**Pymander** [from Greek _Poimandres_ shepherd of men] The logoic divine intelligence, or thought divine; the best known of the surviving portions of the Hermetic books, the writings of Hermes Trismegistus; also a title of Hermes himself. "The Egyptian [[Prometheus]] and the personified _Nous_ or divine light, which appears to and instructs Hermes Trismegistus, in a hermetic work called 'Pymander' " (TG 266). Said to be an abridgment of one of the Books of Thoth by a Platonist of Alexandria, remodeled in the 3rd century after old Greek and Phoenician manuscripts by a Jewish Qabbalist and called the Genesis of Enoch (SD 2:267); said also to have been disfigured by Christian Qabbalists. Pymander as Hermes is described as the oldest and most spiritual of the logoi of the Western continent. ** Hermes TRISMEGISTUS** **_The Divine Poemander_** **From: _Pymander: Divine Mind of the Sovereignity, the Shepherd of Men_** **Attributed to Hermes Trismegistus in the _[[Corpus Hermeticum]]._** **Contents** [**The Visions of Hermes**](http://www.rexresearch.com/alchemy5/poemander.htm#1) [**The Above and the Below**](http://www.rexresearch.com/alchemy5/poemander.htm#2) [**First Emanation: Descent of the Logos**](http://www.rexresearch.com/alchemy5/poemander.htm#3) [**Second Emanation: Mind the Maker**](http://www.rexresearch.com/alchemy5/poemander.htm#4) [**Third Emanation: Descent of Man**](http://www.rexresearch.com/alchemy5/poemander.htm#5) [**The First Men**](http://www.rexresearch.com/alchemy5/poemander.htm#6) [**The Way of Deathlessness**](http://www.rexresearch.com/alchemy5/poemander.htm#7) [**Ascent of the Soul to the Eighth Sphere**](http://www.rexresearch.com/alchemy5/poemander.htm#8) [**Thrice Greatest Hermes**](http://www.rexresearch.com/alchemy5/poemander.htm#9) **_Corpus Hermeticum:_** [**The First Book**](http://www.rexresearch.com/alchemy5/poemander.htm#b1) [**The Second Book: "Poemander."**](http://www.rexresearch.com/alchemy5/poemander.htm#b2) [**The Third Book: "The Holy Sermon."**](http://www.rexresearch.com/alchemy5/poemander.htm#b3) [**The Fourth Book: "The Key."**](http://www.rexresearch.com/alchemy5/poemander.htm#b4) [**The Fifth Book: "That God is Not Manifest and Yet Most Manifest."**](http://www.rexresearch.com/alchemy5/poemander.htm#b5) [**The Sixth Book: "That in God Alone is Good."**](http://www.rexresearch.com/alchemy5/poemander.htm#b6) **The Vision of Hermes** It chanced once on a time, while I was meditating on the things that are, my thought was raised to a great height, yet my bodily senses had been put under restraint as in sleep, though not such sleep as that of men weighed down by fullness of food or bodily weariness. Methought a Being more than vast, in size beyond all bounds, called out my name and said: "What would you hear and see, and what have you in mind to learn and know?" "Who are you?" said I. "I am the Pymander, Divine Mind of the Sovereignity, the Shepherd of Men. I know what you desire, and I am with you everywhere." "I long to learn the things that are, " I replied, "and comprehend their nature, and know God. This is what I desire to hear." "Hold in your mind all you would know," the Shepherd answered back to me, "and I will teach you." **The Above and the Below** Forthwith all things changed in aspect before me and were opened out in an instant. And I beheld a boundless view: all was changed into Light, a mild and joyous Light; and I marveled when I saw it. And in a little while, there came to be in one part a downward-tending darkness, terrible and grim, and methought it like unto a snake. And thereafter I saw the darkness changing into a Watery Substance, which was unspeakably tossed about. Coiling in sinuous folds, it gave forth smoke as from fire; and I heard it making an indescribable sound of lamentation, for there was sent forth from it an inarticulate Cry. But from the Light there came forth a holy Speech, which took its stand upon the Watery Substance, and methought this Word was the voice of the Light. And the Divine Mind spoke for me to hear: "That Light is I, even the One Mind, the first God, who was before the Watery Substance that appeared out of Darkness, and the Word which came forth from the Light is son of God. Learn my meaning by looking at what you yourself have in you, for in you too, the Word is son, and Mind the father of the Word. They are not separate one from the other, for Life is the union of Word and Mind. Now fix your thought upon the Light and learn to know it." I saw in my mind that the Light consisted of innumerable Powers and had come to be an ordered world, but a world without the bounds of material existence. This I perceived in thought, seeing it by reason of the words that the Divine Mind had spoken to me. And when I was amazed, he spoke again to me: "You have seen in your mind the archetypal form, which is prior to the beginning of things and is limitless." **The First Emanation: Descent of the Logos** "But tell me," I asked. "Whence did the elements of nature come into being?" "They issued from God’s Purpose," came the answer, "which beheld that beauteous world and copied it. The Watery Substance, the One Thing, having received the Word, was fashioned into an ordered world, the elements being separated out from it. And from the elements came forth the brood of living creatures. And the One Mind, that Mind of Life and Light, being male and female both, gave birth to another Mind, which was a maker of things; and this made out of the elements Seven Planetary Administrators who encompass with their orbits the world perceived by sense; and their administration is called Fate. **The Second Emanation: Mind the Maker** "And forthwith, the Word of God leapt up from the downward-tending elements of Nature to the pure body of the highest Sphere that had already existed and united with Mind the Maker, for the Word was of one substance with that mind too. And the downward-tending elements of Nature were left devoid of reason, so as to be mere matter. "Then Mind the Maker united with Reason, and He who surrounds the Spheres and spins them with His whirl, set turning His formations, and let them turn from a beginning boundless unto an endless end. For the circulation of these Spheres begins where it does end in a circle, as Mind does will. And from the downward-tending elements Nature brought forth lives without reason; for He did not extend Reason (the Logos) to them. The Air brought forth things winged; the Water things that swim, and in the Watery Substance, Earth-and-Water one from another were separated, as Mind the Maker willed. And from her bosom, Nature produced living things, four-footed animals and reptiles, beasts wild and tame. **The Third Emanation: The Descent of Man** "But the One Mind, being both Life and Light, next brought forth Man, a Being like to Himself, with whom He fell in love, as being His own child; for it was beautiful beyond compare, the Image of its Sire. In very truth, God fell in love with His own Form; and on it did bestow all of His own creations. And when Man gazed upon what Mind the Maker had created in the region of Fire, he too wished to create and so assent was given him by the Father. Changing his state to the formative Sphere, where he was to have his whole authority, Man had in himself all the workings of the archetypal Administrators. Likewise, they fell in love with him, and each gave him a share of their own ordering. And after that, Man had well learned their essence and had become a sharer in their nature. Man then had a mind to break right through the boundary of their Spheres, and to subdue the might of that which pressed upon the Fire. "So he who had the whole authority, having learned the being of the Administrators, willed to break through the Spheres and showed to downward-tending Nature God's fair Form. And when Nature saw that Form of beauty that can never satiate, and Man who now possessed within himself each single energy of all Seven Administrators as well as God's own Form, she smiled with love; for it was as though she had seen the image of God's fairest form upon her Water, His shadow on her Earth. "He in His turn beholding the Form like to Himself, existing in her, in her Water, loved it and willed to live in it; and with the will came actuality, and so Man vivified the Form devoid of reason. And Nature took the object of her love and wound herself completely round him, and they were intermingled, for they were lovers. And this is why beyond all creatures on the earth, Man is twofold: mortal because of body, but because of his essential Eternal Substance, immortal. Though deathless and possessed of sway over all, yet does Man suffer as a mortal does, subject to Fate. Thus, though his true nature is above the Spheres, within the Spheres he has become a slave. Though male-female, he is from a male-female Mind; and though he is sleepless from a sleepless Sire, yet is he overcome by sleep. **The First Men** Thereon I say: "Teach on, Oh Divine Mind of me, for I myself as well am amorous of the Word." And the Shepherd said: "This is the mystery kept hid until this day: Nature embraced by Man brought forth a wonder, oh so wonderful. For as he had the nature of the Concord of the Seven, who, as I said to you, were made of Fire and Spirit. Nature did not delay but immediately brought forth seven men, in correspondence with the natures of the Seven Administrators, male-female were they and moving in the air." "0h Shepherd, " I said, "for now I'm filled with great desire and long to hear; do not run off!" "Keep silence," said the Shepherd, "for not as you have I unrolled for you the first discourse." "Lo! I am still," said I. "In such wise then," the Shepherd continued, "the generation of these Seven came to pass. Earth was as woman, her Water filled with longing; ripeness she took from Fire, spirit from Ether. Nature thus brought forth frames to suit the Form of Man. And Man from Life and Light changed into soul and mind -- from Life to soul, from Light to mind. And thus continued all the sense-world pairings until the period of their end and a new beginning arrived. Now listen to the rest of the discourse that you long to hear: The period being ended, the bond that bound them all was loosened by God's Will. For all the animals being male-female, at the same time with Man were loosed apart; some became male, some in like fashion female. And straightaway, God spoke by His Holy Word (the Logos): 'Increase you in increasing, and multiply in multitude, you creatures and creations all; and Man that had Mind in him, let him learn to know that he himself is deathless and the cause of death is love, though Love is All.' When He said this, His forethought did by means of Fate and the Spheres effect their couplings and their generations founded. And so all things were multiplied according to their kind. And he who thus had learned to know himself, had reached that Good that does transcend abundance; but he who through worldly love that same end leads astray, he expends his love upon his body -- he stays in Darkness -- and suffering through his senses the things of Death." **The Way of Deathlessness** "What is the fault so great the ignorant commit," I asked, "that they should be deprived of deathlessness?" "You seem," the Shepherd cautioned, "not to have given heed to what you have heard. Did not I bid you think?" "Yes, do I think, and I remember," I said, "and therefore give you thanks!" "If you did truly think thereon," said the Shepherd, "tell me: Why do they merit death who are in ignorance?" "It is because the gloomy Darkness is the root and base of the material frame; from it came the Watery Substance from which the body in the sense-world is composed; and from this body of Death and Darkness does the Water drain." "Right is your thought," He said. "But how does 'he who knows himself, go unto Him,' as God's Word had declared?" And I reply: "The Father of the universals consists of Light and Life, and from Him, Man was born." "You are right! Light and Life is the Divine Mind, and from it Man was born. If then you know that you are yourself of Life and Light, and that you are made of them, you shall return to Life and Light." Thus did the Shepherd speak. "But tell me further, Mind of me," I cried out, "How shall I come to Life again, for God does say 'the man who had Mind in him, let him learn to know that he himself is deathless.' Have not all men then Mind?" "Again you speak well! I, Divine Mind, myself am present with holy men and good, the pure and merciful men who live piously. To such my presence becomes an aid, and straightway they gain Gnosis of all things, and win their Father's love by their pure lives, and give Him thanks, invoking on Him blessings and entering his Kingdom, intent on Him with ardent love. And before they give the body up unto its proper death, they turn from their bodies with disgust from its sensations, from knowledge of what things they operate. Nay, it is I, the Divine Mind, that will not let the operations that befall the body work to their natural end. For being the gatekeeper, I close up all the entrances, and bar the entrance of the base and evil workings of the senses, cutting off all thoughts of them. But to the Mindless ones, the wicked and depraved, the envious and covetous, and murderous and impious, I keep far aloof, yielding my place to the Avenging Daimon, who sharpening the fire, torments them and adds fire to fire upon them, and rushes on them through their senses, thus rendering them the readier for their transgressions of the law, so that they meet with greater torment. Nor do they ever cease to have desire for their appetites inordinate, insatiably striving in the Darkness." **The Ascent of the Soul to the Eighth Sphere** "Full well have you taught me all, as I desired, 0h Divine Mind. And now, " I beseeched Him, "pray tell me further of the nature of the way to the Life Above." To this, the Shepherd replied: "When your material body is to be dissolved, first you surrender the body by itself unto the work of Transformation, and thus the form you had vanishes, and you surrender your way of life, void of its energy, back to its own nature. The body's senses next pass back into their sources, becoming separate, and resurrect as new energies; and passion and desire too withdraw unto that nature that is void of reason. And thus it is that man does speed his way thereafter upwards through the Spheres." He continued: "To the first zone he gives the energy of growth and waning; unto the second zone, the devices of evil now de-energized; unto the third, the guile of the desires de-energized; unto the fourth, his domineering arrogance, also de-energized; unto the fifth, unholy daring and the rashness of audacity, de-energized; unto the sixth, striving for wealth by evil means, deprived of its aggrandizement; and to the seventh zone, ensnaring falsehood, de-energized. And then, with all the energizings of the Spheres stripped from him, clothed in his proper Power, he comes to that nature that belongs unto the Eighth, and there with Those-That-Are is the One Mind. They who are there welcome his coming with joy; and he, made like to them that sojourn there, does further hear the Powers who are above the substance of the Eighth Sphere, singing their praise to God in a language of their own. And then they, in a band, go to the Father's home; of their own selves they make surrender of themselves to the Powers, and thus becoming Powers themselves they are in God. This the good end for those who have gained Gnosis -- to be made one with God." **Thrice-Greatest Hermes** "Why should you then delay?" the Shepherd asked me. "Must it not be, since you have received all, that you should point the way to the world, that through you the race of mankind may by your God be saved?" And after he said this, the Shepherd of Men mingled again with the Powers. But I, with thanks and blessings unto the Father of the universal Powers, was now freed, full of the power the Shepherd had poured into me, and full of what he had taught me about the nature of All and of the loftiest Vision. And I inscribed in my memory the benefaction of the Divine Mind, and I was exceedingly glad, for I was full with that for which I craved. My bodily sleep had come to be my soul's wakefulness; and the closing of my eyes, true vision; and my silence, pregnant with good; and my barrenness of speech, a brood of holy thoughts. Becoming God-inspired, I attained the abode of Truth." **Hermes Trismegistus** **_Corpus Hermeticum_** **The First Book.** 1. O my Son, write this first Book, both for Humanity's sake, and for Piety towards God. 2. For there can be no Religion more true or just, than to know the things that are; and to acknowledge thanks for all things, to him that made them, which thing I shall not cease continually to do. 3. What then should a man do, O Father, to lead his life well, seeing there is nothing here true ? 4. Be Pious and Religious, O my Son, for he that doth so, is the best and highest Philosopher; and with- out Philosophy, it is impossible ever to attain to the height and exactness of Piety or Religion. 5. But he that shall learn and study the things that are, and how they are ordered and governed, and by whom and for what cause, or to what end, will acknowledge thanks to the Workman as to a good Father, an excellent Nurse and a faithful Steward, and he that gives thanks shall be Pious or Religious, and he that is Religious shall know both where the truth is, and what it is, and learning that, he will be yet more and more Religious. 