And in order to counteract the influence of the seven badly disposed" principles, the progeny of Spiritus, CABAR-ZIO, the mighty Lord of Splendor, produces seven other lives (the cardinal virtues) who shine in their own form and light "from on high and thus reestablish the balance between good and evil, light and darkness.

"242

Here one finds a repetition of the early allegorical, dual systems, as the Zoroastrian, and detects a germ of the dogmatic and dualistic religions of the future, a germ which has grown into such a luxuriant tree in ecclesiastical Christianity. It is already the outline of the two "Supremes "God and Satan. But in the Stanzas no such idea exists.

Most of the Western Christian Kabalists-pre-eminently Eliphas Lévi, in their desire to reconcile the Occult Sciences with Church dogmas, did their best to make of the "Astral Light" only and preeminently the Pleroma of early Church Fathers, the abode of the Hosts of the Fallen Angels, of the "Archons" and "Powers." But the Astral Light, while only the lower aspect of the Absolute, is yet dual. It is the Anima Mundi, and ought never to be viewed otherwise, except for Kabalistic purposes. The difference which exists between its "light" and its "Living Fire" ought to be ever present in the mind of the Seer and the "Psychic." The higher aspect without which only creatures of matter from that Astral Light can be produced, is this Living Fire, and it is the Seventh Principle. It is said in “Isis Unveiled," in a complete description of it:

The Astral Light or Anima Mundi is dual and bisexual. The (ideal) male part of it is purely divine and spiritual, it is the Wisdom, it is Spirit or Purusha; while the female portion (the Spiritus of the Nazarenes) is tainted, in one sense, with matter, is indeed matter, and therefore is evil already. It is the lifeprinciple of every living creature, and furnishes the astral soul, the fluidic perisprit, to men, animals, fowls of the air, and everything living. Animals have only the latent germ of the highest immortal soul in them. . . . This latter will develop only after a series of countless evolutions; the doctrine of which evolu

242. See the Cosmogony of Pherecydes.

ILDA-BAOTH-JEHOVAH

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tion is contained in the Kabalistic axiom: "A stone becomes a plant; a plant, a beast; a beast, a man; a man, a spirit; and the spirit, a god."

243

The seven principles of the Eastern Initiates had not been explained when "Isis was written, but only the three Kabalistic Faces of the semi-exoteric Kabala.244 But these contain the description of the mystic natures of the first group of Dhyân Chohans in the regimen ignis, the region and “rule (or government) of fire," which group is divided into three classes, synthesized by the first, which makes four or the "Tetraktys." 245 If one studies the Comments attentively he will find the same progression in the angelic natures, viz., from the passive down to the active, the last of these Beings being as near to the Ahamkâra element (the region or plane wherein Egoship or the feeling of I-am-ness is beginning to be defined) as the first ones are near to the undifferentiated essence. The former are Arûpa, incorporeal; the latter, Rûpa, corporeal.

In Volume II of Isis 246 the philosophical systems of the Gnostics and the primitive Jewish Christians, the Nazarenes and the Ebionites, are fully considered. They show the views held in those days — outside the circle of Mosaic Jews about Jehovah. He was identified by all the Gnostics with the evil, rather than with the good principle. For them, he was Ilda-Baoth, "the son of Darkness," whose mother, Sophia Achamoth, was the daughter of Sophia, the Divine Wisdom (the female Holy Ghost of the early Christians) — Âkâśa ;247 while Sophia Achamoth personified the lower Astral Light or Ether. IldaBaoth,248 or Jehovah, is simply one of the Elohim, the seven creative

Spirits, and one of the lower Sephiroth. He produces from himself seven other Gods, "Stellar Spirits" (or the lunar ancestors 249), for they are all the same. 250 They are all in his own image (the "Spirits of the Face"), and the reflections one of the other, and have become darker and more material as they successively receded from their originator. They also inhabit seven regions disposed like a ladder, as its rungs slope up and down the scale of spirit and matter.251 With Pagans and Christians, with Hindûs and Chaldaeans, with the Greek as with the Roman Catholics with a slight variation of the texts in their interpretations they were all the Genii of the seven planets, as of the seven planetary spheres of our septenary chain, of which Earth is the lowest. 252 This connects the "Stellar " and "Lunar " Spirits with the higher planetary Angels and the Saptarishis (the seven Rishis of the Stars) of the Hindûs — as subordinate Angels (Messengers) to these "Rishis," the emanations, on the descending scale, of the former. Such, in the opinion of the philosophic Gnostics, were the God and the Archangels now worshipped by the Christians! The "Fallen Angels" and the legend of the "War in Heaven" is thus purely pagan in its origin and comes from India via Persia and Chaldaea. The only reference to it in the Christian canon is found in Revelations xii, as quoted a few pages back.

