stance-one of whose principles is Ether-are one, and include the ELEMENTS, in the sense St. Paul attaches to them. They are the veiled synthesis standing for Creative Powers, Archangels, etc. The Ether of science the protyle of chemistry-constitutes, so to speak, the (relatively) crude material out of which the above-named "Builders" (following the plan traced out for them eternally in the DIVINE THOUGHT) fashion the systems in the Cosmos. One of the greatest Western evolutionists, Mr. A. R. Wallace, admits the guiding action of "higher intelligences" as a necessary part of the great laws which govern the material Universe." (Contributions to Theory of Natural Selection.)

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These higher Intelligences" are the "Builders" of the Occultist. In the "Forces" of science we see but the material effect of the spiritual effect of one or the other of the four primordial Elements, transmitted to us by the Fourth Race, as we shall transmit Ether* (or rather the gross subdivision of it) to the Sixth Root-Race.

Section IV

CHAOS, THEOS, KOSMOS

Chaos is called "senseless" by the ancients, because it represented and contained in itself (Chaos and Space being synonymous) all the Elements in their rudimentary, undifferentiated state. They made of Ether, the fifth element, the synthesis of the other four, for their Ether was the Akâsa of the Hindus, while the Ether accepted in physics is but one of its subdivisions on our plane-the Astral Light of the Kabalists, with all its evil as well as good effects.

*v. Isis Unveiled.

According to Hindu teaching, Deity in the shape of Æther (Akâsa) pervades all things; and it was called, therefore, by the theurgists "the living Fire," the "Spirit of Light," and sometimes Magnes. It was the highest Deity itself which, according to Plato, built the Universe in the geometrical form of the Dodecahedron; and its "first begotten" was born of Chaos and Primordial Light (the Central Sun). (See Extracts from Commentary, XX.) This "First-born," however, was only the aggregate of the host of the "Builders," the first Constructive Forces.

Chaos-Theos-Kosmos are but the three aspects of their synthesis, SPACE. One can never hope to solve the mystery of this Tetraktis by holding to the dead letter of even the old philosophies, as now extant. But even in these, Chaos-Theos-Kosmos = Space are identified in all Eternity as the One Unknown Space, the last word about which will perhaps never be known before our seventh Round. Nevertheless, the allegories and metaphysical symbols of the primeval and perfect Cube are remarkable, even in the exoteric Purânas.

There also Brahmâ is the Theos evolving out of Chaos or the great Deep, the waters over which the Spirit is silently hovering in the first hour of reawakening. In Isis Unveiled, Vol. I., p. 133, it is said that in the Egyptian mythology "Kneph, the eternal Unrevealed God, is represented by a snake, the emblem of Eternity, encircling a water urn, with its head hovering over the waters which it incubates with its breath" (vide loc. cit.). The Zohar teaches that it is the primordial Elements, the four cardinal points, and all the Forces of Nature, which form collectively the Voice of the Will, or the "Word," the Logos of the Absolute Silent ALL. In the cosmogonies of all nations it is the "Architects " synthesized by the Demiurgos (in the Bible the Elohim),

who fashion Kosmos out of Chaos, and who are the collective Theos," male-female," Spirit and Matter. In the Bible it is first Alhim (or Elohim), then Jahva-Elohim, and finally Jehovah-after the separation of the sexes (Genesis iv.).

Chaos-Theos-Kosmos, the triple deity, is all in all. Therefore, it is said to be male and female, good and evil, positive and negative; the whole series of contrasted qualities. When latent (during the period of Night) it is unrecognizable, and becomes the unknowable Deity. It can be known only when active, as matter-Force, and living Spirit, the correlations and expression, on the visible plane, of the ultimate and ever-unknown UNITY.

In its turn this triple unit is the producer of the four primary Elements, which are known in our visible, terrestrial nature as the seven (so far the five elements), each divisible into seven times seven sub-elements, with about seventy of which chemistry is acquainted (1888). Every cosmical element, such as Fire, Air, etc., partaking of the qualities and defects of its primary, is in its nature good and evil, Force (or Spirit) and Matter, etc., and each, therefore, is at the same time Life and Death, Health and Disease, Action and Reaction (v. § XIV., The Four Elements).

The Hindus have an endless series of allegories to express this idea. In the primordial Chaos, before it became developed into the Seven Oceans, emblematic of the seven conditioned qualities, lie latent both Amrita (immortality) and Visha (poison, death, evil). This allegory is found in the "Churning of the Ocean" by the gods. Amrita is beyond any quality, for it is UNCONDITIONED per se, yet when fallen into the phenomenal creation it became mixed up with EVIL, Chaos with latent Theos in it, before Kosmos was evolved. Hence we find Vishnu—

standing here for eternal Law, periodically calling forth Kosmos into activity-churning out of the primitive Ocean (boundless Chaos) the Amrita of Eternity, reserved only for the gods; and he has to employ in the task both good and bad spirits. The whole allegory is highly philosophical, and we find it repeated in every philosophical system. Plato, having fully embraced the ideas of Pythagoras (who had brought them from India), compiled and published them in a form more intelligible than the mysterious numerals of the Greek Sage.

Section V.

ON THE HIDDEN DEITY, ITS SYMBOLS AND GLYPHS

The Logos or Creative Deity, the "Word made Flesh" of every religion, has to be traced to its ultimate source and essence. True Esoteric philosophy, however, speaks neither of "creation "nor of "evolution," in the sense that the exoteric religions use. The many personified Powers are not evolutions from one another, but so many aspects of the one and sole manifestation of the Absolute ALL. Nor are most of the Gnostic systems, which come down to us mutilated by the Church Fathers, anything better than the distorted shells of the original speculations. Nor were they open to the public at any time, for had their hidden meaning been revealed, it would have been no longer an esoteric teaching. While the Logoi of all countries and religions are correlative (in their sexual aspects) with the female Soul of the World, or " the Great Deep, the Deity from which these two in one have their being is ever concealed, and called the "Hidden One," connected only indirectly with (so-called)

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creation, as it can act only through the Dual Force emanating from the Eternal Essence. Even Esculapius, called the Saviour of all," is identical, according to ancient classics, with Phta, the Egyptian Creative Intellect (or Divine Wisdom), and Phta is, in one of his aspects, the "Anima Mundi," the "Universal Soul" of Plato, the "Holy Ghost" of the early Christians and Gnostics, the Akâsa of the Hindus, and, even in its lowest aspect, the Astral Light.

Whence, then, all this identity of ideas if there was no primeval relation? If we turn to that most hazy of all cosmogonies, the Chinese, even there the same ideas are found. If we turn to Chaldea, we find in it Anu, the concealed deity; Bel, the Creator, the Spirit of God moving on the face of the waters, and Hea, the Universal Soul, the wisdom of the three combined. And all of these, as symbols of water, had aquatic animals and plants sacred to them, the ibis, the swan, the goose, the crocodile, the frog, the lotus, etc.

These symbols, chosen for the majestic idea of the Universal Principle, will seem little calculated to express its sacred character. A goose, or even a swan, may appear unfit to represent the grandeur of the Spirit. Nevertheless, it must have had some deep occult meaning, as it figures in every cosmogony, and was even chosen by the Crusaders (if we may credit Professor Draper) to precede them at the head of the army, a white gander being to them the vehicle of the Holy Ghost. The Egyptian God of Time, Seb, carries a goose on his head, and Jupiter and Brahmâ assumed the form of a swan, because the root of all this symbolism is that mys tery of mysteries-the MUNDANE EGG.