The later Kabalists however, especially the Christian mystics, have played sad havoc with this magnificent symbol.* For the " ten limbs" of the Heavenly Man are the ten Sephiroth; but the first Heavenly Man is the unmanifested Spirit of the Universe, and ought never to be degraded into Microprosopus -- the lesser Face or Countenance, the prototype of man on the terrestrial plane.** Of this, however, later on.
The six-pointed Star refers to the six Forces or Powers of Nature, the six planes, principles, etc., etc., all synthesized by the seventh, or the central point in the Star.
All these, the upper and lower hierarchies included, emanate from the "Heavenly or Celestial Virgin,"*** the great mother in all religions, the Androgyne, the [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * Indeed, the Microprosopus -- who is, philosophically speaking, quite distinct from the unmanifested eternal Logos "one with the Father," -- has been finally brought, by centuries of incessant efforts, of sophistry and paradoxes, to be considered as one with Jehovah, or the ONE living God (!), whereas Jehovah is no better than Binah, a female Sephiroth.
This fact cannot be too frequently impressed upon the reader.
** The Microprosopus is, as just said, the Logos manifested, and of such there are many.
*** Sephira is the Crown, KETHER, in the abstract principle only, as a mathematical x (the unknown quantity).
On the plane of differentiated nature she is the female counterpart of Adam Kadmon -- the first Androgyne.
The Kabala teaches that the word " Fiat Lux " ( Genesis ch.
i.) referred to the formation and evolution of the Sephiroth, and not to light as opposed to darkness.
Rabbi Simeon says: "Oh com- [[Footnote continued on next page]] [[Vol.
1, Page]] 216 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
Sephira-Adam-Kadmon.
In its Unity , primordial light is the seventh, or highest, principle, Daivi-prakriti , the light of the unmanifested Logos.
But in its differentiation it becomes Fohat , or the "Seven Sons." The former is symbolised by the Central point in the double-Triangle; the latter by the hexagon itself, or the "six limbs" of the Microprosopus the Seventh being Malkuth, the "Bride" of the Christian Kabalists, or our Earth.
Hence the expressions: " The first after the ' One ' is divine Fire; the second , Fire and AEther; the third is composed of Fire , AEther and Water; the fourth of Fire , AEther , Water , and Air.
" * The One is not concerned with Man-bearing globes , but with the inner invisible Spheres.
" The ' First-Born ' are the L IFE, the heart and pulse of the Universe; the Second are its M IND or Consciousness ," ** as said in the Commentary.
( c ) The second Order of Celestial Beings, those of Fire and AEther (corresponding to Spirit and Soul, or the Atma-Buddhi) whose names are legion, are still formless, but more definitely "substantial." They are the first differentiation in the Secondary Evolution or "Creation" -- a misleading word.
As the name shows, they are the prototypes of the incarnating Jivas or Monads, and are composed of the Fiery Spirit of Life.
It is through these that passes, like a pure solar beam, the ray which is furnished by them with its future vehicle, the Divine Soul, Buddhi.
These are directly concerned with the Hosts of the higher world of our system.
From these twofold Units emanate the threefold.
In the cosmogony of Japan, when, out of the chaotic mass, an egglike nucleus appears, having within itself the germ and potency of all the universal as well as of all terrestrial life, it is the "three-fold" just named, which differentiates.
"The male aethereal" ( Yo ) principle [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- [[Footnote continued from previous page]] panions, companions, man as an emanation was both man and woman, Adam Kadmon verily, and this is the sense of the words 'Let there be Light, and it was Light.' And this is the two-fold man." ( Auszuge aus dem Zohar , pp.
13-15.) * See next footnote.
These elements of Fire, Air, etc., are not our compound elements.
** This "Consciousness" has no relation to our consciousness.
The consciousness of the "One manifested," if not absolute, is still unconditioned.
Mahat (the Universal Mind) is the first production of the Brahma-Creator, but also of the Pradhana (undifferentiated matter).
[[Vol.
1, Page]] 217 TEACHINGS CONTRASTED.
ascends and the female grosser or more material principle ( In ) is precipitated into the Universe of substance, when a separation occurs between the celestial and the terrestrial.
From this the female, the mother, the first rudimentary objective being is born.
It is ethereal, without form or sex, and yet it is from this and the mother that the Seven Divine Spirits are born, from whom will emanate the seven creations , just as in the Codex Nazaraeus from Karabtanos and the Mother Spiritus the seven evilly disposed (material) spirits are born.
It would be too long to give here the Japanese names, but once translated they stand in this order: -- (1.) The "Invisible Celibate," which is the creative logos of the noncreating "father," or the creative potentiality of the latter made manifest.