6. For never, O Son, shall or can that Soul which while it is in the Body lightens and lifts up itself to know and comprehend that which is Good and True, slide back to the contrary; for it is infinitely enamoured thereof. and forgetteth all Evils; and when it hath learned and known its Father and progenitor it can no more Apostatize or depart from that Good. 7. And let this, O Son, be the end of Religion and Piety; whereunto when thou art once arrived, thou shalt both live well, and die blessedly, whilst thy Soul is not ignorant whether it must return and fly back again. 8. For this only, O Son, is the way to the Truth, which our Progenitors travelled in; and by which, making their Journey, they at length attained to the Good. It is a Venerable way, and plain, but hard and difficult for the Soul to go in that is in the Body. 9. For first must it war against its own self, and after much Strife and Dissention it must be overcome of one part; for the Contention is of one against two, whilst it flies away and they strive to hold and detain it. 10. But the victory of both is not like; for the one hasteth to that which is Good, but the other is a neighbour to the things that are Evil; and that which is Good, desireth to be set at Liberty; but the things that are Evil, love Bondage and Slavery. 11. And if the two parts be overcome, they become quiet, and are content to accept of it as their Ruler; but if the one be overcome of the two, it is by them led and carried to be punished by its being and continuance here. 12. This is, O Son, the Guide in the way that leads thither for thou must first forsake the Body before thy end, and get the victory in this Contention and Strifeful life, and when thou hast overcome. return. 13. But now, O my Son, I will by Heads run through the things that are: understand thou what I say, and remember what thou hearest. 14. All things that are, are moved; only that which is not, is unmovable. 15. Every Body is changeable. 16. Not every Body is dissolvable. 17. Some Bodies are dissolvable. 18. Every living thing is not mortal. 19. Not every living thing is immortal. 20. That which may be dissolved is also corruptible. 21. That which abides always is unchangeable. 22. That which is unchangeable is eternal. 23. That which is always made is always corrupted. 24. That which is made but once, is never corrupted, neither becomes any other thing. 25. First, God; Secondly, the World; Thirdly, Man. 26. The World for Man, Man for God. 27. Of the Soul, that part which is Sensible is mortal, but that which is Reasonable is immortal. 28. Every essence is immortal. 29. Every essence is unchangeable. 30. Every thing that is, is double. 31. None of the things that are stand still. 32. Not all things are moved by a Soul, but every thing that is, is moved by a Soul. 33. Every thing that suffers is Sensible, every thing that is Sensible suffereth. 34. Every thing that is sad rejoiceth also, and is a mortal living Creature. 35. Not every thing that joyeth is also sad, but is an eternal living thing. 36. Not every Body is sick; every Body that is sick is dissolvable. 37. The Mind in God. 38. Reasoning (or disputing or discoursing) in Man, 39. Reason in the Mind. 40. The Mind is void of suffering. 41. No thing in a Body true. 42. All that is incorporeal, is void of Lying. 43. Every thing that is made is corruptible. 44. Nothing good upon Earth, nothing evil in Heaven. 45. God is good, Man is evil. 46. Good is voluntary, or of its own accord. 47. Evil is involuntary or against its will. 48. The Gods choose good things, as good things. 49. Time is a Divine thing. 50. Law is Humane. 51. Malice is the nourishment of the World. 52. Time is the Corruption of Man. 53. Whatsoever is in Heaven is unalterable. 54. All upon Earth is alterable. 55. Nothing in Heaven is servanted, nothing upon Earth free. 56. Nothing unknown in Heaven, nothing known upon Earth. 57. The things upon Earth communicate not with those in Heaven. 58. All things in Heaven are unblameable, all things upon Earth are subject to Reprehension. 59. That which is immortal, is not mortal: that which is mortal is not immortal. 60. That which is sown, is not always begotten; but that which is begotten always, is sown. 61. Of a dissolvable Body, there are two Times, one from sowing to generation, one from generation to death. 62. Of an everlasting Body, the time is only from the Generation. 63. Dissolvable Bodies are increased and diminished, 64. Dissolvable matter is altered into contraries; to wit, Corruption and Generation, but Eternal matter into its self, and its like. 65. The Generation of Man is Corruption, the Corruption of Man is the beginning of Generation. 66. That which off-springs or begetteth another, is itself an offspring or begotten by another. 67. Of things that are, some are in Bodies, some in their Ideas. 68. Whatsoever things belong to operation or working, are in a Body. 69. That which is immortal, partakes not of that which is mortal. 70. That which is mortal, cometh not into a Body immortal, but that which is immortal, cometh into that which is mortal. 71. Operations or Workings are not carried upwards, but descend downwards. 72. Things upon Earth do nothing advantage those in Heaven, but all things in Heaven do profit and advantage the things upon Earth. 73. Heaven is capable and a fit receptacle of everlasting Bodies, the Earth of corruptible Bodies. 74. The Earth is brutish, the Heaven is reasonable or rational. 75. Those things that are in Heaven are subjected or placed under it, but the things on Earth, are placed upon it. 76. Heaven is the first Element. 77. Providence is Divine Order. 78. Necessity is the Minister or Servant of Providence. 79. Fortune is the carriage or effect of that which is without Order; the Idol of operation, a lying fantasy or opinion. 80. What is God? The immutable or unalterable Good. 81. What is Man? An unchangeable Evil. 82. If thou perfectly remember these Heads, thou canst not forget those things which in more words I have largely expounded unto thee; for these are the Contents or Abridgment of them. 83. Avoid all Conversation with the multitude or common People, for I would not have thee subject to Envy, much less to be ridiculous unto the many. 84. For the like always takes to itself that which is like, but the unlike never agrees with the unlike: such Discourses as these have very few Auditors, and peradventure very few will have, but they have something peculiar unto themselves. 85. They do rather sharpen and whet evil men to their maliciousness, therefore it behoveth to avoid the multitude and take heed of them as not understanding the virtue and power of the things that are said. 86. How dost Thou mean, O Father? 87. Thus, O Son, the whole Nature and Composition of those living things called Men, is very prone to Maliciousness, and is very familiar, and as it were nourished with it, and therefore is delighted with it. Now this wight if it shall come to learn or know, that the world was once made, and all things are done according to Providence and Necessity, Destiny, or Fate, bearing Rule over all: Will he not be much worse than himself, despising the whole because it was made. And if he may lay the cause of evil upon Fate or Destiny, he will never abstain from any evil work. 88. Wherefore we must look warily to such kind of people, that being in ignorance, they may be less evil for fear of that which is hidden and kept secret. **The Second Book.** **"Poemander."** 1. My Thoughts being once seriously busied about the things that are, and my Understanding lifted up, all my bodily Senses being exceedingly holden back, as it is with them that are very heavy of sleep, by reason either of fulness of meat, or of bodily labour. Me thought I saw one of an exceeding great stature, and an infinite greatness call me by my name, and say unto me, "What wouldest thou Hear and See? or what wouldest thou Understand, to Learn, and Know!" 2. Then said I, " Who art Thou?" "I am," quoth he, "Poemander, the mind of the Great Lord, the most Mighty and absolute Emperor: I know what thou wouldest have, and I am always present with thee." 3. Then said I, "I would Learn the Things that art, and Understand the Nature of them and know God." "How?" said he. I answered, "That I would gladly hear.'' Then he, "Have me again in thy mind, and whatsoever thou wouldst learn, I will teach thee." 4. When he had thus said, he was changed in his Idea or Form and straightway in the twinkling of an eye, all things were opened unto me: and I saw an infinite Sight, all things were become light, both sweet and exceedingly pleasant; and I was wonderfully delighted in the beholding it. 5. But after a little while, there was a darkness made in part, coming down obliquely, fearful and hideous, which seemed unto me to be changed into a Certain Moist Nature, unspeakably troubled, which yielded a smoke as from fire; and from whence proceeded a voice unutterable, and very mournful, but inarticulate, insomuch that it seemed to have come from the Light. 6. Then from that Light, a certain Holy Word joined itself unto Nature, and out flew the pure and unmixed Fire from the moist Nature upward on high; it is exceeding Light, and Sharp, and Operative withal. And the Air which was also light, followed the Spirit and mounted up to Fire (from the Earth and the Water) insomuch that it seemed to hang and depend upon it. 7. And the Earth and the Water stayed by themselves so mingled together, that the Earth could not be seen for the Water, but they were moved, because of the Spiritual Word that was carried upon them. 8. Then said Poemander unto me, "Dost thou understand this Vision, and what it meaneth?" "I shall know," said I. Then said he, "I am that Light, the Mind, thy God, who am before that Moist Nature that appeareth out of Darkness, and that Bright and Lightful Word from the Mind is the Son of God." 9. "How is that?" quoth I. "Thus," replied he, "Understand it, That which in thee Seeth and Heareth, the Word of the Lord, and the Mind, the Father, God, Differeth not One from the Other, and the Unison of these is Life." Trismegistus. "I thank thee." Pimander. "But first conceive well the Light in thy mind and know it." 10. When he had thus said, for a long time me looked steadfastly one upon the other, insomuch that I trembled at his Idea or Form. 11. But when he nodded to me, I beheld in my mind the Light that is in innumerable, and the truly indefinite Ornament or World; and that the Fire is comprehended or contained in or by a most great Power, and constrained to keep its station. 12. These things I understood, seeing the word of Pimander; and when I was mightily amazed, he said again unto me, "Hast thou seen in thy mind that Archetypal Form, which was before the Interminated and Infinite Beginning?" Thus Pimander to me. "But whence," quoth I, "or whereof are the Elements of Nature made?" Pimander : "Of the Will and Counsel of God; which taking the Word, and beholding the beautiful World (in the Archetype thereof) imitated it, and so made this World, by the principles and vital Seeds or Soul-like productions of itself." 13. For the Mind being God, Male and Female, Life and Light, brought forth by his Word; another Mind, the Workman: Which being God of the Fire, and the Spirit, fashioned and formed seven other Governors, which in their Circles contain the Sensible World, whose Government or Disposition is called Fate or Destiny. 14. Straightway leaped out, or exalted itself front the downward born Elements of God, the Word of God into the clean and pure Workmanship of Nature, and was united to the Workman, Mind, for it was Consubstantial; and so the downward born Elements of Nature were left without Reason, that they might be the only Matter. 15. But the Workman, Mind, together with the Word, containing the Circles and Whirling them about, turned round as a Wheel his own Workmanships, and suffered them to be turned from an indefinite Beginning to an undeterminable End; for they always begin where they end. 16. And the Circulation or running round of these, as the Mind willeth, out of the lower or downward-born Elements brought forth unreasonable or brutish creatures, for they had no reason, the Air flying things, and the Water such as swim. 17. And the Earth and the Water was separated, either from the other, as the Mind would: and the Earth brought forth from herself such Living Creatures as she had, four-footed and creeping Beasts, wild and tame. 18. But the Father of all things, the Mind being Life and Light, brought forth Man, like unto himself, whom he loved as his proper Birth, for he was all beauteous, having the Image of his Father. 19. For indeed God was exceedingly enamoured of his own Form or Shape, and delivered unto it all his own Workmanships. But he seeing and understanding the Creation of the Workman in the whole, would needs also himself Fall to Work, and so was separated from the Father, being in the sphere of Generation or operation. 20. Having all Power, he considered the Operations or Workmanships of the Seven; but they loved him, and every one made him partaker of his own Order. 21. And he learning diligently and understanding their Essence, and partaking their nature, resolved to pierce and break through the Circumference of the Circles, and to understand the Power of him that sits upon the Fire. 22. And having already all power of mortal things, of the Living, and of the unreasonable Creatures of the World, stooped down and peeped through the Harmony, and breaking through the strength of the Circles, so shewed and made manifest the downward-born Nature, the fair and beautiful Shape or Form of God. 23. Which when he saw, having in itself the unsatiable Beauty and all the Operation of the Seven Governors, and the Form or Shape of God, he Smiled for love, as if he had seen the Shape or Likeness in the Water, or the shadow upon the Earth of the fairest Human form. 24. And seeing in the Water a shape, a shape like unto himself in himself he loved it, and would cohabit with it; and immediately upon the resolution, ensued the Operation, and brought forth the unreasonable Image or Shape. 25. Nature presently laying hold of what it so much loved, did wholly wrap herself about it, and they were mingled, for they loved one another. 26. And for this cause, Man above all things that live upon Earth, is double; Mortal because of his Body, and Immortal because of the substantial Man: For being immortal, and having power of all things, he yet suffers mortal things, and such as are subject to Fate or Destiny. 27. And therefore being; above all Harmony, he is made and become a servant to Harmony. And being Hermaphrodite, or Male and Female, and watchful, he is governed by and subjected to a Father, that is both Male and Female and watchful. 28. After these things, I said: "Thou art my Mind and I am in love with Reason." 29. Then said Pimander, "This is the Mystery that to this day is hidden, and kept secret; for Nature being mingled with Man brought forth a Wonder most wonderful; for he having the Nature of the Harmony of the Seven, from him whom I told thee, the Fire and the Spirit, Nature continued not, but forth with brought forth seven Men all Males and Females and sublime, or on high, according to the Natures of the Seven Governors." 30. "And after these things, O Pimander," quoth I, "I am now come into a great desire, and longing to hear, do not digress, or run out." 31. But he said, "Keep silence, for I have not yet finished the first speech." 32. Trismegistus. "Behold, I am silent." 33. Pimander. "The Generation therefore of these Seven was after this manner, the Air being Feminine and the Water desirous of Copulation, took from the Fire its ripeness, and from the aether Spirit; and so Nature produced bodies after the Species and Shape of men." 34. And Man was made of Life and Light into Soul and Mind, of Life the Soul, of Light the Mind. 35. And so all the Members of the Sensible World, continued unto the period of the end, bearing rule, and generating. 36. Hear now the rest of that speech, thou so much desirest to hear. 37. When that Period was fulfilled, the bond of all things was loosed and untied by the Will of God; for all living Creatures being Hermaphroditical, or Male and Female, were loosed and untied together with Man; and so the Males were apart by themselves and the Females likewise. 38. And straightway God said to the Holy Word,. Increase in Increasing, and Multiply in Multitude all you my Creatures and Workmanships. And let Him that is endued with Mind, know Himself to be Immortal; and that the cause of Death is the Love of the Body, and let Him Learn all Things that are. 39. When he had thus said, Providence by Fate and Harmony, made the mixtures, and established the Generations, and all things were multiplied according to their kind, and he that knew himself, came at length to the Superstantial of every way substantial good. 40. But he that through the Error of Love, loved the Body, abideth wandering in darkness, sensible, suffering the things of death. 41. Trismegistus. "But why do they that are ignorant sin so much, that they should therefore be deprived of immortality." 42. Pimander. "Thou seemest not to have understood what thou hast heard." 43. Trismegistus. "Peradventure I seem so to thee, but I both understand and remember them." 44. Pimander. "I am glad for thy sake, if thou understoodest them." 45. Trismegistus. "Tell me, why are they worthy of death, that are in death?" 46. Pimander. "Because there goeth a sad and dismal darkness before its Body; of which darkness is the moist Nature, of which moist Nature, the Body consisteth in the sensible World, from whence death is derived. Hast thou understood this aright!" 