into the fire, if he hath to die by a wild beast, to lead him unto the wild beast, etc.” * — the seventh !
“ who like ᾽Αῖσα gives to all their portion of good and evil,” and is therefore Karma (Vide Liddell). By this abbreviation, however, the subject to Destiny or Karma is meant, the Self or Ego, and that which is reborn. Nor is Αντίμιμον Πνεύματος our conscience, but our Buddhi ; nor is it again the “ counterfeit of Spirit ” but “ modelled after,” or a counterpart of the Spirit — which Buddhi is, as the vehicle of Atma (Vide Ar. Theism, 17 ; and Liddell’s definitions).
* C. W. King’s Gnostics, p. 38.