THE MYSTERY OF BLACKNESS.

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The Esoteric doctrine of the East having thus furnished and struck the key-note-which is as scientific as it is philosophical and poetical, as may be seen, under its allegorical garb-every nation has followed its lead. It is from the exoteric religions that we have to dig out the root-idea before we turn to esoteric truths, lest the latter should be rejected. Furthermore, every symbol-in every national religion—may be read esoterically, and the proof furnished for its being correctly read by transliterating it into its corresponding numerals and geometrical forms — by the extraordinary agreement of all-however much the glyphs and symbols may vary among themselves. For in the origin those symbols were all identical. Take, for instance, the opening sentences in various cosmogonies in every case it is either a circle, an egg, or a head. Darkness is always associated with this first symbol and surrounds it,—as shown in the Hindu, the Egyptian, the Chaldeo-Hebrew and even the Scandinavian systems-hence black ravens, black doves, black waters and even black flames; the seventh tongue of Agni, the fire-god being called "Kali," "the black," as it was a black flickering flame. Two black doves flew from Egypt and settling on the oaks of Dodona, gave their names to the Grecian gods. Noah lets out a black raven after the deluge, which is a symbol for the Cosmic pralaya, after which began. the real creation or evolution of our earth and humanity. Odin's black ravens fluttered around the Goddess Saga and "whispered to her of the past and of the future." What is the real meaning of all those black birds? They are all connected with the primeval wisdom, which flows out of the pre-cosmic Source of all, symbolised by the Head, the Circle, the Egg; and they all have an identical meaning and relate to the primordial Archetypal man (Adam Kadmon) the creative origin of all things, which is composed of the Host of Cosmic Powers-the Creative Dhyan-Chohans, beyond which all is darkness.

Let us inquire of the wisdom of the Kabala—even veiled and distorted as it now is, to explain in its numerical language an approximate meaning, at least of the word "raven." This is its number value as given in the "Source of Measures."

"The term Raven is used but once, and taken as eth-h'orebv 678, or 113×6; while the Dove is mentioned five times. Its value is 71, and 71×5355. Six diameters, or the raven, crossing, would divide the circumference of a circle of 355 into 12 parts or compartments; and 355 subdivided for each unit by 6, would equal 213-0, or the head ("beginning") in the first verse of Genesis. This divided or subdivided, after the same fashion, by 2, or the 355 by 12, would give 213-2, or the word B'rash,, or the first word of Genesis, with its prepositional prefix, signifying the same concreted general form

astronomically, with the one here intended." Now the secret reading of the first verse of Genesis being: "In Rash (B'rash) or head, developed gods, the Heavens and the Earth"—it is easy to comprehend the esoteric meaning of the raven, once that the like meaning of the Flood (or Noah's Deluge) is ascertained. Whatever the many other meanings of this emblematical allegory may be, its chief meaning is that of a new cycle and a new Round (our Fourth Round.)* The Raven," or the Eth-H'Orebv, yields the same. numerical value as the 66 Head," and returned not to the ark, while the dove returned, carrying the olive-branch, when Noah, the new man of the new Race (whose prototype is Vaivasvata Manu), prepared to leave the ark, the womb (or Argha) of terrestrial nature, is the symbol of the purely spiritual, sexless and androgyne man of the first three Races, who vanished from earth for ever. Numerically Jehovah, Adam, Noah, are one in the Kabala: at best, then, it is Deity descending on to Ararat (later on Sinai), to incarnate in man his image, through the natural process, henceforth the mother's womb, whose symbols are the ark, the mount (Sinai), etc., in Genesis. The Jewish allegory is at once astronomical, and purely physiological rather than anthropomorphic.