47. Trismegistus. "But why or how doth he that understands himself, go or pass into God!" 48. Pimander. "That which the Word of God said, say I: Because the Father of all things consists of Life and Light, whereof Man is made." 49. Trismegistus. "Thou sayest very well." 50. Pimander. "God and the Father is Light and Life, of which Man is made. If therefore thou learn and believe thyself to be of the Life and Light, thou shalt again pass into Life." 51. Trismegistus. "But yet tell me more, O my Mind, how I shall go into Life." 52. Pimander. "God saith, Let the Man endued with a Mind, mark, consider, and know himself well." 53. Trismegistus. "Have not all Men a mind?" 54. Pimander. "Take heed what thou sayest, for I the Mind come unto men that are holy and good, pure and merciful, and that live piously and religiously; and my presence is a help unto them. And forthwith they know all things, and lovingly they supplicate and propitiate the Father; and blessing him, they give him thanks, and sing hymns unto him, being ordered and directed by filial Affection, and natural Love: And before they give up their Bodies to the death of them, they hate their Senses, knowing their Works and Operations. 55. "Rather I that am the Mind itself, will not suffer the Operations or Works, which happen or belong to the body, to be finished and brought to perfection in them; but being the Porter and Door-keeper, I will shut up the entrances of Evil, and cut off the thoughtful desires of filthy works. 56. "But to the foolish, and evil, and wicked, and envious and covetous, and murderous, and profane, I am far off giving place to the avenging Demon, which applying unto him the sharpness of fire, tormenteth such a man sensibly, and armeth him the more to all wickedness, that he may obtain the greater punishment. 57. "And such a one never ceaseth, having unfulfillable desires and unsatiable concupiscences, and always fighting in darkness for the Demon afflicts and tormenteth him continually, and increaseth the fire upon him more and more." 58. Trismegistus. "Thou hast, O Mind, most excellently taught me all things, as I desired; but tell me moreover, after the return is made, what then?" 59. Pimander. "First of all, in the resolution of the material Body, the Body itself is given up to alteration, and the form which it had, becometh invisible; and the idle manners are permitted, and left to the Demon, and the Senses of the Body return into their Fountains, being parts, and again made up into Operations. 60. "And Anger and Concupiscence go into the brutish or unreasonable Nature; and the rest striveth upward by Harmony. 61. "And to the first Zone it giveth the power it had of increasing and diminishing. 62. "To the second, the machination or plotting of evils, and one effectual deceit or craft. 63. "To the third, the idle deceit of Concupiscence. 64. "To the fourth, the desire of Rule, and unsatiable Ambition. 65. "To the fifth, profane Boldness, and headlong rashness of Confidence. 66. "To the sixth, Evil and ineffectual occasions of Riches. 67. "And to the seventh Zone, subtle Falsehood always lying in wait. 68. "And then being made naked of all the Operations of Harmony it cometh to the eighth Nature, having its proper power, and singeth praises to the Father with the things that are, and all they that are present rejoice, and congratulate the coming of it; and being made like to them with whom it converseth, it heareth also the Powers that are above the eighth Nature, singing praise to God in a certain voice that is peculiar to them. 69. "And then in order they return unto the Father, and themselves deliver themselves to the powers, and becoming powers they are in God. 70. "This is the Good, and to them that know to be deified. 71. "Furthermore, why sayest thou, What resteth, but that understanding all men, thou become a guide, and way-leader to them that are worthy; that the kind of Humanity or Mankind, may be saved by God!" 72. When Pimander had thus said unto me, he was mingled among the Powers. 73. But I giving thanks, and blessing the Father of all things, rose up, being enabled by him, and taught the Nature, of the Nature of the whole and having seen the greatest sight or spectacle. 74. And I began to Preach unto men, the beauty and fairness of Piety and Knowledge. 75. O ye People, Men, born and made of the Earth, which have given Yourselves over to Drunkenness, and Sleep, and to the Ignorance of God, be Sober, and Cease your Surfeit, whereto you are allured, and invited by Brutish and Unreasonable Sleep. 76. And they that heard me, come willingly, and with one accord, and then I said further. 77. Why, O Men of the Off-spring of the Earth, why have you delivered Yourselves over unto Death, having Power to Partake of Immortality; Repent and Change your Minds, you that have together Walked in Error, and have been Darkened in Ignorance. 78. Depart from that dark Light, be Partakers of Immortality, and Leave or Forsake Corruption. 79. And some of Them That Heard Me, mocking and scorning, went away and delivered themselves up to the way of death. 80. But others, casting themselves down before my feet, besought me that they might be taught; but I causing them to rise up, became a guide of mankind, teaching them the reasons how, and by what means they may be saved. And I sowed in them the words of Wisdom, and nourished them with Ambrosian Water of Immortality. 81. And when it was Evening, and the Brightness of the same began wholly to go down, I commanded them to give thanks to God; and when they had finished their thanksgiving, everyone returned to his own lodging. 82. But I wrote in myself the bounty and beneficence of Pimander; and being filled with what I most desired, I was exceeding glad. 83. For the sleep of the Body was the sober watchfulness of the mind; and the shutting of my eyes the true Sight, and my silence great with child and full of good; and the pronouncing of my words, the blossoms and fruits of good things. 84. And thus came to pass or happened unto me, which I received from my mind, that is, Pimander, the Lord of the Word; whereby I became inspired by God with the Truth. 85. For which cause, with my Soul, and whole strength, I give praise and blessing unto God the Father. 86. Holy is God the Father of All Things. 87. Holy is God Whose Will is Performed and Accomplished by His Own Powers. 88. Holy is God, that Determineth to be Known, and is Known of His Own, or Those that are His. 89. Holy art Thou, that by Thy Word hast established all Things. 90. Holy art Thou of Whom all Nature is the Image. 91. Holy art Thou Whom Nature hath not Formed. 92. Holy art Thou that art Stronger than all Power. 93. Holy art Thou, that art Greater than all Excellency. 94. Holy art Thou, Who art Better than all Praise. 95. Accept these Reasonable Sacrifices from a Pure Soul, and a Heart stretched out unto Thee. 96. O Thou Unspeakable, Unutterable, to be Praised with Silence! 97. I beseech Thee, that I may never Err from the Knowledge of Thee, Look Mercifully upon Me, and Enable Me, and Enlighten with this Grace, those that .are in Ignorance, the Brothers of my Kind, but Thy Sons. 98. Therefore I Believe Thee, and Bear Witness, and go into the Life and Light. 98. Blessed art Thou, O Father, Thy Man would be Sanctified with Thee, as Thou hast given Him all Power. **The Third Book.** **"The Holy Sermon."** 1. The glory of all things, God and that which is Divine, and the Divine Nature, the beginning of things that are. 2. God, and the Mind, and Nature, and Matter, and Operation, or Working and Necessity, and the End and Renovation. 3. For there were in the Chaos, an infinite darkness in the Abyss or bottomless Depth, and Water, and a subtle Spirit intelligible in Power; and there went out the Holy Light, and the Elements were coagulated from the Sand out of the moist Substance. 4. And all the Gods distinguished the Nature full of Seeds. 5. And when all things were interminated and unmade up, the light things were divided on high. And the heavy things were founded upon the moist sand, all things being Terminated or Divided by Fire; and being sustained or hung up by the Spirit they were so carried, and the Heaven was seen in Seven Circles. 6. And the Gods were seen in their Ideas of the Stars, with all their Signs, and the Stars were numbered, with the Gods in them. And the Sphere was all lined with Air, carried about in a circular, motion by the Spirit of God. 7. And every God by his internal power, did that which was commanded him; and there were made four footed things, and creeping things, and such as live in the Water, and such as fly, and every fruitful Seed, and Grass, and the Flowers of all Greens, and which had sowed in themselves the Seeds of Regeneration. 8. As also the Generations of men to the knowledge of the Divine Works, and a lively or working Testimony of Nature, and a multitude of men, and the Dominion of all things under Heaven and the knowledge of good things, and to be increased in increasing, and multiplied in multitude. 9. And every Soul in flesh, by the wonderful working of the Gods in the Circles, to the beholding of Heaven, the Gods, Divine Works, and the Operations of Nature; and for Signs of good things, and the knowledge of the Divine Power, and to find out every cunning workmanship of good things. 10. So it beginneth to live in them, and to be wise according to the Operation of the course of the circular Gods; and to be resolved into that which shall be great Monuments; and Remembrances of the cunning Works done upon Earth, leaving them to be read by the darkness of times. 11. And every generation of living flesh, of Fruit, Seed, and all Handicrafts, though they be lost, must of necessity be renewed by the renovation of the Gods, and of the Nature of a Circle, moving in number; for it is a Divine thing, that every world temperature should be renewed by nature, for in that which is Divine, is Nature also established. **The Fourth Book.** **"The Key."** 1. Yesterday's Speech, O Asclepius, I dedicated to thee, this day's it is fit to dedicate to Tat, because it is an Epitome of those general speeches that were spoken to him. 2. God therefore, and the Father, and the Good, O Tat, have the same Nature, or rather also the same Act and Operation. 3. For there is one name or appellation of Nature and Increase which concerneth things changeable, and another about things unchangeable, and about things unmoveable, that is to say, Things Divine and Human; every one of which, himself will have so to be; but action or operation is of another thing, or elsewhere, as we have taught in other things, Divine and Human, which must here also be understood. 4. For his Operation or Act, is his Will, and his Essence, to Will all Things to be. 5. For what is God, and the Father, and the Good, but the Being of all things that yet are not, and the existence itself, of those things that are! 6. This is God, this is the Father, this is the Good, whereunto no other thing is present or approacheth. 7. For the World, and the Sun, which is also a Father by Participation, is not for all that equally the cause of Good, and of Life, to living Creatures: And if this be so, he is altogether constrained by the Will of the Good, without which it is not possible, either to be, or to be begotten or made. 8. But the Father is the cause of his Children, who hath a will both to sow and nourish that which is good by the Son. 9. For Good is always active or busy in making; and this cannot he in any other, but in him that taketh nothing, and yet willeth all things to be; for I will not say, O Tat, making them; for he that maketh is defective in much time, in which sometimes he maketh not, as also of quantity and quality; for sometimes he maketh those things that have quantity and quality and sometimes the contrary. 10. But God is the Father, and the Good, in being all things; for he both will be this, and is it, and yet all this for himself(as is true) in him that can see it. 11. For all things else are for this, it is the property of Good to be known: This is the Good, O Tat. 12. Tat. --- Thou hast filled us, O Father, with a sight both good and fair, and the eye of my mind is almost become more holy by the sight or spectacle. 13. Trismegistus. --- I Wonder not at It, for the Sight of Good is not like the Beam of the Sun, which being of a fiery shining brightness, maketh the eye blind by his excessive Light, that gazeth upon it; rather the contrary, for it enlighteneth, and so much increaseth the light of the eye, as any man is able to receive the influence of this Intelligible clearness. 14. For it is more swift and sharp to pierce, and innocent or harmless withal, and full of immortality, and they that are capable and can draw any store of this spectacle, and sight do many times fall asleep from the Body, into this most fair and beauteous Vision ; which thing Celius and Saturn our Progenitors obtained unto. 15. Tat. --- I would we also, O Father, could do so. 16. Trismegistus. --- I would have could, O Son; but for the present we are less intent to the Vision, and cannot yet open the eyes of our minds to behold the incorruptible, and incomprehensible Beauty of that Good: But then shall we see it, when we have nothing at all to say of it. 17. For the knowledge of it, is a Divine Silence, and the rest of all the Senses; For neither can he that understands that understand anything else, nor he that sees that, see any thing else, nor hear any other thing, nor in sum, move the Body. 18. For shining steadfastly upon, and round about the whole Mind it enlighteneth all the Soul ; and loosing it from the Bodily Senses and Motions, it draweth it from the Body, and changeth it wholly into the Essence of God. 19. For it is Possible for the Soul, O Son, to be Deified while yet it Lodgeth in the Body of Man, if it Contemplate the Beauty of the Good. 20. Tat. --- How dost thou mean deifying, Father! 21. Trismegistus. --- There are differences, O Son, of every Soul. 22. Tat. --- But how dost thou again divide the changes? 23. Trismegistus. --- Hast thou not heard in the general Speeches, that from one Soul of the Universe, are all those Souls, which in all the world are tossed up and down, as it were, and severally divided? Of these Souls there are many changes, some into a more fortunate estate, and some quite contrary; for they which are of creeping things, are changed into those of watery things and those of things living in the water, to those of things living upon the Land; and Airy ones are changed into men, and human Souls, that lay hold of immortality, are changed into Demons. 24. And so they go on into the Sphere or Region of the fixed Gods, for there are two choirs or companies of Gods, one of them that wander, and another of them that are fixed. And this is the most perfect glory of the Soul. 25. But the Soul entering into the Body of a Man, if it continue evil, shall neither taste of immortality, nor is partaker of the good. 26. But being drawn back the same way, it returneth into creeping things. And this is the condemnation of an evil Soul. 27. And the wickedness of a Soul is ignorance; for the Soul that knows nothing of the things that are, neither the Nature of them, nor that which is good, but is blinded, rusheth and dasheth against the bodily Passions, and unhappy as it is, not knowing itself, it serveth strange Bodies, and evil ones, carrying the Body as a burthen, and not ruling, but ruled. And this is the mischief of the Soul. 28. On the contrary, the virtue of the Soul is Knowledge; for he that knows is both good and religious, and already Divine. 29. Tat. --- But who is such a one, O Father! 30. Trismegistus. --- He that neither speaks, nor hears many things; for he, O Son, that heareth two speeches or hearings, fighteth in the shadow. 31. For God, and the Father, and Good, is neither spoken nor heard. 32. This being so in all things that are, are the Senses, because they cannot be without them. 33. But Knowledge differs much from Sense; for Sense is of things that surmount it, but Knowledge is the end of Sense. 34. Knowledge is the gift of God ; for all Knowledge is unbodily but useth the Mind as an Instrument, as the Mind useth the Body. 35. Therefore both intelligible and material things go both of them into bodies; for, of contraposition, That is Setting One against Another, and Contrariety, all Things must Consist. And it is impossible it should be otherwise, 36. Tat. --- Who therefore is this material God? 37. Trismegistus. --- The fair and beautiful world, and yet it is not good; for it is material and easily passible, nay, it is the first of all passible things; and the second of the things that are, and needy or wanting somewhat else. And it was once made and is always, and is ever in generation, and made, and continually makes, or generates things that have quantity and quality. 38. For it is moveable, and every material motion is generation; but the intellectual stability moves the material motion after this manner. 39. Because the World Is a Sphere, that is a Head, and above the head there is nothing material, as beneath the feet there is nothing intellectual. 40. The whole universe is material; The Mind is the head, and it is moved spherically, that is like a head. 41. Whatsoever therefore is joined or united to the Membrane or Film of this head, wherein the Soul is, is immortal, and as in the Soul of a made Body, hath its Soul full of the Body; but those that are further from that Membrane, have the Body full of Soul. 42. The whole is a living wight, and therefore consisteth of material and intellectual. 43. And the World is the first, and Man the second living wight after the World; but the first of things that are mortal and therefore hath whatsoever benefit of the Soul all the others have: And yet for all this, he is not only not good, but flatly evil, as being mortal. 