THE CREATIVE POWERS.

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STANZA VII.

i. 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 (/), 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 (Avalokitcshwara) 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 Panchasyam, the five Brahmâs, or the five DhyaniBuddhas 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

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: (i) Ame no ani naka nushi no Kami, "Divine Monarch of the Central Heaven"; (2) Taka mi onosnbi no Kami, Exalted, imperial Divine offspring of Heaven and the Earth"; and (3) Kamu mi musubi no Kami, "Offspring of the Gods," simply.

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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, Aior) is the only selfexistent, whereas its "Depth" (Bythos or Butkon of the Gnostics, called Propator) is only periodical. The latter is Brahma as differentiated from Brahma or Parabrahm. It is the Depth, the Source of Light, or Propator, which is the unmaniftsted 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

ONE PARENT FLAME, COUNTLESS FLAMES.

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occultatus est et absconditus; Microprosopus manifcstus est, et non manifestos." (Rosenroth; Liber Mysterii, IV., i.) 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, Kbther, 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

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 Ethcr; the third is composed of Fire, &ther and Water; the fourth of Fire, Ether, 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,Ӡ

as said in the Commentary.

(c) The second Order of Celestial Beings, those of Fire and Ether (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 egglike nucleus appears, having within itself the germ and potency of all the universal as well as of all terrestial 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 Pradhána (undifferentiated matter).

TEACHINGS CONTRASTED.

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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 terrestial. 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 noncreating "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 Puranas, wherein man is the seventh creation of Brahma.

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. (Omoic).