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And here lies the abyss between the two systems (Aryan and Semitic), though built on the same foundation. As shown by an expounder of the Kabala," the basic idea underlying the philosophy of the Hebrews was that God contained all things within himself and that man was his image; man, including woman (as Androgynes); " and that "geometry and numbers (and measures applicable to astronomy) are contained in the terms man and woman; and the apparent incongruity of such a mode was eliminated by showing the connection of man and woman with a particular system of numbers and measures and geometry, by the parturient time-periods, which furnished the connecting link between the terms and the facts shown, and perfected the mode used." It is argued that, the primal cause being absolutely incognizable," the symbol of its first comprehensible manifestation was the conception of a circle with its diameter line, so as at once to carry the idea of geometry, phallicism, and astronomy;" and this was finally applied to the "signification of simply human generative organs." Hence the whole cycle of events

* Bryant is right in saying "Druid Bardesin says of Noah that when he came out of the ark (the birth of a new cycle), after a stay therein of a year and a day, that 364+1 - 365 days, he was congratulated by Neptune upon his birth from the waters of the Flood, who wished him a happy New Year." The Year," or cycle, esoterically, was the new race of men born from woman after the separation of the sexes, which is the secondary meaning of the allegory: its primary meaning being the beginning of the Fourth Round, or the new Creation, † Unpubl. MSS. (But see " Source of Measures.")

GOD IS OUR HIGHER SELF.

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from Adam and the Patriarchs down to Noah is made to apply to phallic and astronomical uses, the one regulating the other, as the lunar periods, for instance. Hence, too, their genesis begins after their coming out of the Ark, and the close of the flood-at the Fourth Race. With the Aryan people it is different.

Eastern Esotericism has never degraded the One Infinite Deity, the container of all things, to such uses; and this is shown by the absence of Brahma from the Rig Veda and the modest positions occupied therein by Rudra and Vishnu, who became the powerful and great Gods, the "Infinites" of the exoteric creeds, ages later. But even they, "Creators" as the three may be, are not the direct creators and "forefathers of men." The latter are shown occupying a still lower scale, and are called Prajâpatis, the Pitris (our lunar ancestors), etc., etc.—never the "One Infinite God." Esoteric philosophy shows only physical man as created in the image of the Deity; but the latter is but the minor gods." It is the Higher-self, the real Ego who alone is divine and God.

§ XIII.

THE SEVEN CREATIONS.

"There was neither day nor night, nor sky nor earth, nor darkness nor light, nor any other thing save only One, unapprehensible by intellect, or That which is Brahma and Pumis (Spirit) and Prâdhâna (crude matter)" (Veda: "Vishnu Purana Commentary"); or literally: "One Prâdhânika Brahma Spirit: That was." The "Prâdhânika Brahma Spirit" is Mulaprakriti and Parabrahmam.

In Vishnu Purana, Parâsara says to Maitreya, his pupil:—"I have thus explained to you, excellent Muni, six creations. the creation of the Arvâksrotas beings was the seventh, and was that of man." Then he proceeds to speak of two additional and very mysterious creations, variously interpreted by the commentators.

Origen, commenting upon the books written by Celsus, his opponent —books which were all destroyed by the prudent Church Fathers— evidently answers the objections of his contradictor and reveals his system. at the same time. This was evidently septenary. But his theogony, the genesis of the stars or planets, that of sound and colour, all found as an answer satire, and no better. Celsus, you see, “desiring to exhibit his learning," speaks of a ladder of creation with seven gates, and on the top

of it the eighth—ever closed. The mysteries of the Persian Mithras are explained and "musical reasons, moreover, are added." . And to these again he strives to add second explanation connected also with musical considerations,"*—i.e., with the seven notes of the scale, the Seven Spirits of the Stars, &c., &c.

Valentinus expatiates upon the power of the great Seven, who were called to bring forth this universe after Ar(r)hetos, or the Ineffable, whose name is composed of seven letters, had represented the first hebdomad. This name (Ar(r)hetos) is one to indicate the Sevenfold nature of the One (the logos). "The goddess Rhea," says Proclus in Timæus (p. 121), "is a Monad, Duad, and Heptad," comprehending in herself all the Titanidæ, "who are seven."

