It is already the outline of the two "Supremes" -- God and Satan.
But in the Stanzas no such idea exists.
Most of the Western Christian Kabalists -- pre-eminently Eliphas Levi -- in their desire to reconcile the Occult Sciences with Church dogmas, did their best to make of the "Astral Light" only and preeminently the Pleroma of early Church Fathers, the abode of the Hosts of the Fallen Angels, of the "Archons" and "Powers." But the Astral Light, while only the lower aspect of the Absolute, is yet dual.
It is the Anima Mundi , and ought never to be viewed otherwise, except for Kabalistic purposes.
The difference which exists between its "light" and its "Living Fire" ought to be ever present in the mind of the Seer and the "Psychic." The higher aspect, without which only creatures of matter from that Astral Light can be produced, is this Living Fire, and it is the Seventh Principle.
It is said in "Isis Unveiled," in a complete description of it: -- "The Astral Light or Anima Mundi is dual and bisexual.
The (ideal) male part of it is purely divine and spiritual, it is the Wisdom , it is Spirit or Purusha; while the female portion (the Spiritus of the Nazarenes) is tainted, in one sense, with matter, is indeed matter, and therefore is evil already.
It is the life-principle of every living creature, and furnishes the astral soul, the fluidic perisprit , to men, animals, fowls of the air, and everything living.
Animals have only the latent germ of the highest immortal soul in them.
.
.
.
.
This latter will develop [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * Codex Nazaraeus , i, 135 .
** Ibid.
*** See the Cosmogony of Pherecydes.
[[Vol.
1, Page]] 197 ILDA-BAOTH-JEHOVAH.
only after a series of countless evolutions; the doctrine of which evolution is contained in the Kabalistic axiom: 'A stone becomes a plant; a plant, a beast; a beast, a man; a man, a spirit; and the spirit, a god.'" (Vol.
I., p.
301, note.) The seven principles of the Eastern Initiates had not been explained when "Isis" was written, but only the three Kabalistic Faces of the semi-exoteric Kabala.* But these contain the description of the mystic natures of the first group of Dhyan Chohans in the regimen ignis , the region and "rule (or government) of fire," which group is divided into three classes, synthesized by the first, which makes four or the "Tetraktis." ( See Comments on Stanza VII.
Book I.
) If one studies the Comments attentively he will find the same progression in the angelic natures, viz., from the passive down to the active , the last of these Beings being as near to the Ahamkara element (the region or plane wherein Egoship or the feeling of I-am-ness is beginning to be defined) as the first ones are near to the undifferentiated essence.
The former are Arupa, incorporeal; the latter, Rupa, corporeal.
In Volume II.
of Isis ( p.
183 et seq.
) the philosophical systems of the Gnostics and the primitive Jewish Christians, the Nazarenes and the Ebionites, are fully considered.
They show the views held in those days -- outside the circle of Mosaic Jews -- about Jehovah.
He was identified by all the Gnostics with the evil, rather than with the good principle.
For them, he was Ilda-Baoth , "the son of Darkness," whose mother, Sophia Achamoth, was the daughter of Sophia, the Divine Wisdom (the female Holy Ghost of the early Christians) -- Akasa;** while Sophia Achamoth personified the lower Astral Light or Ether.
Ilda-Baoth,*** or Jehovah, is simply one of the Elohim, the seven [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * They are found, however, in the Chaldean Book of Numbers.
** The astral light stands in the same relation to Akasa and Anima Mundi , as Satan stands to the Deity.
They are one and the same thing seen from two aspects: the spiritual and the psychic -- the super-ethereal or connecting link between matter and pure spirit, and the physical.
See for the difference between nous , the higher divine wisdom, and psyche , the lower and terrestrial ( St.
James iii.
v.
15-17).
Vide "Demon est Deus inversus," Part II.
of this volume.
*** Ilda-Baoth is a compound name made up of Ilda , , "a child," and Baoth; both from the egg, and Baoth , "chaos," emptiness, void, or desolation; or the child born in the egg of Chaos, like Brahma.
[[Vol.
1, Page]] 198 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
creative Spirits, and one of the lower Sephiroth.