44. For the World is not good as it is moveable; nor evil as it is immortal. 45. But man is evil, both as he is moveable, and as he is mortal. 46. But the Soul of Man is carried in this manner, The Mind is in Reason, Reason in the Soul, the Soul in the Spirit, the Spirit in the Body. 47. The Spirit being diffused and going through the veins, and arteries, and blood, both moveth the living Creature, and after a certain manner beareth it. 48. Wherefore some also have thought the Soul to be blood, being deceived in Nature, not knowing that first the Spirit must return into the Soul, and then the blood is congealed, the veins and arteries emptied, and then the living thing dieth: And this is the death of the Body. 49. All things depend of one beginning, and- the beginning depends of that which is one and alone. 50. And the beginning is moved, that it may again be a beginning; but that which is one, standeth and abideth, and is not moved, 51. There are therefore these three, God the Father, and the Good, the World and Man: God hath the World, and the World hath Man; and the World is the Son of God, and Man as it were the Offspring of the World. 52. For God is not ignorant of R/Ian, but knows him perfectly, and will be known by him. This only is healthful to man; the Knowledge of God: this is the return of Olympus; by this only the Soul is made good, and not sometimes good, and sometimes evil, but of necessity Good. 53. Tat. --- What meanest thou, O Father. 54. Trismegistus. --- Consider, O Son, the Soul of a Child, when as yet it hath received no dissolution of its Body, which is not yet grown, but is very small; how then if it look upon itself, it sees itself beautiful, as not having been yet spotted with the Passions of the Body, but as it were depending yet upon the Soul of the World. 55. But when the Body is grown and distracteth, the Soul it engenders Forgetfulness, and partakes no more of the Fair and the Good, and Forgetfulness is Evilness. 56. The like also happeneth to them that go out of the Body: for when the Soul runs back into itself the Spirit is contracted into the blood and the Soul into the Spirit; but the Mind being made pure, and free from these clothings; and being Divine by Nature, taking a fiery Body rangeth abroad in every place, leaving the Soul to judgment, and to the punishment it hath deserved. 57. Tat. --- Why dost thou say so, O Father, that the Mind is separated from the Soul, and the Soul from the Spirit? When even now thou saidst the Soul was the Clothing or Apparel of the Mind, and the Body of the Soul. 58. Trismegistus. --- O Son, he that hears must co-understand and conspire in thought with him that speaks; yea, he must have his hearing swifter and sharper than the voice of the speaker. 59. The disposition of these Clothings or Covers, is done in an Earthly Body; for it is impossible, that the mind should establish or rest itself, naked, and of itself; in an Earthly Body; neither is the Earthly Body able to bear such immortality; and therefore that it might suffer so great virtue the Mind compacted as it were, and took to itself the passible Body of the Soul, as a Covering or Clothing. And the Soul being also in some sort Divine, useth the Spirit as her Minister and Servant, and the Spirit governeth the living thing. 60. When therefore the Mind is separated, and departeth from the earthly Body, presently it puts on its Fiery Coat, which it could not do having to dwell in an Earthly Body. 61. For the Earth cannot suffer fire, for it is all burned of a small spark; therefore is the water poured round about the Earth, as a Wall or defence, to withstand the flame of fire. 62. But the Mind being the most sharp or swift of all the Divine Cogitations, and more swift than all the Elements, hath the fire for its Body. 63. For the Mind which is the Workman of all useth the fire as his instrument in his Workmanship; and he that is the Workman of all, useth it to the making of all things, as it is used by man, to the making of Earthly things only; for the Mind that is upon Earth, void, or naked of fire, cannot do the business of men. nor that which is otherwise the affairs of God. 64. But the Soul of Man, and yet not everyone, but that which is pious and religious, is Angelical and Divine. And such a Soul, after it is departed from the Body, having striven the strife of Piety, becomes either Mind or God. 65. And the strife of Piety is to know God, and to injure no Man, and this way it becomes Mind. 66. But an impious Soul abideth in its own essence, punished of itself, and seeking an earthly and human Body to enter into. 67. For no other Body is capable of a Human Soul, neither is it lawful for a Man's Soul to fall into the Body of an unreasonable living thing: for it is the Law or Decree of God, to preserve a Human Soul from so great a contumely and reproach. 68. Tat. --- How then is the Soul of Man punished, O Father; and what is its greatest torment. 69. Trismegistus. --- Impiety, O my Son; for what Fire hath so great a flame as it? Or what biting Beast doth so tear the Body as it doth the Soul. 70. Or dost thou not see how many evils the wicked Soul suffereth, roaring and crying out, I am Burned, I am Consumed, I know not what to Say, or Do, I am Devoured, Unhappy Wretch, of the Evils that compass and lay-hold upon me; Miserable that I am, I neither See nor Hear anything. 71. These are the voices of a punished and tormented Soul, and not as many; and thou, O Son, thinkest that the Soul going out of the Body grows brutish or enters into a Beast: which is a very great Error, for the Soul punished after this manner. 72. For the Mind, when it is ordered or appointed to get a fiery Body for the services of God, coming down into the wicked Soul, torments it with the whips of Sins, wherewith the wicked Soul being scourged, turns itself to Murders, and Contumelies, and Blasphemies, and divers Violences, and other things by which men are injured 73. But into a pious Soul, the Mind entering, leads it into the Light of Knowledge. 74. And such a Soul is never satisfied with singing praise to God, and speaking well of all men; and both in words and deeds, always doing good in imitation of her Father. 75. Therefore, O Son, we must give thanks, and pray, that we may obtain a good mind. 76. The Soul therefore may be altered or changed into the better, but into the worse it is impossible. 77. But there is a communion of Souls, and those of Gods, communicate with those of men; and those of men, with those of Beasts. 78. And the better always take of the worse, Gods of Men, Men of brute Beasts, but God of all: For he is the best of all, and all things are less than he. 79. Therefore is the World subject unto God, Man unto the World and unreasonable things to Man. 80. But God is above all, and about all; and the beams of God are operations; and the beams of the World are Natures; and the beams of Man are Arts and Sciences. 81. And Operations do act by the World, and upon man by the natural beams of the World, but Natures work by the Elements, and man by Arts and Sciences. 82. And this is the Government of the whole, depending upon the Nature of the One, and piercing or coming down by the One Mind, than which nothing is more Divine, and more efficacious or operative; and nothing more uniting, or nothing is more One. The Communion of Gods to Men, and of Men to God. 83. This is the Bonus Genius, or good Demon, blessed Soul that is fullest of it! and unhappy Soul that is empty of it! 84. Tat. --- And wherefore Father? 85. Trismegistus. --- Know Son, that every Soul hath the Good Mind; for of that it is we now speak, and not of that Minister of which we said before, That he was sent from the Judgment. 86. For the Soul without the Mind, can neither do, nor say any thing; for many times the Mind flies away from the Soul, and in that hour the Soul neither seeth nor heareth, but is like an unreasonable thing; so great is the power of the Mind. 87. But neither brooketh it an idle or lazy Soul, but leaves such a one fastened to the Body, and by it pressed down. 88. And such a Soul, O Son, hath no mind, wherefore neither must such a one be called a Man. 89. For man is a Divine living thing and is not to be compared to any brute Beast that lives upon Earth, but to them that are above in Heaven, that are called Gods. 90. Rather, if we shall be bold to speak the truth, he that is a man indeed, is above them, or at least they are equal in power, one to the other, For none of the things in Heaven will come down upon Earth, and leave the limits of Heaven, but a man ascends up into Heaven, and measures it. 91. And he knoweth what things are on high, and what below, and learneth all other things exactly. 92. And that which is the greatest of all, he leaveth not the Earth, and yet is above: So great is the greatness of his Nature. 93. Wherefore we must be bold to say, That an Earthly Man is a Mortal God, and That the Heavenly God is an Immortal Man. 94. Wherefore, by these two are all things governed, the World and Man; but they and all things else, of that which is One. **The Fifth Book.** **"That God is not Manifest and yet most Manifest."** 1. This Discourse I will also make to thee, O Tat, that thou mayest not be ignorant of the more excellent Name of God. 2. But do thou contemplate in thy Mind, how that which to many seems hidden and unmanifest, may be most manifest unto thee. 3. For it were not all, if it were apparent, for whatsoever is apparent, is generated or made; for it was made manifest, but that which is not manifest is ever. 4. For it needeth not to be manifested, for it is always. 5. And he maketh all other things manifest, being unmanifest as being always, and making other things manifest, he is not made manifest. 9. Himself is not made, yet in fantasy he fantasieth all things, or in appearance he maketh them appear, for appearance is only of those things that are generated or made, for appearance is nothing but generation. 7. But he is that One, that is not made nor generated, is also unapparent and unmanifest. 8. But making all things appear, he appeareth in all and by all; but especially he is manifested to or in those things wherein himself listeth. 9. Thou therefore, O Tat, my Son, pray first to the Lord and Father, and to the Alone and to the One from whom is one to be merciful to thee, that thou mayest knowest and understand so great a God; and that he would shine one of his beams upon thee In thy understanding. 10. For only the Understanding sees that which is not manifest or apparent, as being itself not manifest or apparent; and if thou canst, O Tat, it will appear to the eyes of thy Mind. 11. For the Lord, void of envy, appeareth through the whole world. Thou mayest see the intelligence, and take it in thy hands, and contemplate the Image of God. 12. But if that which is in thee, be not known or apparent unto thee, how shall he in thee be seen, and appear unto thee by the eyes? 13. But if thou wilt see him, consider and understand the Sun, consider the course of the Moon, consider the order of the Stars. 14. Who is he that keepeth order? for all order is circumscribed or terminated in number and place. 15. The Sun is the greatest of the Gods in heaven, to whom all the heavenly Gods give place, as to a King and potentate; and yet he being such a one, greater than the Earth or the Sea, is content to suffer infinite lesser stars to walk and move above himself; whom doth he fear the while, O Son? 16. Every one of these Stars that are in Heaven, do not make the like, or an equal course; who is it that hath prescribed unto every one, the manner and the greatness of their course! 17. This Bear that turns round about its own self; and carries round the whole World with her, who possessed and made such an Instrument. 18. Who hath set the Bounds to the Sea? who hath established the Earth? for there is some body, O Tat, that is the Maker and Lord of these things. 19. For it is impossible, O Son, that either place, or number, or measure, should be observed without a Maker. 20. For no order can be made by disorder or disproportion. 21. I would it were possible for thee, O my Son, to have wings, and to fly into the Air, and being taken up in the midst, between Heaven and Earth, to see the stability of the Earth, the fluidness of the Sea, the courses of the Rivers, the largeness of the Air, the sharpness or swiftness of the Fire, the motion of the Stars; and the speediness of the Heaven, by which it goeth round about all these. 22. O Son, what a happy sight it were, at one instant, to see all these, that which is unmovable moved, and that which is hidden appear and be manifest. 23. And if thou wilt see and behold this Workman, even by mortal things that are upon Earth, and in the deep. Consider, O Son, how Man is made and framed in the Womb; and examine diligently the skill and cunning of the Workman, and learn who it was that wrought and fashioned the beautiful and Divine shape of Man; who circumscribed and marked out his eyes? who bored his nostrils and ears? who opened his mouth? who stretched out and tied together his sinews! who channelled the veins? who hardened and made strong the bones! who clothed the flesh with skin? who divided the fingers and the joints! who flatted and made broad the soles of the feet! who digged the pores! who stretched out the spleen, who made the heart like a Pyramis? who made the Liver broad! who made the Lights spungy, and full of holes! who made the belly large and capacious? who set to outward view the more honourable parts and hid the filthy ones. 24. See how many Arts in one Matter, and how many Works in one Superscription, and all exceedingly beautiful, and all done in measure, and yet all differing. 25. Who hath made all these things! what Mother! what Father! save only God that is not manifest! that made all things by his own Will. 26;: And no man says that a statue or an image is made without a Carver or a Painter, and was this Workmanship made without a Workman? O great Blindness, O great Impiety, O great Ignorance. 27. Never, O Son Tat, canst thou deprive the Workmanship of the Workman, rather it is the best Name of all the Names of God, to call him the Father of all, for so he is alone; and this is his Work to be the Father. 28. And if thou wilt force me to say anything more boldly, it is his Essence to be pregnant, or great with all things, and to make them. 29. And as without a Maker, it is impossible that anything should be made, so it is that he should not always be, and always be making all things in Heaven, in the Air, in the Earth, in the Deep, in the whole World, and in every part of the whole that is, or that is not. 30. For there is nothing in the whole World, that is not himself both the things that are and the things that are not. 31. For the things that are, he hath made manifest; and the things that are not, he hath hid in himself. 32. This is God that is better than any name; this is he that is secret; this is he that is most manifest; this is he that is to be seen by the Mind ; this is he that is visible to the eye; this is he that hath no body; and this is he that hath many bodies, rather there is nothing of any body, which is not He. 33. For he alone is all things. 34. And for this cause He hath all Names, because He is the One Father; and therefore He hath no Name, because He is the Father of all. 35. Who therefore can bless thee, or give thanks for thee, or to thee. 36. Which way shall I look, when I praise thee? upward? downward? outward? inward? 37. For about thee there is no manner, nor place, nor anything else of all things that are. 38. But all things are in thee; all things from thee, thou givest all things, and takest nothing; for thou hast all things and there is nothing that thou hast not. 39. When shall I praise thee, O Father; for it is neither possible to comprehend thy hour, nor thy time? 40. For what shall I praise thee? for what thou hast made, or for what thou hast not made! fur those things thou hast manifested, or for those things thou hast hidden? 41. Wherefore shall I praise thee as being of myself, or having anything of mine own, or rather being another's? 42. For thou art what I am, thou art what I do, thou art what I say. 43. Thou Art All Things, and there is Nothing Else Thou art not. 44. Thou Art Thou, All that is Made, and all that is not Made. 45. The Mind that Understandeth. 46. The Father that Maketh and Frameth. 47. The Good that Worketh. 48. The Good that doth All Things. 49. Of the Matter, the most subtle and slender part is Air, of the Air the Soul, of the Soul the Mind, of the Mind God. **The Sixth Book.** **called** **"That in God Alone is Good."** 1. Good, O Asciepius, is in nothing but in God alone; or rather God himself is the Good always. 2. And if it be so, then must he be an Essence or Substance void of all motion and generation; but nothing is void or empty of him. 3. And this Essence hath about or in himself a Stable, and firm Operation, wanting nothing, most full, and giving abundantly. 4. One thing is the Beginning of all things, for it giveth all things; and when I name the Good, I mean that which is altogether and always Good. 5. This is present to none, but God alone; for he wanteth nothing, that he should desire to have it, nor can anything be taken from him; the loss whereof may grieve him; for sorrow is a part of evilness. 6. Nothing is stronger than he, that he should be opposed by it; nor nothing equal to him, that he should be in love with it; nothing unheard of to be angry, with nothing wiser to be envious at. 7. And none of these being in his Essence, what remains, but only the Good? 8. For as in this, being such an Essence, there is none of the evils; so in none of the other things shall the Good be found. 