The Seven Creations are found in almost every Purâna. They are all preceded by what Wilson translates—" the indiscrete Principle," absolute Spirit independent of any relation with objects of sense. They are (1) Mahattattwa, the Universal Soul, Infinite Intellect, or Divine Mind; (2) Bhûta or Bhûtasarga, elemental creation, the first differentiation of Universal indiscrete Substance; (3) Indriya or Aindriyaka, organic evolution. "These three were the Prâkrita creations, the developments of indiscrete nature preceded by indiscrete principle"; (4) Mukhya, the fundamental creation of perceptible. things, was that of inanimate bodies; (5) Tairyagyonya, or Tiryaksrotas, was that of animals; (6) Urdhwasrotas, or that of divinities‡ (?); (7) Arvaksrotas, was that of man. (See Vishnu Purâna.)

This is the order given in the exoteric texts. According to esoteric teaching there are seven primary, and seven secondary "creations;" the former being the Forces self-evolving from the one causeless Force; the latter, showing the manifested Universe emanating from the already differentiated divine elements.

Esoterically, as well as exoterically, all the above enumerated Creations stand for the (7) periods of Evolution, whether after an "Age" or a "Day" of Brahma. This is the teaching par excellence of Occult Philosophy, which, however, never uses the term "creation," nor even that of evolution, "with regard to primary Creation':" but calls all such forces "the aspects of the Causeless Force."

Origen contra Celsum, b. vi., chap. xxii.

In the Bible

The text says: "And the fourth creation is here the primary, for things immovable are emphatically known as primary." (See Fitzedward Hall's Corrections.)

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How can divinities" have been created after the animals? The esoteric meaning of the expression animals" is the germs of all animal life including man. Man is called a sacrificial animal, and an animal that is the only one among animal creation who sacrifices to the gods. Moreover, by the "sacred animals," the 12 signs of the zodiac are often meant in the sacred texts, as already stated.

THE ORDER OF THE EVOLUTION.

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the seven periods are dwarfed into the six days of creation and the seventh day of rest, and the Westerns adhere to the letter. In the Hindu philosophy, when the active Creator has produced. the world of gods, the germs of all the undifferentiated elements and the rudiments of future senses (the world of noumena, in short), the Universe remains unaltered for a "Day of Brahma," a period of 4,320,000,000 years. This is the seventh passive period or the "Sabbath day" of Eastern philosophy, that follows six periods of active evolution. In the Satapatha Brâhmana "Brahma" (neuter), the absolute Cause of all Causes, radiates the gods. Having radiated the gods (through its inherent nature) the work is interrupted. In the 1st Book of Manu it is said, "At the expiration of each night (pralaya) Brahma, having been asleep, awakes, and, through the sole energy of the motion, Causes to emanate from itself the spirit, which in its essence is, and yet is not."

In the Sepher Jezirah, the Kabalistic Book of Creation, the author has evidently repeated the words of Manu. In it the Divine Substance is represented as having alone existed from the eternity, boundless and absolute; and as having emitted from itself the Spirit. "One is the Spirit of the living God, blessed be his Name, who liveth for ever! Voice, Spirit, and Word, this is the Holy Spirit." (Sepher Jezireh, chap, i, Mishna IX.) And this is the Kabalistic abstract Trinity, so unceremoniously anthropomorphized by the Fathers. From this triple One emanated the whole Kosmos. First from One emanated number Two, or Air, the creative element; and then number Three, Water, proceeded from the air; Ether or Fire complete the mystic four, the Arba-il. (Ibid.) In the Eastern doctrine Fire is the first Element— Ether, synthesizing the whole (since it contains all of them).

In the Vishnu Purâna, the whole seven periods are given, and the progressive Evolution of "Spirit-Soul," and of the seven forms of matter (or principles) are shown. It is impossible to enumerate them in this work. The reader is asked to peruse one of the Purânas.

"R. Yehudah began, it is written: 'Elohim said: Let there be a firmament, in the midst of waters. . . . . At the time that the Holy ... created the world, He (they) created seven heavens Above. He created seven earths Below, seven seas, seven days, seven rivers, seven weeks, seven years, seven times, and 7,000 years that the world has been. . . . . the seventh of all the millennium. So here are seven earths Below, they are all inhabited except those which are above, and those .... below. And . . . . between each earth, a heaven (firmament) is spread out between each other. . . . And there are in them (these earths) creatures who look different from each other . . . . but if you object and say that all the children of the world came out from Adam,