He produces from himself seven other Gods, "Stellar Spirits" (or the lunar ancestors*), for they are all the same.** They are all in his own image (the "Spirits of the Face"), and the reflections one of the other, and have become darker and more material as they successively receded from their originator.
They also inhabit seven regions disposed like a ladder, as its rungs slope up and down the scale of spirit and matter.*** With Pagans and Christians, with Hindus and Chaldeans, with the Greek as with the Roman Catholics -- with a slight variation of the texts in their interpretations -- they all were the Genii of the seven planets, as of the seven planetary spheres of our septenary chain, of which Earth is the lowest.
(See Isis , Vol.
II.
p.
186.) This connects the "Stellar" and "Lunar" Spirits with the higher planetary Angels and the Saptarishis (the seven Rishis of the Stars) of the Hindus -- as subordinate Angels (Messengers) to these "Rishis," the emanations, on the descending scale, of the former.
Such, in the opinion of the philosophical Gnostics, were the God and the Archangels now worshipped by the Christians!
The "Fallen Angels" and the legend of the "War in Heaven" is thus purely pagan in its origin and comes from India via Persia and Chaldea.
The only reference to it in the Christian canon is found in Revelations xii., as quoted a few pages back.
Divine archetypal beings or eternal attributes dwelling within the Pleroma, often arranged in male-female syzygies.
The seven creative Spirits, the Dhyan Chohans in the regimen ignis, and the male-female syzygy of the Astral Light (Purusha/Spirit and Spiritus) function as aeon-like archetypal beings arranged in pairs.
Malevolent planetary rulers or demiurgic powers that govern the material world and obstruct the soul's ascent.
The 'Archons' and 'Powers' are explicitly named, and the seven creative Spirits are identified as planetary rulers governing the seven spheres of the septenary chain.
The universal fluid or medium of occult philosophy — Lévi's Great Magical Agent — that transmits will, thought, and magical influence between minds and matter, and preserves the impress of all forms and actions as a book of consciences; cognate with akasha and the anima mundi. Distinct from cosmic_sympathy (a doctrine of hidden affinity) in being a substantival medium that can be charged, directed, and abused.
The Astral Light is the central subject: its dual/bisexual nature, its relation to the Absolute, its male (divine/spiritual) and female (material/evil) aspects, its identification with Anima Mundi, and its distinction from the Living Fire are all elaborated at length.
The Hermetic axiom that the structure of the cosmos is reflected at every scale — 'as above, so below; as within, so without' — making each level a legible map of the others.
The passage maps the same sevenfold structure across Pagans, Christians, Hindus, Chaldeans, Greeks, and Roman Catholics, showing the cosmos reflected at every scale and tradition.
A secondary creator deity—often ignorant or malevolent—responsible for fashioning the material world, distinct from the supreme transcendent God.
Jehovah/Ilda-Baoth is explicitly identified by the Gnostics as 'the son of Darkness,' a secondary creator distinct from the supreme principle, who produces the material world and is 'rather than with the good principle.'
The doctrine that the divine is present within all things and the universe itself, pervading creation rather than remaining solely transcendent above it. Distinct from unity_of_being (the general claim that all existence is one substance, agnostic about whether that substance indwells its parts) and from kingdom_within (the divine present specifically IN THE INDIVIDUAL human, accessible without mediation) — divine_immanence is the general pervading-presence claim applied to all of creation, not a human-specific indwelling.
The Astral Light as Anima Mundi is described as 'the life-principle of every living creature' that 'furnishes the astral soul... to men, animals, fowls of the air, and everything living,' indicating the divine pervading all creation.
A chain of divine beings or principles flowing downward from a single transcendent source (the One or the Father), each level less perfect than the one above.
The passage centrally describes a cascade from the undifferentiated essence through seven regions (ladder) of angelic natures from passive to active, Arupa to Rupa, and the Kabalistic axiom of evolution from stone to god.
The Gnostic myth of Wisdom's prolapse from the Pleroma — her unilateral desire or error producing the Demiurge and the entrapment of divine sparks in matter.
Sophia Achamoth is described as 'the daughter of Sophia, the Divine Wisdom' who 'personified the lower Astral Light or Ether,' directly enacting the Gnostic myth of Wisdom's prolapse producing the demiurgic realm.