9. For in all other things, are all those other things. as well in the small as the great ; and as well in the particulars as in this living Creature the greater and mightiest of all. 10. For all things that are made or generated are full of Passion, Generation itself being a Passion ; and where Passion is there is not the Good; where the Good is, there is no Passion; where it is day, it is not night, and where it is night, it is not day. 11. Wherefore it is impossible, that in Generation should be the Good, but only in that which is not generated or made. 12. Yet as the Participation of all things is in the Matter bound, so also of that which is Good. After this manner is the World good, as it maketh all things, and in the part of making or doing it is Good, but in all other things not good. 13. For it is passible, and movable, and the Maker of passible things. 14. In Man also the Good is ordered (or Taketh Denomination) in comparison of that which is evil; for that which is not very evil, is here good; and that which is here called Good, is the least particle, or proportion of evil. 15. It is impossible therefore, that the Good should be here pure from Evil; for here the Good groweth Evil, and growing Evil, it doth not still abide Good; and not abiding Good it becomes Evil. 16. Therefore in God alone is the Good, or rather God is the Good. 17. Therefore, O Asclepius, there is nothing in men (or among Men) but the name of Good, the thing itself is not, for it is impossible; for a material Body receiveth (or Comprehendeth), is not as being on every side encompassed and coarcted with evilness, and labours, and griefs, and desires, and wrath, and deceits, and foolish opinions. 18. And in that which is the worst of all, Asclepius, every one of the forenamed things, is here believed to be the greatest good, especially that supreme mischief the pleasures of the Belly, and the ring-leader of all evils; Error is here the absence of the Good. 19. And I give thanks unto God, that concerning the knowledge of Good, put this assurance in my mind, that it is impossible it should be in the World. 20. For the World is the fulness of evilness ; but God is the fulness of Good, or Good of God. 21. For the eminencies of all appearing Beauty, are in the Essence more pure, more sincere, and peradventure they are also the Essence of it. 22. For we must be bold to say, Asclepius, that the Essence of God, if he have an Essence, is that which is fair or beautiful; but no good is comprehended in this World. 23. For all things that are subject to the eye, are Idols, and as it were shadows; but those things that are not subject to the eye, are ever, especially the Essence of the Fair and the Good. 24. And as the eye cannot see God, so neither the Fair, and the Good. 25. For these are the parts of God that partake the Nature of the whole, proper, and familiar unto him alone, inseparable, most lovely, whereof either God is enamoured, or they are enamoured of God. 26. If thou canst understand God, thou shalt understand the Fair, and the Good which is most shining, and enlightening, and most enlightened by God. 27. For that Beauty is above comparison, and that Good is inimitable, as God himself. 28. As therefore thou understandest God, so understand the Fair and the Good, for these are incommunicable to any other living Creatures because they are inseparable from God. 29. If thou seek concerning God, thou seekest or askest also of the Fair, for there is one way that leads to the same thing, that is Piety with Knowledge. 30. Wherefore, they that are ignorant, and go not in the way of Piety, dare call Man Fair and Good, never seeing so much as in a dream, what Good is; but being enfolded and wrapped upon all evil, and believing that the evil is the Good, they by that means, both use it unsatiably, and are afraid to be deprived of it; and therefore they strive by all possible means, that they may not only have it, but also increase it. 31. Such, O Asclepius, are the Good and Fair things of men, which we can neither love nor hate, for this is the hardest thing of all, that we have need of them, and cannot live without them. **_akashic definition of:_ Pymander** **Thoth: An assemblage of energy created by me (the Illumined being Thoth) in concert with the El'ohim Lords. The Pymander evolves reciprocals for biological systems to align and balance with SOURCE. “Source” is the point of Absolute which every particle carries as it’s creation code. The Pymander then, is an akashic radionics devise. It is non-physical, and yet interactive with the physical. It responds to thought, feeling, emotion, yet it cannot be commanded by these things. It will instead balance them to the Source point. However, the Pymander is consciousness specific. It does not “know” what is not in it’s program data base. Therefore it only responds to what is within that data base or depository. When I say “consciousness specific” I mean that it responds to the consciousness and not the information. When information is placed into the data base, it is the consciousness from which it originated that the Pymander evolves reciprocals from.** **a simpler definition: A higher dimensional computer created from the upper strata of the etheric planes to assist Earth and her humanity with the ascension process. We use the term computer in this sense loosely, as it has no "hardware" components. It is an energy organization suspended in the most powerful electromagnetic regions of the Inner Earth and is comprised of a consciousness type plasma (etheric substance in a highly energized state) that works with specific light encodings for specific light-engendered purposes, and which allows Master Beings to maintain and sustain a focus of intent without direct application of their own minds. Its like they can program the Pymander, and then it does the work, thus the name "computer."** [**more details**](http://www.spiritmythos.org/TM/divine-fire/pymander.html) **see logos mandala of the Pymander in the** [**Mandala Grids & Gates Gallery**](http://www.spiritmythos.org/mandalas/grids_gates.htm) **_The Secret Doctrine_ by H. P. Blavatsky -- Vol. 2** **[[Vol. 2, Page]] 109 THE TABULA SMARAGDINA.** **STANZA V. THE EVOLUTION OF THE SECOND RACE.** ------- §§ (18) The Sons of Yoga. (19) The Sexless Second Race. (20) The Sons of the Sons of Twilight. (21) The "Shadow," or the Astral Man, retires within, and man develops a physical body. --------------------- 18. **T**HE FIRST (_Race_) WERE THE **S**ONS OF **Y**OGA. **T**HEIR SONS, THE CHILDREN OF THE **Y**ELLOW **F**ATHER AND THE **W**HITE **M**OTHER. In the later Commentary, the sentence is translated: -- "_The Sons of the Sun and of the Moon, the nursling of ether_ (or the wind ) (_a_) . . . . . . . "_They were the shadows of the shadows of the Lords_ (_b_)_. They_ (the shadows) _expanded. The Spirits of the Earth clothed them_; _the solar Lhas warmed them_ (_i.e._ preserved the vital fire in the nascent physical forms). _The Breaths had life, but had no understanding. They had no fire nor water of their own_ (_c_)_._ (_a_) Remember in this connection the _Tabula Smaragdina_ of Hermes, the esoteric meaning of which has seven keys to it. The Astro-Chemical is well known to students, the anthropological may be given now. The "One thing" mentioned in it is MAN. It is said: "The Father of THAT ONE ONLY THING is the Sun; its Mother the Moon; the Wind carries it in his bosom, and its nurse is the Spirituous Earth." In the occult rendering of the same it is added: "and _Spiritual_ Fire is its instructor (Guru)." This fire is the higher Self, the Spiritual Ego, or that which is eternally reincarnating under the influence of its lower personal Selves, changing with every re-birth, full of _Tanha_ or desire to live. It is a strange law of Nature that, on this plane, the higher (Spiritual) Nature should be, so to say, in bondage to the lower. Unless the Ego takes refuge in the Atman, the ALL-SPIRIT, and merges entirely into the essence thereof, the personal Ego may goad it to the bitter end. This cannot be thoroughly understood unless the student makes himself familiar with the mystery of evolution, which proceeds on triple lines -- spiritual, psychic and physical. That which propels towards, and forces evolution, _i.e._, compels the growth and development of Man towards perfection, is (a) the MONAD, **[[Vol. 2, Page]] 110 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.** or that which acts in it unconsciously through a force inherent in itself; and (b) the lower astral body or the _personal_ SELF. The former, whether imprisoned in a vegetable or an animal body, is endowed with, is indeed itself, that force. Owing to its identity with the ALL-FORCE, which, as said, is inherent in the Monad, it is all-potent on the _Arupa,_ or formless plane. On our plane, its essence being too pure, it remains all-potential, but individually becomes inactive: _e.g._, the rays of the Sun, which contribute to the growth of vegetation, do not select this or that plant to shine upon. Uproot the plant and transfer it to a piece of soil where the sunbeam cannot reach it, and the latter will not follow it. So with the Atman: unless the higher Self or EGO gravitates towards its Sun the Monad -- the lower _Ego,_ or _personal_ Self, will have the upper hand in every case. For it is this Ego, with its fierce Selfishness and animal desire to live a Senseless life (_Tanha_)_,_ which is "the maker of the tabernacle," as Buddha calls it in _Dhammapada_ (153 and 154). Hence the expression, "the Spirits of the Earth clothed the shadows and expanded them." To these "Spirits" belong temporarily the human astral selves; and it is they who give, or build, the physical tabernacle of man, for the Monad and its conscious principle, Manas, to dwell in. But the "Solar" _Lhas,_ Spirits, warm them, the shadows. This is physically and literally true; metaphysically, or on the psychic and spiritual plane, it is equally true that the Atman alone _warms_ the inner man; _i.e._, it enlightens it with the ray of divine life and alone is able to impart to the inner man, or the reincarnating Ego, its immortality. Thus, as we shall find, for the first three and a half Root-Races, up to the middle or turning point, it is the astral shadows of the "progenitors," the lunar Pitris, which are the formative powers in the Races, and which build and gradually force the evolution of the physical form towards perfection -- this, at the cost of a proportionate loss of spirituality. Then, from the turning point, it is the Higher Ego, or incarnating principle, the _nous_ or _Mind,_ which reigns over the animal Ego, and rules it whenever it is not carried down by the latter. In short, Spirituality is on its ascending arc, and the animal or physical impedes it from steadily progressing on the path of its evolution only when the selfishness of the _personality_ has so strongly infected the real _inner_ man with its lethal _virus,_ that the upward attraction has lost all its power on the thinking reasonable man. In sober truth, vice and wickedness are an _abnormal, unnatural_ manifestation, at this period of our human evolution -- at least they ought to be so. The fact that mankind was never more selfish and vicious than it is now, civilized nations having succeeded in making of the first an ethical characteristic, of the second an art, is an additional proof of the exceptional nature of the phenomenon. **[[Vol. 2, Page]] 111 THE SHELLS OF SHEBA HACHALOTH.** The entire scheme is in the "_Chaldean Book of Numbers,_" and even in the _Zohar,_ if one only understood the meaning of the apocalyptic hints. First comes En-Soph, the "Concealed of the Concealed," then the _Point,_ Sephira and the later Sephiroth; then the _Atzilatic_ World, a _World of Emanations_ that gives birth to three other worlds -- called the Throne, the abode of pure Spirits; the second, the _World of Formation,_ or Jetzira, the habitat of the Angels who sent forth the Third, or World of Action, the Asiatic _World,_ which is the Earth or _our_ World; and yet it is said of it that this world, also called _Kliphoth,_ containing the (six other) Spheres, [[diagram]], and matter, is the residence of the "Prince of Darkness." This is as clearly stated as can be; for _Metatron,_ the Angel of the second or _Briatic_ World, means Messenger [greek char], Angel, called the great Teacher; and under him are the Angels of the third World, _Jetzira,_ whose ten and seven classes are the _Sephiroth,*_ of whom it is said that "they inhabit and vivify this world as Essential _Entities_ and _Intelligences,_ whose _correlatives_ and _contraries_ inhabit the third or _Asiatic World._" These "Contraries" are called "the _Shells,_" [[daigam]], or _demons,**_ who inhabit the seven habitations called _Sheba Hachaloth,_ which are simply the seven zones of our globe. Their prince is called in the Kabala Samael, the Angel of Death, who is also the seducing serpent Satan; but that Satan is also Lucifer, the bright angel of Light, the _Light_ and _Life-bringer,_ the "Soul" alienated from the Holy _Ones,_ the other angels, and for a period, _anticipating the time_ when they would have descended on Earth to incarnate in their turn. "The _Souls_ (Monads) are pre-existent in the world of Emanations," (_Book of Wisdom_ viii., 20); and the _Zohar_ teaches that in the "Soul" "is the _real man, i.e.,_ the Ego and the conscious I AM: '_Manas._' " "They descend from the pure air to be _chained to bodies,_" says Josephus repeating the belief of the Essenes (_De Bello Judaeo,_ 11, 12)_._ "The air is full of Souls," states Philo, "_they descend to be tied to mortal bodies, being desirous to live in them._" (_De Gignat,_ 222 c.; _De Somniis,_ p. 455)***; because through, and in, the human form they will become _progressive_ beings, whereas the nature of the angel is purely _intransitive,_ therefore man has in him the potency of transcending the faculties of the Angels. Hence the Initiates in India say that it is the Brahmin, the twice-born, who rules the gods or devas; and Paul repeated it in **[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------** * See Vol. 1. Part III., "_Gods, Monads and Atoms._" It is symbolised in the Pythagorean Triangle, the 10 dots within, and the seven points of the Triangle and the Cube. ** Whence the Kabalistic name of _Shells_ given to the astral form, the body called _Kama Rupa,_ left behind by the higher angels in the shape of the higher _Manas,_ when the latter leaves for Devachan, forsaking its residue. *** Which shows that the Essenes believed in re-birth and many reincarnations on Earth, as Jesus himself did, a fact we can prove from the New Testament itself. **[[Vol. 2, Page]] 112 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.** I _Corinthians_ vi., 3: "Know ye not that we (the Initiates) shall judge angels"? Finally, it is shown in every ancient scripture and Cosmogony that man evolved primarily as a _luminous incorporeal form,_ over which, like the molten brass round the clay model of the sculptor, the physical frame of his body was built by, through, and from, the lower forms and types of animal terrestrial life. "The Soul and the _Form_ when descending on Earth put on an earthly garment," says the _Zohar._ His protoplastic body was not formed of that matter of which our mortal frames are fashioned. "When Adam dwelt in the garden of Eden, he was clothed in the celestial garment, which is the garment of heavenly light. . . . _light of that light which was used in the garden of Eden_," (_Zohar II_ 229 _B_)_._ "Man (the heavenly Adam) _was created_ by the ten Sephiroth of the Jetziric world, and by the _common power_ they (the seven angels of a still lower world) _engendered the earthly Adam_ . . . . First Samael fell, and then _deceiving_ (?) man, caused his fall also." (_b_) The sentence: "They were the shadows of the shadows of the Lords," _i.e._, the progenitors created man out of their own astral bodies, explains an universal belief. The _Devas_ are credited in the East with having no shadows of their own. "The devas cast no shadows," and this is the sure sign of a _good holy Spirit._ Why had they "no fire or water of their own"?* Because: -- (_c_) That which Hydrogen is to the elements and gases on the objective plane, its noumenon is in the world of mental or subjective phenomena; since its trinitarian latent nature is mirrored in its three **[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------** * It is corroborated, however, as we have shown, by the esotericism of _Genesis._ Not only are the animals created therein after the "Adam of Dust," but vegetation is shown _in_ the Earth before "the heavens and the Earth were created." "Every plant of the field before it (the day that the heavens and the Earth were made, v. 4) was in the Earth" (v. 5). Now, unless the Occult interpretation is accepted, which shows that in this 4th Round the Globe was covered with vegetation, and the first (_astral_) humanity was produced before almost anything could grow and develop thereon, what can the dead letter mean? Simply that the grass was in the earth of the Globe before that Globe was created? And yet the meaning of verse 6, which says that "there went up a mist from the Earth" and watered the whole face of the Earth before it rained, and caused the trees, etc., to grow, is plain enough. It shows also in what geological period it occurred, and further what is meant by "Heaven and Earth." It meant the firmament and dry _incrustated_ land, separated and ridden of its vapours and exhalations. Moreover, the student must bear in mind that, as Adam Kadmon, "the male and female being" of _Genesis, ch._ I., is no physical human being but the host of the Elohim, among which was Jehovah himself -- so the animals mentioned in that chapter as "created" before man in the dead letter text, were no animals, but the Zodiacal signs and other sidereal bodies. **[[Vol. 2, Page]] 113 THE SECRET WORK OF CHIRAM.