CHALDAEAN METAPHYSICS

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religions, from the Vedic to the Egyptian, from the Zoroastrian to the Jewish. In the case of the last-mentioned, the Kabalistic works offer abundant proof of this statement. The entire system of the Kabalistic numerals is based on the divine septenary hanging from the Triad (thus forming the Decad) and its permutations 7, 5, 4, and 3, which, finally, all merge into the ONE itself: an endless and boundless Circle. Says the Zohar:

The Deity [the ever Invisible Presence] manifests itself through the ten Sephiroth which are its radiating witnesses. The Deity is like the Sea from which outflows a stream called WISDOM, the waters of which fall into a lake named Intelligence. From the basin, like seven channels, issue the Seven Sephiroth. . . . For ten equal seven: the Decad contains four Unities and three Binaries.

The ten Sephiroth correspond to the limbs of MAN. The Elohim are made to say:

When I framed Adam Kadmon, the Spirit of the Eternal shot out of his Body like a sheet of lightning that radiated at once on the billows of the Seven millions of skies, and my ten splendors were his limbs.

But neither the Head nor the shoulders of Adam-Kadmon can be seen; therefore we read in the Sephra Dzenioutha (the "Book of the Concealed Mystery ") :—

"In the beginning of Time, after the Elohim [the "Sons of Light and Life," or the "Builders"] had shaped out of the eternal Essence the Heavens and the Earth, they formed the worlds six by six," the seventh being Malkuth, which is our Earth (see Mantuan Codex) on its plane, and the lowest on all the other planes of conscious existence. The Chaldaean Book of Numbers contains a detailed explanation of all this. "The first triad of the body of Adam Kadmon [the three upper planes of the seven 303] cannot be seen before the soul stands in the presence of the Ancient of Days." The Sephiroth of this upper triad are: "1, Kether (the Crown) represented by the brow of Macroprosopos; 2, Chochmah (Wisdom, a male Principle) by his right shoulder; and 3, Binah (Intelligence, a female Principle) by the left shoulder." Then come the seven limbs (or Sephiroth) on the planes of manifestation, the totality of these four planes being represented by Micro

303. The formation of the "living Soul" or man, would render the idea more clearly.

"A Living Soul" is a synonym of man in the Bible. These are our seven Principles."

prosopus (the lesser Face) or Tetragrammaton, the "four-lettered Mystery. "The seven manifested and the three concealed limbs are the Body of the Deity."

Thus our Earth, Malkuth, is both the Seventh and the Fourth world, the former when counting from the first globe above, the latter if reckoned by the planes. It is generated by the sixth globe or Sephiroth called Yezod," foundation," or as said in the Book of Numbers "by Yezod, He (Adam Kadmon) fecundates the primitive Heva" (Eve or our Earth). Rendered in mystic language this is the explanation why Malkuth, called "the inferior Mother," Matrona, Queen, and the Kingdom of the Foundation, is shown as the Bride of Tetragrammaton or Microprosopus (the 2nd Logos) the Heavenly Man. When free from all impurity she will become united with the Spiritual Logos, i. e., in the 7th Race of the 7th Round-after the regeneration, on the day of "SABBATH." For the "seventh day" has again an occult significance undreamt of by our theologians.

When Matronitha, the Mother, is separated and brought face to face with the King, in the excellence of the Sabbath, all things become one body,

"Be

says verse 746, in chapter xxii of "Ha Idra Zuta Kadisha.” comes one body" means that all is reabsorbed once more into the one element, the spirits of men becoming Nirvânîs and the elements of everything else becoming again what they were before — protyle or undifferentiated substance. "Sabbath" means rest or Nirvâna. It is not the seventh day after six days, but a period the duration of which equals that of the seven days" or any period made up of seven parts. Thus a pralaya is equal in duration to the manvantara, or a night of Brahmâ is equal to this "day." If the Christians will follow Jewish customs they ought to adopt the spirit and not the dead letter thereof: i. e., to work one week of seven days and rest seven days. That the word "Sabbath" had a mystic significance is shown in the contempt shown by Jesus for the Sabbath day, and what is said by Luke xviii. 12. Sabbath is there taken for the whole week. (See Greek text where the week is called Sabbath. "I fast twice in the Sabbath.") Paul, an Initiate, knew it well when referring to the eternal rest and felicity in heaven, as Sabbath; "and their happiness will be eternal, for they will ever be (one) with the Lord and will enjoy an eternal Sabbath." (Hebrews, iv. 2)

THE TRUE and the FALSE KABALA

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The difference between the two systems, taking the Kabala as contained in the Chaldaean Book of Numbers, not as misrepresented by its now disfigured copy, the Kabala of the Christian mystics - the Kabala and the archaic esoteric Vidyâ, is very small indeed, being confined to unimportant divergences of form and expression. Thus Eastern occultism refers to our earth as the fourth world, the lowest of the chain, above which run upward on both its sides the six globes, three on each side. The Zohar, on the other hand, calls the earth the lower, or the Seventh, adding that upon the six depend all things which are in it, "Microprosopus." The "smaller face," smaller because manifested and finite, "is formed of six Sephiroth," says the same work. "Seven kings come and die in the thrice-destroyed world" — (Malkuth our earth, destroyed after each of the three rounds which it has gone through). "And their reign [of the seven kings] will be broken up." 303 This relates to the Seven Races, five of which have already appeared, and two more have still to appear in this Round.

The Shinto allegorical accounts of Cosmogony and the origin of man in Japan hint at the same belief.

Captain C. Pfoundes studied for nearly nine years in the monasteries of Japan the religion underlying the various sects of the land. He says:

The Shinto idea of creation is as follows: Out of chaos (Konton) the earth (in) was the sediment precipitated, and the Heavens (yo) the ethereal essences which ascended: Man (jin) appeared between the two. The first man was called Kuni-to ko tatchino-mikoto, and five other names were given to him, and then the human race appeared, male and female. Isanagi and Isanami begat Tenshoko doijin, the first of the five gods of the Earth.

These "gods" are simply our five races, Isanagi and Isanami being the two kinds of the "ancestors," the two preceding races which give birth to animal and to rational man.

It will be shown (Vol. II, Pt. II) that the number seven, as well as the doctrine of the septenary constitution of man, was pre-eminent in all the secret systems. It plays as important a part in Western Kabala as in Eastern Occultism. Eliphas Lévi calls the number seven "the key to the Mosaic creation and the symbols of every religion." He shows the Kabala following faithfully even the septenary division of man, as the diagram he gives in his Clef des Grands Mystères is septenary.

303a. Book of Numbers, 1, viii. 3.

This may be seen at a glance on page 389, “Une prophétie et diverses pensées de Paracelse," however cleverly the correct thought is veiled. One needs also only to look at the diagram (Plate VII in Mr. Mathers' Kabala) "the formation of the Soul" 304 from the same Key of the Great Mysteries by Lévi to find the same, though with a different interpretation.

Thus it stands with both the Kabalistic and the Occult names attached:

OCCULT AND KABALISTIC DOCTRINES

We will now give in tabular form what the very cautious Eliphas Lévi says in explanation of his diagram, and what the Esoteric Doctrine teaches and compare the two. Lévi, too, makes a distinction between