The Hermetic doctrine that a masculine-feminine generative principle operates on every plane of being, not only the biological — present at all times as a structural feature of creation itself. Distinct from divine_marriage (a specific reunification event or symbol) and aeons (paired divine beings arranged in syzygies, not a universal structural claim).
The masculine-feminine generative principle is explicitly stated as operating on the Astral Light: 'the (ideal) male part... is purely divine and spiritual... while the female portion... is tainted with matter.'
A non-physical dimension of reality, interpenetrating the physical world, populated by forces, beings, and forms ordinarily imperceptible to physical senses and instruments, that can affect embodied life without being seen — Dion Fortune's 'mind-side of nature,' the astral plane of Western esotericism broadly construed. Distinct from astral_light (a specific transmitting medium or fluid operating within this realm, not the realm itself), pleroma (the divine fullness at the summit of a cosmic hierarchy, not a parallel plane coextensive with ordinary life), and animism (particular indwelling spirits bound to specific natural objects, not the general unseen dimension itself).
The Astral Light as Anima Mundi is described as a non-physical dimension populated by angelic beings, fluidic perisprits, and life-principles that interpenetrate the physical world.
The doctrine that the cosmos unfolds as a structured descent of spirit into matter — a directional process traced stage by stage from an unconditioned principle down through successive planes to full materialization — complemented by its own eventual return ('evolution'). Distinct from emanation_hierarchy (the static structure of the resulting levels of the cascade) and cosmogony (a single originating event rather than an ongoing staged process) in naming the directional cosmic PROCESS of descent itself, paired with its own complementary ascent.
The passage describes a structured descent 'on the descending scale' from the undifferentiated essence through angelic natures to corporeal Rupa, paired with the evolutionary axiom (stone → plant → beast → man → spirit → god) as the complementary ascent.
The human being as a small-scale image of the entire cosmos; the body, soul, and intellect mirroring the structure of the heavens and the divine — distinct from correspondence in that it makes the human the privileged mirror.
The Kabalistic axiom (stone → plant → beast → man → spirit → god) positions the human as a node in the cosmic scale, and the Astral Light furnishes the astral soul to 'men, animals, fowls of the air, and everything living.'
The Hermetic doctrine that apparent opposites are identical in nature but differ in degree — two extremes of the same scale (hot/cold, love/hate) — such that one pole can be shifted toward its opposite by a change of degree ('mental transmutation'). Distinct from opposites_transcended (a completion-state marking the path's end, not this doctrine's active technique) and magical_equilibrium (balance held BETWEEN two forces, not identity-by-degree of what looks like two forces).
The Astral Light is explicitly 'dual and bisexual' with a male (divine, spiritual, Wisdom) and female (material, evil) portion, expressing the Hermetic doctrine of opposites as two poles of the same reality.
The ten attributes or emanations through which the Ein Sof (Infinite) reveals itself and creates the universe in Kabbalistic theology.
The passage explicitly references 'the lower Sephiroth,' the Tetraktis, and the three Kabalistic Faces of the semi-exoteric Kabala as structural emanations.
The Kabalistic axiom of evolution through 'a series of countless evolutions' (stone → plant → beast → man → spirit → god) is a doctrine of transmigration across lives and forms.
Division of the human being into three principles: spirit (pneuma), soul (psyche), and body/matter (hyle or soma).
The passage distinguishes the 'highest immortal soul' (latent in animals), the 'astral soul' or 'fluidic perisprit,' and the material body, implying a tripartite structure.
A vertical structure connecting cosmic levels — a tree, pillar, mountain, or ladder linking heaven, earth, and underworld around which the cosmos is organised. Yggdrasil binding the Nine Worlds in Norse cosmology, the Kalevala's Sampo as world-pillar, the Mayan ceiba, the Vedic Aśvattha, the shamanic central tree of Eliade's analyses. Cosmic-structural in character: distinct from sefirot_tree (a kabbalistic emanation diagram) and emanation_hierarchy (an ontological cascade); world_tree_axis is the cosmos's spine rather than the divine's outflow.
The seven regions 'disposed like a ladder, as its rungs slope up and down the scale of spirit and matter' constitute a vertical axis connecting cosmic levels.