** active emanations from the three higher principles in man, namely, "Spirit, Soul, and Mind," or _Atma, Buddhi,_ and _Manas._ It is the spiritual and also the material human basis. Rudimentary man, having been nursed by the "air" or the "wind," becomes the perfect man later on; when, with the development of "Spiritual fire," the _noumenon_ of the "Three in One" within his Self, he acquires from his inner Self, or Instructor, the Wisdom of Self-Consciousness, which he does not possess in the beginning. Thus here again divine Spirit is symbolised by the Sun or Fire; divine Soul by Water and the Moon, both standing for the Father and Mother of _Pneuma,_ human Soul, or Mind, symbolised by the Wind or air, for _Pneuma,_ means "breath." Hence in the _Smaragdine Tablet,_ disfigured by Christian hands: -- "The Superior agrees with the Inferior; and the Inferior with the Superior; to effect that one truly wonderful Work" -- which is **M**AN. For the secret work of Chiram, or King Hiram in the Kabala, "one in Essence, but three in Aspect," is the Universal Agent or _Lapis Philosophorum._ The culmination of the Secret Work is Spiritual Perfect Man, at one end of the line; the union of the three elements is the Occult Solvent in the "Soul of the World," the _Cosmic_ Soul or Astral Light, at the other; and, on the material plane, it is _Hydrogen_ in its relation to the other gases. The To ON, truly; the ONE "whom no person has seen except the Son"; this sentence applying both to the metaphysical and physical Kosmos, and to the spiritual and material Man. For how could the latter understand the To ON the "One Father," if his _Manas,_ the "Son," does not become (_as_) "One with the Father," and through this absorption receive enlightenment from the "divine instructor," Guru -- _Atma-Buddhi?_ "_If thou would_'_st understand the SECONDARY_ ("Creation," so-called), _oh Lanoo, thou should_'_st first study its relation to the PRIMARY._" (Commentary, Book of Dzyan, III. 19.) The first Race had three elements, but no _living_ Fire. Why? Because: -- "We say _four_ elements, my Son, but ought to say three," says Hermes Trismegistus. "In the Primary Circle" (creation) that which is marked /Attachments/httpwwwsacred-textscomthesdsd2-113gif.gif>)reads "Root," as in the Secondary likewise. Thus in Alchemy or Western Hermetism (a variant on Eastern Esotericism) we find: -- X. . . . . . . . . . . . . /Attachments/httpwwwsacred-textscomthesdsd2-113gif 1.gif>). . . . . . . . . X. Sulphur . . . . . . Flamma . . . . . . Spiritus Hydrargyum . . Natura . . . . . . . Aqua Sal . . . . . . . . . . Mater . . . . . . . Sanguis **[[Vol. 2, Page]] 114 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.** And these three are all quaternaries completed by their Root, Fire. The Spirit, beyond manifested Nature, is the fiery BREATH in its absolute Unity. In the manifested Universe, it is the Central Spiritual Sun, the electric Fire of all Life. In our System it is the visible Sun, the Spirit of Nature, the terrestrial god. And in, on, and around the Earth, the fiery Spirit thereof -- air, fluidic fire; _water_, liquid fire; _Earth,_ solid fire. All is fire -- _ignis,_ in its ultimate constitution, or I, the root of which is O (_nought_) in our conceptions, the All in nature and its mind. _Pro-Mater_ is divine fire. It is the Creator, the Destroyer, the Preserver. The primitive names of the gods are all connected with fire, from AGNI, the Aryan, to the Jewish god who "is a consuming fire." In India, God is called in various dialects, _Eashoor, Esur, Iswur,_ and _Is_'_Vara,_ in Sanskrit the Lord, from _Isa,_ but this is primarily the name of Siva, the Destroyer; and the three Vedic chief gods are Agni (_ignis_)_,_ Vayu, and Surya -- Fire, Air, and the Sun, three occult degrees of fire. In the Hebrew /Attachments/httpwwwsacred-textscomthesdsd2-114agif.gif>)(_aza_), means to illuminate, and /Attachments/httpwwwsacred-textscomthesdsd2-114bgif.gif>)(_asha_) is fire. In Occultism, "to kindle a fire" is synonymous to evoking one of the three great fire-powers, or "to call on God." In Sanskrit _Osch_ or _Asch_ is fire or heat; and the Egyptian word Osiris is compounded (as shown by Schelling) of the two primitives _aish_ and _asr,_ or a "fireenchanter." _Aesar_ in the old Etruscan meant a God (being perhaps derived from _Asura_ of the Vedas). _Aeswar_ and _Eswara_ are analogous terms, as Dr. Kenealy thought. In the _Bhagavad Gita_ we read, "Iswara resides in every mortal being and puts in motion, by his supernatural power, all things which mount on the Wheel of Time." It is the creator and the destroyer, truly. "The primitive fire was supposed to have an insatiable appetite for devouring. Maximus of Tyre relates that the ancient Persians threw into the fire combustible matter crying: 'Devour, oh Lord!' In the Irish language _Easam,_ or _Asam,_ means 'to create,' and _Aesar_ was the name of an ancient Irish god, meaning 'to light a fire' " (_Kenealy_)_._ The Christian Kabalists and symbologists who disfigured Pymander -- prominent among them the Bishop of Ayre, Francois de Tours, in the 16th century -- divide the elements in this way: -- _The four elements formed from divine substances and the Spirits of the Salts of Nature represented by -_- /Attachments/httpwwwsacred-textscomthesdsd2-113gif 2.gif>). . . St. Matthew. . Angel-Man . . Water . . (Jesus-Christ, Angel-Man, _Mikael_) A - /Attachments/httpwwwsacred-textscomthesdsd2-114cgif.gif>). St. Mark. . . . .The Lion . . . . Fire E - Y . .St. Luke. . . . . The Bull . . . . Earth I - O . . St. John. . . . . The Eagle . . . Air* **[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------** * To those who would inquire "What has Hydrogen to do with air or oxygena- [[Footnote continued on next page]] **[[Vol. 2, Page]] 115 SONS OF YOGA.** **H**, THE **Q**UINTESSENCE, [[_HEPHLOX_]], **F**LAMMA-**V**IRGO (virgin oil), **F**LAMMA **D**URISSIMA, **V**IRGO, **L**UCIS **A**ETERNA **M**ATER. The first race of men were, then, simply the images, the astral doubles, of their Fathers, who were the pioneers, or the most progressed Entities from a preceding though _lower_ sphere, the shell of which is now our Moon. But even this shell is all-potential, for, having generated the Earth, it is the _phantom_ of the Moon which, attracted by magnetic affinity, sought to form its first inhabitants, the pre-human monsters, (_vide supra,_ Stanza II.). To assure himself of this, the student has again to turn to the Chaldean Fragments, and read what Berosus says. Berosus obtained his information, he tells us, from _Ea_, the male-female deity of Wisdom. While the gods were generated in its androgynous bosom (Svabhavat, Mother-space) its (the Wisdom's) reflections became on Earth the woman Omoroka, who is the Chaldean Thavatth, or the Greek Thalassa, the Deep or the Sea, which esoterically and even exoterically is _the Moon._ It was the Moon (Omoroka) who presided over the monstrous creation of nondescript beings which were slain by the Dyanis. (_Vide Hibbert Lectures,_ p. 370 _et seq._; also in Part II. "Adam-Adami.") Evolutionary law compelled the lunar "Fathers" to pass, in their monadic condition, through all the forms of life and being on this globe; but at the end of the Third Round, they were already human in their divine nature, and were thus called upon to become the creators of the forms destined to fashion the tabernacles of the less progressed Monads, whose turn it was to incarnate. These "Forms" are called "Sons of Yoga," because Yoga (union with Brahma exoterically) is the supreme condition of the passive infinite deity, since it contains all the divine energies and is the essence of Brahma, who is said (as Brahma) to create everything through Yoga power. Brahma, Vishnu and Siva are the most powerful energies of God, Brahma, the Neuter, says a **[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------** [[Footnote continued from previous page]] tion?" it is answered: "Study first the **ABC** of Occult Alchemy." In their anxiety, however, to identify Pymander, "the mouth of Mystery," with St. John the Baptist prophetically, they thus identified also the 7 _Kabeiri_ and the Assyrian Bulls with the Cherubs of the Jews and the Apostles. Having, moreover, to draw a line of demarcation between the _four_ and the _three --_ the latter being the _Fallen Angels_; and furthermore to avoid connecting these with the "Seven Spirits of the Face," the Archangels, they unceremoniously threw out all they did not choose to recognise. Hence the perversion in the order of the Elements, in order to make them dovetail with the order of the Gospels, and to identify the Angel-Man with Christ. With the Chaldees, the Egyptians, from whom Moses adopted the _Chroub_ (Cherubs in their animal form), and the Ophites; with all these, the Angels, the Planets, and the Elements, were symbolized mystically and alchemically by the _Lion_ (Mikael); the _Bull_ (Uriel); the _Dragon_ (Raphael); the _Eagle_ (Gabriel); the _Bear_ (Thot-Sabaoth); the _Dog_ (Erataoth); the _Mule_ (Uriel or Thartharaoth). All these have a qualificative meaning. **[[Vol. 2, Page]] 116 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.** Puranic text. Yoga here is the same as Dhyana, which word is again synonymous with Yoga in the Tibetan text, where the "Sons of Yoga" are called "Sons of Dhyana," or of that abstract meditation through which the Dhyani-Buddhas create their celestial sons, the Dhyani-Bodhisattvas. All the creatures in the world have each a superior above. "This superior, whose inner pleasure it is _to emanate into them,_ cannot impart efflux until they have adored" -- _i.e._, meditated as during Yoga. (Sepher _M_'_bo Ska-arim,_ translated by Isaac Myer, _Qabbalah,_ pp. 109-111.) ------- 19. **T**HE SECOND RACE (_was_) THE PRODUCT BY BUDDING AND EXPANSION; THE A-SEXUAL (_form_) FROM THE SEXLESS (_shadow_)_._ **T**HUS WAS, **O L**ANOO, THE SECOND RACE PRODUCED (_a_). (_a_) What will be most contested by scientific authorities is this a-sexual Race, the Second, the fathers of the "Sweat-born" so-called, and perhaps still more the Third Race, the "Egg-born" androgynes. These two modes of procreation are the most difficult to comprehend, especially for the Western mind. It is evident that no explanation can be attempted for those who are not students of Occult metaphysics. European language has no words to express things which Nature repeats no more at this stage of evolution, things which therefore can have no meaning for the materialist. But there are analogies. It is not denied that in the beginning of physical evolution there must have been processes in Nature, spontaneous generation, for instance, now extinct, which are repeated in other forms. Thus we are told that microscopic research shows no permanence of any particular mode of reproducing life. For "it shows that the same organism may run through various metamorphoses in the course of its life-cycle, during some of which it may be _sexual,_ and in others _a-sexual_; _i.e.,_ it may reproduce itself alternately by the co-operation of two beings of opposite sex, and also by fissure or _budding_ from one being only, which is of no sex."* "Budding" is the very word used in the Stanza. How could these Chhayas reproduce themselves otherwise; viz., procreate the Second Race, since they were ethereal, a-sexual, and even devoid, as yet, of the vehicle of desire, or Kama Rupa, which evolved only in the Third Race? They evolved the Second Race unconsciously, as do some plants. Or, perhaps, as the _Amoeba,_ only on a more ethereal, impressive, and larger scale. If, indeed, the cell-theory applies equally to Botany and Zoology, and extends to Morphology, as well as to the Physiology of organisms, **[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------** * See Laing's "_Modern Science and Modern Thought,_" p. 90. **[[Vol. 2, Page]] 117 THE OUTGROWTH OF RACES.** and if the microscopic cells are looked upon by physical science as independent living beings -- just as Occultism regards the "fiery lives"* -- there is no difficulty in the conception of the primitive process of procreation. Consider the first stages of the development of a germ-cell. Its _nucleus_ grows, changes, and forms a double cone or spindle, thus, /Attachments/httpwwwsacred-textscomthesdsd2-117gif.gif>)_within_ the cell. This spindle approaches the surface of the cell, and one half of it is _extruded_ in the form of what are called the "_polar cells._" These polar cells _now_ die, and the embryo develops from the growth and segmentation of the remaining part of the nucleus which is _nourished_ by the substance of the cell. Then why could not beings have lived thus, and been created in _this_ way -- at the very beginning of _human and mammalian evolution?_ This may, perhaps, serve as an analogy to give some idea of the process by which the Second Race was formed from the First. The astral form clothing the Monad was surrounded, as it still is, by its egg-shaped sphere of _aura,_ which here corresponds to the substance of the germ-cell or _ovum._ The astral form itself is the nucleus, now, as then, instinct with the principle of life. When the season of reproduction arrives, the _sub-_astral "_extrudes_" a miniature of itself from the egg of surrounding aura. This germ grows and feeds on the aura till it becomes fully developed, when it gradually separates from its parent, carrying with it its own sphere of aura; just as we see living cells reproducing their like by growth and subsequent division into two. The analogy with the "_polar cells_" would seem to hold good, since their death would _now_ correspond to the change introduced by the separation of the sexes, when gestation _in utero, i.e., within the cell,_ became the rule. "_The early Second_ (Root) _Race were the Fathers of the_ '_Sweat-born_'; _the later Second_ (Root) _Race were_ '_Sweat-born_' _themselves._" This passage from the Commentary refers to the work of evolution from the beginning of a Race to its close. The "Sons of Yoga," or the primitive astral race, had seven stages of evolution _racially,_ or collectively; as every individual Being in it had, and has now. It is not Shakespeare only who divided the ages of man into a series of seven, but Nature herself. Thus the first sub-races of the Second Race were born at first by the process described on the law of analogy; while the last began gradually, _pari passu_ with the evolution of the human body, to be formed otherwise. The process of reproduction had seven stages also **[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------** * See _Book I. Part I. Stanza VII Commentary_ 10_._ **[[Vol. 2, Page]] 118 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.** in each Race, each covering aeons of time. What physiologist or biologist could tell whether the present mode of generation, with all its phases of gestation, is older than half a million, or at most one million of years, since their cycle of observation began hardly half a century ago. Primeval human hermaphrodites are a fact in Nature well known to the ancients, and form one of Darwin's greatest perplexities. Yet there is certainly no impossibility, but, on the contrary, a great probability that hermaphroditism existed in the evolution of the early races; while on the grounds of analogy, and on that of the existence of one universal law in physical evolution, acting indifferently in the construction of plant, animal, and man, it must be so. The mistaken theories of mono-genesis, and the descent of man from the mammals instead of the reverse, are fatal to the completeness of evolution as taught in modern schools on Darwinian lines, and they will have to be abandoned in view of the insuperable difficulties which they encounter. Occult tradition -- if the terms Science and Knowledge are denied in this particular to antiquity -- can alone reconcile the inconsistencies and fill the gap. "If thou wilt know the invisible, open thine eye wide on the visible," says a Talmudic axiom. In the "_Descent of Man_"* occurs the following passage; which shows how near Darwin came to the acceptance of this ancient teaching. "It has been known that in the vertebrate kingdom one sex bears rudiments of various accessory parts appertaining to the reproductive system, which properly belong to the opposite sex. . . . Some remote progenitor of the whole vertebrate kingdom appears to have been hermaphrodite or androgynous** . . . But here we encounter a _singular difficulty._ In _the mammalian class the males possess rudiments of a uterus with the adjacent passages in the Vesiculae prostaticae_; _they bear also rudiments of mammae, and some male marsupials have traces of a marsupial sac._ Other analogous facts could be added. Are we then to suppose that some extremely ancient mammal continued androgynous after it had acquired the chief distinctions of its class, and therefore after it had diverged from the lower classes of the vertebrate kingdom? This seems very improbable,*** for _we have to look to fishes, the lowest of all the classes, to find any still existent androgynous forms._" Mr. Darwin is evidently strongly disinclined to adopt the hypothesis which the facts so forcibly suggest, viz., that of a primeval androgynous **[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------** * Second Edition, p. 161. ** And why not all the progenitive first Races, human as well as animal; and why _one_ "remote progenitor"? *** Obviously so, on the lines of Evolutionism, which traces the mammalia to some amphibian ancestor. **[[Vol. 2, Page]] 119 THE BLASTEMA OF SCIENCE.