Thus "SATAN," once he ceases to be viewed in the superstitious, dogmatic, unphilosophical spirit of the Churches, grows into the grandiose image of one who made of terrestrial a divine MAN; who gave him, throughout the long cycle of Mahâ-kalpa, the law of the Spirit of Life, and made him free from the Sin of Ignorance, hence of death.253

249. Jehovah's connexion with the moon in the Kabala is well known to students. 250. About the Nazarenes see Isis, Vol. II, pp. 131 and 132; the true followers of the true Christos were all Nazarenes and Christians, and were the opponents of the later Christians.

251. Vide supra, the diagram of the lunar

ring of seven worlds, where, as in our or any other chain, the upper worlds are spiritual, while the lowest, whether Moon, Earth, or any planet, is dark with matter.

252. See Isis, Vol. II, p. 186.

253. See the Section On Satan in Part II, Vol. II.

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STANZA VI― Continued.

6. THE OLDER WHEELS ROTATED DOWNWARD AND UPWARD (a).. THE MOTHER'S SPAWN FILLED THE WHOLE (Kosmos).2 254 THERE WERE BATTLES FOUGHT BETWEEN THE CREATORs and the Destroyers, and BATTLES FOUGHT FOR SPACE; THE SEED APPEARING AND REAPPEARING CONTINUOUSLY (b).255

(a) Here, having finished for the time being with our side-issueswhich, however they may break the flow of the narrative, are necessary for the elucidation of the whole scheme — the reader must return once more to Cosmogony. The phrase "Older wheels" refers to the worlds. or Globes of our chain as they were during the "previous Rounds." The present Stanza, when explained esoterically, is found embodied entirely in the Kabalistic works. Therein will be found the very history of the evolution of those countless Globes which evolve after a periodical Pralaya, rebuilt from old material into new forms. The previous Globes disintegrate and reappear transformed and perfected for a new phase of life. In the Kabala, worlds are compared to sparks which fly from under the hammer of the great Architect - LAW, the law which rules all the smaller Creators.

The following comparative diagram shows the identity between the two systems, the Kabalistic and the Eastern. The three upper are the three higher planes of consciousness, revealed and explained in both schools only to the Initiates, the lower ones represent the four lower planes the lowest being our plane, or the visible Universe.

These seven planes correspond to the seven states of consciousness in man. It remains with him to attune the three higher states in himself to the three higher planes in Kosmos. But before he can attempt to attune, he must awaken the three "seats" to life and activity. And how many are capable of bringing themselves to even a superficial comprehension of Atma-Vidya (Spirit-Knowledge), or what is called by the Sufis, Rûhânî! In Section the VIIth of this Book, in Sub-section.

254. The reader is reminded that Kosmos often means in our Stanzas only our own

Solar System, not the Infinite Universe. 255. This is purely astronomical.

3, the reader will find a still clearer explanation of the above in the Commentary upon Saptaparna- the man-plant. See also the Section

* The Arûpa or "formless," there where form ceases to exist, on the objective plane.

†The word "Archetypal " must not be taken here in the sense that the Platonists gave to it, i. e., the world as it existed in the Mind of the Deity; but in that of a world made as a first model, to be followed and improved upon by the worlds which succeed it physically- though deteriorating in purity.

These are the four lower planes of Cosmic Consciousness, the three higher planes being inaccessible to human intellect as developed at present. The seven states of human consciousness pertain to quite another question.

(b). "The Seed appears and disappears continuously." Here "Seed" stands for "the World-germ," viewed by Science as material particles in a highly attenuated condition, but in Occult physics as "Spiritual particles," i. e., supersensuous matter existing in a state of primeval