** stem from which the mammalia sprang. His explanation runs: -- "The fact that various accessory organs proper to each sex, are found in a rudimentary condition in the opposite sex may be explained by such organs having been gradually acquired by the one sex and then transmitted in a more or less imperfect condition to the other." He instances the case of "spurs, plumes, and brilliant colours, acquired for battle or for ornament by male birds" and only _partially_ inherited by their female descendants. In the problem to be dealt with, however, the need of a more satisfactory explanation is evident, the facts being of so much more prominent and important a character than the mere superficial details with which they are compared by Darwin. Why not candidly admit the argument in favour of the hermaphroditism which characterises the old fauna? Occultism proposes a solution which embraces the facts in a most comprehensive and simple manner. These relics of a prior androgyne stock must be placed in the same category as the pineal gland, and other organs as mysterious, which afford us silent testimony as to the reality of functions which have long since become atrophied in the course of animal and human progress, but which once played a signal part in the general economy of primeval life. The occult doctrine, anyhow, can be advantageously compared with that of the most liberal men of science, who have theorised upon the origin of the first man. Long before Darwin, Naudin, who gave the name of _Blastema_ to that which the Darwinists call protoplasm, put forward a theory half occult and half scientifico-materialistic. He made Adam, the _a-sexual,_ spring suddenly from the _clay,_ as it is called in the Bible, the _Blastema_ of Science. "It is from this larval form of mankind that the evolutive force effected the completion of species. For the accomplishment of this great phenomenon, Adam had to pass through a phase of immobility and unconsciousness, very analogous to the nymphal state of animals undergoing metamorphosis," explains Naudin. For the eminent botanist, Adam was not one man, however, but _mankind,_ "which remained concealed within a temporary organism . . . . distinct from all others and never contracting alliance with any of these." He shows the differentiation of sexes accomplished by "a process of germination similar to that of Medusae and Ascidians." Mankind, thus constituted physiologically, "would retain a sufficient evolutive force for the rapid production of the various great human races." De Quatrefages criticises this position in the "_Human Species._" It is _unscientific,_ he says, or, properly speaking, Naudin's ideas "do not form a scientific theory," inasmuch as primordial _Blastema_ is connected **[[Vol. 2, Page]] 120 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.** in his theory with the _First Cause,_ which is credited with having made potentially in the Blastema all past, present, and future beings, and thus of having in reality _created_ these beings _en masse_; moreover, Naudin does not even consider the _secondary_ Causes, or their action in this evolution of the organic world. Science, which is only occupied with Secondary Causes, has thus "nothing to say to the theory of Naudin" (_p_. 125). Nor will it have any more to say to the occult teachings, which are to some extent approached by Naudin. For if we but see in his "primordial Blastema" the Dhyan-Chohanic essence, the _Chhaya_ or double of the _Pitris,_ which contains within itself the potentiality of all forms, we are quite in accord. But there are two real and vital differences between our teachings. M. Naudin declares that evolution has progressed by sudden leaps and bounds, instead of extending slowly over millions of years; and his primordial Blastema is endowed only with blind instincts -- a kind of _unconscious_ First Cause in the _manifested Kosmos --_ which is an absurdity. Whereas it is our Dhyan Chohanic essence -- the _causality_ of the _primal cause_ which creates _physical_ man -- which is the living, active and potential matter, pregnant _per se_ with that animal consciousness of a superior kind, such as is found in the ant and the beaver, which produces the long series of physiological differentiations. Apart from this his "ancient and general process of _creation_" from _proto-organisms_ is as occult as any theory of Paracelsus or Khunrath could be. Moreover, the Kabalistic works are full of the proof of this. The _Zohar,_ for instance, says that every type in the visible has its prototype in the invisible Universe. "All that which is in the lower (our) world is found in the upper. The Lower and the Upper act and react upon each other." (_Zohar,_ fol. 186.) _Vide infra,_ Part II., "_Esoteric Tenets corroborated in every Scripture._" ------- 20. **T**HEIR **F**ATHERS WERE THE SELF-BORN. **T**HE SELF-BORN, THE **C**HHAYA FROM THE BRILLIANT BODIES OF THE **L**ORDS, THE **F**ATHERS, THE **S**ONS OF **T**WILIGHT (_a_). (_a_) The "shadows," or _Chhayas,_ are called the sons of the "self-born," as the latter name is applied to all the gods and Beings born through the WILL, whether of Deity or Adept. The _Homunculi_ of Paracelsus would, perhaps, be also given this name, though the latter process is on a far more material plane. The name "Sons of Twilight" shows that the "Self-born" progenitors of our doctrine are identical with the Pitris **[[Vol. 2, Page]] 121 LEDA, CASTOR AND POLLUX.** of the Brahmanical system, as the title is a reference to their mode of birth, these Pitris being stated to have issued from Brahma's "body of twilight." (_See the Puranas._) ------- 21. **W**HEN THE RACE BECAME OLD, THE OLD WATERS MIXED WITH THE FRESHER WATERS (_a_); WHEN THE DROPS BECAME TURBID, THEY VANISHED AND DISAPPEARED, IN THE NEW STREAM, IN THE HOT STREAM OF LIFE. **T**HE OUTER OF THE FIRST BECAME THE INNER OF THE SECOND. (_b_). **T**HE OLD WING BECAME THE SHADOW, AND THE SHADOW OF THE WING (_c_)_._ (_a_) The old (primitive) Race merged in the second race, and became one with it. (_b_) This is the mysterious process of transformation and evolution of mankind. The material of the first forms -- shadowy, ethereal, and negative -- was drawn or absorbed into, and thus became the complement of the forms of the Second Race. The _Commentary_ explains this by saying that, as the First Race was simply composed of the astral shadows of the creative progenitors, having of course neither astral nor physical bodies of their own -- this Race _never died._ Its "men" melted gradually away, becoming absorbed in the bodies of their own "sweat-born" progeny, more solid than their own. The old form vanished and was absorbed by, disappeared in, the new form, more human and physical. There was no death in those days of a period more blissful than the Golden Age; but the first, or parent material was used for the formation of the new being, to form the body and even the inner or _lower_ principles or bodies of the progeny. (_c_) When the shadow retires, _i.e._ when the astral body becomes covered with more solid flesh, man develops a physical body. The "wing," or the ethereal form that produced its shadow and image, became the shadow of the astral body and its own progeny. The expression is queer but original. As there may be no occasion to refer to this mystery later, it is as well to point out at once the dual meaning contained in the Greek myth bearing upon this particular phase of evolution. It is found in the several variants of the allegory of Leda and her two sons Castor and Pollux, which variants have each a special meaning. Thus in Book **XI**. of the _Odyssey,_ Leda is spoken of as the spouse of Tyndarus, who gave birth by her husband "to two sons of valiant heart" -- Castor **[[Vol. 2, Page]] 122 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.** and Pollux. Jupiter endows them with a marvellous gift and privilege. They are semi-immortal; they live and die, each in turn, and every alternate day; [[_eteremeroi_*]]. As the Tyndaridae, the twin brothers are an astronomical symbol, and stand for _Day_ and _Night_; their two wives, Phoebe and Hilasira, the daughters of Apollo or the Sun, personifying the Dawn and the Twilight.** Again, in the allegory where Zeus is shown as the father of the two heroes -- born from the egg to which Leda gives birth -- the myth is entirely theogonical. It relates to that group of cosmic allegories in which the world is described as born from an egg. For Leda assumes in it the shape of a white swan when uniting herself to the Divine Swan.*** Leda is the mythical bird, then, to which, in the traditions of various peoples of the Aryan race, are attributed various ornithological forms of birds which all lay golden eggs.**** In the _Kalevala_ (the Epic Poem of Finland), the beauteous daughter of the Ether, "the Water Mother," creates the world in conjunction with a "Duck" (another form of the Swan or Goose, Kalahansa), who lays six golden eggs, and the seventh, "an egg of iron," in her lap. But the variant of the Leda allegory which has a direct reference to mystic man is found in Pindar***** only, with a slighter reference to it in the Homeric hymns.****** Castor and Pollux are in it no longer _the Dioscuri_ (of _Apollodorus_ III_._ 10, 7); but become the highly significant symbol of the dual man, the Mortal and the Immortal. Not only this, but as will now be seen, they are also the symbol of the Third Race, and its transformation from the animal man into a god-man with only an animal body. Pindar shows Leda uniting herself in the same night to her husband and also to the father of the gods -- Zeus. Thus Castor is the son of the Mortal, Pollux the progeny of the Immortal. In the allegory made up for the occasion, it is said that in a riot of vengeance against the _Apherides*******_ Pollux kills Lynceus -- "of all mortals he whose sight is the most penetrating" -- but Castor is wounded by _Idas,_ "he who sees and knows." Zeus puts an end to the fight by hurling his thunderbolt and killing the last two combatants. Pollux finds his brother dying.******** In **[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------** * "_Odyssey_," xi. 298 to 305; "_Iliad,_" iii., 243. ** _Chants Cypriaques, Hyg. Tal.,_ 80. _Ovid,_ "_Fasti,_" etc. See _Decharme_'_s_ "_Mythologie de la Grece Antique._" *** See Brahma Kalahamsa in Book I. Stanza III., p. 78. **** _See Decharme_'_s_ "_Mythologie,_" etc., p. 652. ***** Nem., x., 80 _et seq. Theocras,_ xxiv., 131. ****** xxxiv., v. _5_; _Theocritus,_ xxii_.,_ 1. ******* _Apollodorus, III._ ii., 1. ******** Castor's tomb was shown in Sparta, in days of old, says Pausanias (III., 13, 1); and Plutarch says that he was called at Argos the demi-mortal or demi-hero [[_mizarchagetas_]]. (See Plutarch, _Quaestiones Graecae,_ 23_._) **[[Vol. 2, Page]] 123 THE ALLEGORY OF CASTOR AND POLLUX.** his despair he calls upon Zeus to slay him also. "Thou canst not die altogether," answers the master of the Gods; "thou art of a divine race." But he gives him the choice: Pollux will either remain immortal, living eternally in Olympus; or, if he would share his brother's fate in all things, he must pass half his existence underground, and the other half in the golden heavenly abodes. This semi-immortality, which is also to be shared by Castor, is accepted by Pollux.* _And thus the twin brothers live alternately, one during the day, and the other during the night.**_ Is this a poetical fiction only? An allegory, one of those "solar myth" interpretations, higher than which no modern Orientalist seems able to soar? Indeed, it is much more. Here we have an allusion to the "Egg-born," _Third_ Race; the first half of which is mortal, _i.e._, unconscious in its personality, and having nothing within itself to survive***; and the latter half of which becomes immortal in its individuality, by reason of its fifth principle being called to life by the _informing gods,_ and thus connecting the Monad with this Earth. This is Pollux; while Castor represents the _personal,_ mortal man, an animal of not even a superior kind, when unlinked from the divine individuality. "Twins" truly; yet divorced by death forever, unless Pollux, moved by the voice of twinship, bestows on his less favoured mortal brother a share of his own divine nature, thus associating him with his own immortality. Such is the occult meaning of the metaphysical aspect of the allegory. The widely spread modern interpretation of it -- so celebrated in antiquity, Plutarch tells us,**** as symbolical of brotherly devotion -- namely, that it was an image borrowed from the spectacle of Nature -- is weak and inadequate to explain the secret meaning. Besides the fact that the Moon, with the Greeks, was feminine in exoteric mythology, and could therefore hardly be regarded as Castor -- and at the same time be identified with Diana -- ancient symbologists who held the Sun, the King of all sidereal orbs, as the visible image of the highest deity, would not have personified it by Pollux, a demi-god only.***** **[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------** * _Pindar. Nem._ x., 60, _Dissen._ _** Schol. Eurip._ "_Orestes,_" 463, _Dindorf._ See _Decharme_'_s_ "_Mythol.,_" etc., p. 654. *** The _Monad_ is impersonal and a god _per se,_ albeit unconscious on this plane. For, divorced from its third (often called fifth) principle, Manas, which is the horizontal line of the first manifested triangle or trinity, it can have no consciousness or perception of things on this earthly plane. "The highest sees through the eye of the lowest" in the manifested world; _Purusha_ (Spirit) remains blind without the help of Prakrit (matter) in the material spheres; and so does Atma-Buddhi without Manas. **** "_Morals,_" _p._ 484 _f._ ***** This strange idea and interpretation are accepted by Decharme in his "_Mythologie de la Grece Antique._" "Castor and Pollux," he says, "are nothing but the Sun and **[[Vol. 2, Page]] 124 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.** If from Greek mythology we pass to the Mosaic allegories and symbolism, we shall find a still more striking corroboration of the same tenet under another form. Unable to trace in _Genesis_ the "Egg-born," we shall still find there unmistakably the androgynes, and the first three races of the Secret Doctrine hidden under most ingenious symbology in the first four chapters of _Genesis._ ------- **T**HE **D**IVINE **H**ERMAPHRODITE. An impenetrable veil of secrecy was thrown over the occult and religious mysteries taught, after the submersion of the last remnant of the Atlantean race, some 12,000 years ago, lest they should be shared by the unworthy, and so desecrated. Of these sciences several have now become exoteric -- such as Astronomy, for instance, in its purely mathematical and physical aspect. Hence their dogmas and tenets, being all symbolised and left to the sole guardianship of parable and allegory, have been forgotten, and their meaning has become perverted. Nevertheless, one finds the hermaphrodite in the scriptures and traditions of almost every nation; and why such unanimous agreement if the statement is only a fiction? It is this secrecy which led the Fifth Race to the establishment, or rather the re-establishment of the religious mysteries, in which ancient truths might be taught to the coming generations under the veil of allegory and symbolism. Behold the imperishable witness to the evolution of the human races from the divine, and especially from the androgynous Race -- the Egyptian Sphinx, that riddle of the Ages! Divine wisdom incarnating on earth, and forced to taste of the bitter fruit of personal experience of pain and suffering, generated under the shade of the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil -- a secret first known only to the Elohim, the SELF-INITIATED, "_higher gods_" _--_ on earth only.* [[Footnote continued]]------------------------------- In the Book of Enoch we have Adam,** the first divine androgyne, Moon, conceived as twins . . . The Sun, the immortal and powerful being that disappears every evening from the horizon and descends under the Earth, as though he would make room for the fraternal orb which comes to life with night, is Pollux, who sacrifices himself for Castor; Castor, who, inferior to his brother, owes to him his immortality: for the Moon, says Theophrastus, is only another, but feebler Sun." (_De Ventis_ 17. _See Decharme,_ p. 655.) **[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------** * See "_Book of Enoch._" ** Adam (Kadmon) is, like Brahma and Mars, the symbol of the _generative_ and _creative power_ typifying Water and Earth -- an alchemical secret. "It takes Earth and Water to create a human soul," said Moses. Mars is the Hindu Mangala, the planet Mars, identical with _Kartikeya,_ the "War-God," born of _Gharma-ja_ (Siva's _sweat_) and of the [[Footnote continued on next page]] **[[Vol. 2, Page]] 125 JAH-HOVAH ANDROGYNOUS.** separating into man and woman, and becoming **J**AH-**H**EVA in one form, or _Race,_ and Cain and Abel* (male and female) in its other form or _Race --_ the double-sexed Jehovah** -- an echo of its Aryan prototype, Brahma-Vach. After which come the Third and Fourth Root-Races of mankind*** -- that is to say, Races of men and women, or individuals of opposite sexes, no longer sexless semi-spirits and androgynes, as were the two Races which precede them. This fact is hinted at in every Anthropogony. It is found in fable and allegory, in myth and _revealed_ Scriptures, in legend and tradition. Because, of all the great Mysteries, inherited by Initiates from hoary antiquity, this is _one of the greatest._ It accounts for the bi-sexual element found in every creative deity, in Brahma-Viraj-Vach, as in Adam-Jehovah-Eve, also in "Cain-Jehovah-Abel." For "The Book of the Generations of Adam" does not even mention Cain and Abel, but says only: "Male and female created he them. . . and called their name Adam" (ch. v. 5). Then it proceeds to say: "And Adam begat a son in _his own likeness,_ after his image, and called his name Seth" (v. 3); after which he begets other sons and daughters, thus proving that Cain and Abel are his own allegorical permutations. Adam stands for the primitive _human_ race, especially in its cosmo-sidereal sense. Not so, however, in its theo-anthropological meaning. The compound name of Jehovah, or _Jah-Hovah,_ meaning _male life_ and female life -- first androgynous, then separated into sexes -- is used in this sense in _Genesis_ from ch. v. onwards. As the author of "The Source of Measures" says (_p._ 159): "The two words of which Jehovah is composed make up the original idea of male-female, as the birth originators"; for the Hebrew letter _Jod_ was the _membrum virile_ and _Hovah_ was Eve, the mother of all living, or the procreatrix, Earth and Nature. The author believes, therefore, that "It is seen that the _perfect one_" (the perfect female circle or _Yoni,_ 20612_, numerically_)_,_ "as _originator of measures,_ takes also the form of _birth_-origin, as _Hermaphrodite one_; hence the phallic form and use." Precisely; only "the phallic form and use" came long ages later; and the first and original meaning of Enos, the son of Seth, was the First _Race_ born in the present usual way from man and woman --for Seth is no man, but a _race._ Before him humanity was hermaphrodite. **[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------** [[Footnote continued from previous page]] Earth. He is _Lokita,_ the red, like Brahma also and Adam. The Hindu Mars is, like Adam, born from no woman and mother. With the Egyptians, Mars was the _primeval generative Principle,_ and so are Brahma, in exoteric teaching, and Adam, in the Kabala. * Abel is Chebel, meaning "Pains of Birth," conception. ** See "_Isis Unveiled_," Vol. II, p. 398, where Jehovah is shown to be Adam and Eve blended, and Hevah, and Abel, the _feminine serpent._ *** _See_ "_Isis Unveiled,_" Vol. I., 305: "The union of the two create a _third_ Race, etc." **[[Vol. 2, Page]] 126 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.** While Seth is the first result (physiologically) after the FALL, he is also the _first man_; hence his son Enos is referred to as the "Son of man." (_Vide infra._) Seth represents the _later_ Third Race. To screen the real mystery name of AIN-SOPH -- the Boundless and Endless _No-Thing --_ the Kabalists have brought forward the compound _attribute-_appellation of one of the personal creative Elohim, whose name was _Yak_ and _Jab,_ the letters _i_ or _j_ or _y_ being interchangeable, or _Jah-Hovah, i.e. male_ and _female_;_* Jah-Eve_ an _hermaphrodite,_ or the _first form of humanity,_ the original Adam of Earth, not even _Adam Kadmon,_ whose " mind-born son" is the earthly Jah-Hovah, mystically. And knowing this, the crafty Rabbin-Kabalist has made of it a name so secret, that he could not divulge it later on without exposing the whole scheme; and thus he was obliged to make it _sacred._ How close is the identity between Brahma-Prajapati and Jehovah-Sephiroth, between Brahma-Viraj and Jehovah-Adam, the Bible and the Puranas compared can alone show. Analysed and read in the same light, they afford cogent evidence that they are two copies of the same original -- made at two periods far distant from each other. Compare once more in relation to this subject _Genesis_ ch. 4. verses 1 and 26 and _Manu_ I., and they will both yield their meaning. In _Manu_ (_Book_ I. 32) Brahma, who is also both man and god, and divides his body into male and female, stands in his esoteric meaning, as does Jehovah or Adam in the Bible, for the symbolical personification of creative and _generative_ power, both divine and human. The Zohar affords still more convincing proof of identity, while some Rabbins repeat word for word certain original Puranic expressions; _e.g._, the "creation" of the world is generally considered in the Brahmanical books to be the Lila, delight or sport, the amusement of the Supreme Creator, "Vishnu being thus discrete and indiscrete substance, spirit, and time, sports like a playful boy in frolics." (Vishnu Purana, Book I., ch. ii.) Now compare this with what is said in the Book, "Nobeleth' Hokhmah": "The Kabalists say that the entering into existence of the worlds happens through _delight_, in that Ain-Soph (? !) _rejoiced_ in Itself, and flashed and beamed from Itself to Itself . . . . which are all called delight," etc. (Quoted in _Myer_'_s_ "_Qabbalah,_" p_._ 110). Thus it is not a "curious idea of the Qabbalists," as the author just quoted remarks, but a purely Puranic, Aryan idea. Only, why make of Ain-Soph a Creator? The "Divine Hermaphrodite" is then Brahma-Vach-Viraj; and that of the Semites, or rather of the Jews, is Jehovah-Cain-Abel. Only the "Heathen" were, and are, more sincere and frank than were the **[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------** * _Jod_ in the Kabala has for symbol the hand, the forefinger and the _lingham,_ while numerically it is the perfect one; but it is also the number 10, male and female, when divided. **[[Vol. 2, Page]] 127 SETH OUR PROGENITOR.** later Israelites and Rabbis, who undeniably knew the real meaning of their exoteric deity. The Jews regard the name given to them -- the Yah-oudi -- as an insult. Yet they have, or would have if they only wished it, as undeniable a right to call themselves the ancient Yah-oudi, "Jah-hovians," as the Brahmins have to call themselves Brahmins, _after their national deity._ For Jah-hovah is the generic name of that group or hierarchy of creative planetary angels, under whose star their nation has evolved. He is one of the planetary _Elohim_ of the regent group of Saturn. Verse 26 of _Genesis,_ ch. iv., when read correctly, would alone give them such a right, for it calls the new race of men sprung from _Seth_ and Enos, _Jehovah,_ something quite different from the translation adopted in the Bible: -- "To him also, was born a son, Enos; then began men to call themselves Jah or Yah-hovah," to with _men and women,_ the "lords of creation." One has but to read the above-mentioned verse in the original Hebrew text and by the light of the Kabala, to find that, instead of the words as they now stand translated, it is: -- "Then began men to _call themselves Jehovah,_" which is the correct translation, and not "Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord"; the latter being a mistranslation, whether deliberate or not. Again the well-known passage: "I have gotten a man from the Lord," should read: "I have gotten a man, even Jehovah."* Luther translated the passage one way, the Roman Catholics quite differently. Bishop Wordsworth renders it: "Cain -- _I have gotten_ Kain, from _Kanithi,_ I have gotten." Luther: "I have gotten a man 0-- even the Lord" (Jehovah); and the author of "The Source of Measures": "I have _measured a man,_ even _Jehovah_." The last is the correct rendering, because (_a_) a famous Rabbin, a Kabalist, explained the passage to the writer in precisely this way, and (_b_) because this rendering is identical with that in the Secret Doctrine of the East with regard to Brahma. In "_Isis Unveiled,_"_**_ it was explained by the writer that "Cain . . . is the son of the 'Lord' not of Adam (_Genesis_ iv_._ I)" The "Lord" is Adam Kadmon, the "father" of _Yodcheva,_ "Adam-Eve," or Jehovah, the son of sinful thought, not the progeny of flesh and blood. Seth, on the other hand, is the _leader and the progenitor of the Races of the Earth_; for he is the son of Adam, exoterically, but esoterically he is the progeny of Cain and Abel, since Abel or Hebel is a female, the counterpart and female half of the male Cain, and Adam is the collective name for man and woman: "male and female (_Zachar va Nakobeh_) created he them . . . and called _their_ name Adam." The verses in _Genesis_ from chs. i. to v., are purposely mixed up for Kabalistic reasons. After MAN of **[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------** * _See_ "_Source of Measures_," p. 227. ** Vol. II., p. 264, _et seq._ **[[Vol. 2, Page]] 128 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.** _Genesis_ ch. i. 26 and _Enos,_ Son of Man of ch. iv. _v._ 26, after Adam, the first androgyne, after Adam Kadmon, the sexless (the first) _Logos,_ Adam and Eve once separated, come finally Jehovah-Eve and Cain-Jehovah. These represent distinct Root-Races, for millions of years elapsed between them. Hence the Aryan and the Semitic Theo-anthropographies are two leaves on the same stem; their respective personifications and symbolic personages standing in relation to each other in this way. I. The _Unknowable,_ referred to in various ways in _Rig Vedic_ verse, such as "_Nought_ Was," called, later on "Parabrahm;" the /Attachments/httpwwwsacred-textscomthesdsd1-353bgif.gif>)(_Ain,_ nothing, or the "Ain-Soph" of the Kabalists), and again, the "Spirit" (of God) that moves upon the face of the waters, in _Genesis._ All these are _identical._ Moreover, in _Genesis,_ ch. i., v. 2, is placed as verse 1 in _the secret_ Kabalistic texts, where it is followed by the _Elohim_ "creating the Heaven and the Earth." This deliberate shifting of the order of the verses was necessary for _monotheistic_ and Kabalistic purposes. Jeremiah's curse against those Elohim (gods) who _have not created_ the Heavens and the Earth, ch. x., _v._ 11, shows that there were other Elohim who had. II. The "Heavenly" _Manu-Swayambhuva,_ who sprang from Swayambhu-Narayana, the "Self-existent," and Adam Kadmon of the Kabalists, and the androgyne MAN of _Genesis ch._ 1 are also identical. III. Manu-swayambhuva is Brahma, or the Logos; and he is Adam Kadmon, who in Genesis iv., 5, separates himself into two halves, male and female, thus becoming Jah-Hovah or Jehovah-Eve; as Manu Swayambhuva or Brahma separates himself to become "Brahma-Viraj and Vach-Viraj," male and female; all the rest of the texts and versions being _blinds._ IV. Vach is the daughter of Brahma and is named _Sata-Rupa,_ "the hundred-formed," and _Savitri,_ "_generatrix,_" the mother of the gods and of all living. She is identical with Eve, "the mother (of all the lords or gods or) of all living." Besides this there are many other occult meanings. What is written in "_Isis,_" although scattered about and very cautiously expressed at the time, is correct: Explaining esoterically Ezekiel's wheel,* it is said of _Jodhevah_ or Jehovah: - "When the ternary is taken in the beginning of the Tetragram, it expresses the divine creation _spiritually,_ without any carnal sin; taken at its opposite end it expresses the latter: it is feminine. The name of Eva is composed of three letters, that of the primitive or heavenly **[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------** * "_Isis Unveiled_," Vol. II., p. 462. **[[Vol. 2, Page]] 129 THE JEWISH GOD-NAME.** Adam, is written with one letter, Jod or Yodh; therefore it must not be read Jehovah but Ieva, or Eve. The Adam of the first chapter is the spiritual, therefore pure, androgyne Adam Kadmon. When woman issues from the rib of the second Adam (of dust), the pure _Virgo_ is separated, and falling "into generation," or the downward cycle, becomes _Scorpio,_ emblem of sin and matter. While the ascending cycle points to the purely spiritual races, or the ten prediluvian patriarchs, the Prajapatis and Sephiroth are led on by the creative Deity itself, who is Adam Kadmon or Yod-cheva. Spiritually, the lower one (Jehovah) is that of the terrestrial races, led on by Enoch or _Libra,_ the seventh; who, because he is half-divine, half-terrestrial, is said to have been taken by God alive. Enoch, Hermes, and Libra, are one." This is only one of the several meanings. No need to remind the scholar that _Scorpio_ is the astrological sign of the organs of reproduction. Like the Indian Rishis, the Patriarchs are all convertible in their numbers, as well as interchangeable. According to the subject to which they relate they become ten, twelve, seven or five, and even _fourteen,_ and they have the same esoteric meaning as the _Manus_ or Rishis. Moreover, Jehovah, as may be shown, has a variety of etymologies, but only those are true which are found in the Kabala. /Attachments/httpwwwsacred-textscomthesdsd1-355bgif.gif>)(_Ieve_) is the Old Testament term, and was pronounced Ya-_va_. Inman suggests that it is contracted from the two words /Attachments/httpwwwsacred-textscomthesdsd2-129agif.gif>)_Yaho-Iah, Jaho-Jah,_ or _Jaho is Jah._ Punctuated it is /Attachments/httpwwwsacred-textscomthesdsd2-129bgif.gif>)which is, however, a Rabbinical caprice to associate it with the name _Adoni_ or /Attachments/httpwwwsacred-textscomthesdsd2-129cgif.gif>), which has the same points. It is curious, and indeed hardly conceivable, that the Jews anciently read the name /Attachments/httpwwwsacred-textscomthesdsd2-129dgif.gif>)(_Adoni_)_,_ when they had so many names of which _Jeho_ and _Jah_ and Iah constituted a part. But so it was; and Philo Byblus, who gives us the so-called fragment of Sanchoniathon, spelt it in Greek letters [[_IEUO_]], _Javo_ or _Jevo._ Theodoret says that the Samaritans pronounced _Yahva,_ and the Jews _Yaho._ Prof_._ Gibbs, however, suggests its punctuation thus: /Attachments/httpwwwsacred-textscomthesdsd2-129egif.gif>)(_Ye-hou-vih_); and he cut the Gordian knot of its true occult meaning. For in this last form, as a Hebrew verb, it means "he will -- be."* It was also derived from the Chaldaic verb /Attachments/httpwwwsacred-textscomthesdsd2-129fgif.gif>)or /Attachments/httpwwwsacred-textscomthesdsd2-129ggif.gif>)_eue_ (_eva_) or _eua_ (_Eva_) "to be." And so it was, since from Enosh, the "Son of Man," only, were the truly human races to begin and "to be," as males and females. This statement receives further corroboration, inasmuch as Parkhurst makes the verb /Attachments/httpwwwsacred-textscomthesdsd2-129hgif.gif>)to mean: (1) "To **[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------** * See for comparison _Hosea,_ xii. 6, where it is so punctuated. **[[Vol. 2, Page]] 130 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.** fall down" (_i.e._ into generation or matter); and (2) "_To be, to continue_ " -- as a _Race._ The aspirate of the word _eua_ (_Eva_) "to be" being /Attachments/httpwwwsacred-textscomthesdsd2-130gif.gif>)_Heve_ (_Eve_)_,_ which is the feminine of /Attachments/httpwwwsacred-textscomthesdsd1-355bgif 1.gif>)and the same as Hebe, the Grecian goddess of youth and the Olympian bride of Heracles, makes the name Jehovah appear still more clearly in its primitive double-sexed form. Finding in Sanskrit such syllables as _Jah_ and _Yah, e.g., Jah_ (_navi_) "Ganges" and _Jagan-natha,_ "Lord of the World," it becomes clear why Mr. Rawlinson is so very confident in his works of an _Aryan_ or _Vedic_ influence on the early mythology of Babylon. Nor is it to be much wondered at that the alleged ten tribes of Israel disappeared during the captivity period, without leaving a trace behind them, when we are informed that the Jews had _de facto_ but two tribes -- those of J_udah_ and of _Levi._ The _Levies,_ moreover, were not a tribe at all, but a priestly caste. The descendants have only followed their progenitors, the various patriarchs, into thin, sidereal air. There were _Brahms_ and _A-brahms,_ in days of old, truly, and before the first Jew had been born. Every nation held its first god and gods to be androgynous; nor could it be otherwise, since they regarded their distant primeval progenitors, their dual-sexed ancestors, as divine Beings and Gods, just as do the Chinese to this day. And they were divine in one sense, as also were their first human progeny, the "mind-born" primitive humanity, which were most assuredly bi-sexuals as all the more ancient symbols and traditions show. Under the emblematical devices and peculiar phraseology of the priesthood of old, lie latent hints of sciences as yet undiscovered during the present cycle. Well acquainted as may be a scholar with the hieratic writing and hieroglyphical system of the Egyptians, he must first of all learn to sift their records. He has to assure himself, compasses and rule in hand, that the picture writing he is examining fits, to a line, _certain fixed geometrical figures_ which are the hidden keys to such records, before he ventures on an interpretation." "But there are myths which speak for themselves. In this class we may include the double-sexed first creators of every Cosmogony. The Greek Zeus-Zen (AEther), and Chthonia (the chaotic earth) and Metis (water), his wives; Osiris and Isis-Latona -- the former god also representing AEther, the first emanation of the Supreme Deity, Amun, the primeval source of Light; the goddess Earth and Water again; Mithras, the rock-born god, the symbol of the male mundane fire, or the personified primordial light, and Mithra, the fire goddess, at once his mother and his wife; the pure element of fire (the active, or male principle) regarded as light and heat, in conjunction with Earth and Water, or Matter, the female or passive element of cosmical generation" -- all these are records of the primeval divine Hermaphrodite. [Next Section](http://www.sacred-texts.com/the/sd/sd2-1-07.htm) [Contents](http://www.sacred-texts.com/the/sd/sd2-0-co.htm#contents)