(2.) "The Spirit (or the God) of the rayless depths" (of Chaos); which becomes differentiated matter, or the world-stuff; also the mineral realm.
(3.) "The Spirit of the Vegetable Kingdom," of the "Abundant Vegetation." (4.) This one is of dual nature, being at the same time "The Spirit of the Earth" and "the Spirit of the Sands," the former containing the potentiality of the male element, the latter that of the female element, the two forming a combined nature.
These two were ONE; yet unconscious of being two.
In this duality were contained ( a ) the male, dark and muscular Being, Isu no gai no Kami; and ( b ) Eku gai no Kami , the female, fair and weaker or more delicate Being.
Then, the: -- (5th and 6th.) Spirits who were androgynous or dual-sexed, and, finally: -- (7.) The Seventh Spirit, the last emanated from the "mother," appears as the first divine human form distinctly male and female.
It was the seventh creation, as in the Puranas, wherein man is the seventh creation of Brahma.
Describing the divine only by negation—God transcends all positive categories and concepts; the via negativa.
The 'One' is described as beyond all planes and globes, the 'unmanifested' Spirit, and Kether as 'a mathematical x (the unknown quantity)' — all pointing to the divine as beyond positive categorization.
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 six limbs of the Microprosopus correspond to the six planes of Nature, and the Heavenly Man's ten limbs map onto the ten Sephiroth, embodying the 'as above, so below' principle.
Narratives or doctrines of cosmic origin — how heaven, earth, and the primordial deities first came into being. The Kojiki's deities born alone on the Plain of High Heaven, Voluspo's Ginnungagap, Genesis's tohu wa-bohu, the Timaeus's Demiurge fashioning the Receptacle, the Hesiodic Theogony, the Kalevala's egg-cosmogony, Egyptian Nun-and-Atum. Distinct from emanation_hierarchy (structural-ontological cascade), letters_of_creation (mechanism of creation), and apocatastasis/frashokereti (end-state restoration); cosmogony is temporally-narrative beginning.
The passage narrates cosmic origin in detail: the Fiat Lux as Sephirotic formation, the Japanese egg-cosmogony with the Yo/In separation, the birth of the Seven Divine Spirits, and the seven creations culminating in man as the seventh.
The supreme God's radical concealment beyond ordinary knowledge or perception; the Hidden Father.
The 'unmanifested Spirit of the Universe' and the 'One' that exists in 'inner invisible Spheres' apart from the manifested world express the supreme God's radical concealment.
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 divine is present within all levels of the emanation, from the unmanifested Spirit through the celestial beings down to the material, with the Logos pervading the differentiated order.
The uncreated luminous quality of the divine, sometimes experienced directly in mystical states; illumination as revelation.
Primordial light is identified as the seventh principle (Daivi-prakriti), 'the light of the unmanifested Logos,' and the 'Fiat Lux' is reinterpreted as the formation of the Sephiroth rather than physical light.
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 is structured entirely around a cascading emanation from the unmanifested Spirit through the Sephiroth, the Seven Sons, and down to the material world, using explicit 'emanate from' language.
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 Androgyne, Adam Kadmon as 'both man and woman,' the male and female principles (Yo/In), the androgynous 5th and 6th spirits, and the Seventh Spirit as 'distinctly male and female' make the masculine-feminine generative principle a structural feature at every plane.
The doctrine that the divine or a spiritual principle takes on a specific, bounded material or bodily form — descending from an unconditioned state into individual, corporeal existence — as a discrete act rather than a diffuse pervading presence. The Christian Word made flesh, the Hindu avatara, the Egyptian pharaoh as living Horus, the Vajrayana tulku. Distinct from divine_immanence (the general claim that the divine pervades all of creation diffusely, not a specific embodiment-event) and separation_from_source (the felt exile FROM origin, the opposite motion) in describing a specific, individuated descent INTO a particular body or form.
The Jivas or Monads are described as 'incarnating,' and the Logos 'manifested' (Microprosopus) represents a specific descent of the divine into a bounded form on the terrestrial plane.
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 statement that 'The One is not concerned with Man-bearing globes, but with the inner invisible Spheres' references a non-physical dimension of reality.
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 traces a staged descent from the unmanifested Spirit through differentiation (primordial light becoming Fohat, the Seven Sons, the celestial beings, down to the material), naming this 'the first differentiation in the Secondary Evolution.'
The divine reason, word, or ordering principle through which the universe was created; mediates between the transcendent God and the material world.
The passage repeatedly invokes the Logos: the 'unmanifested eternal Logos one with the Father,' the 'Logos manifested,' and the 'creative logos of the noncreating father' as the ordering principle mediating between the transcendent One and the manifested world.
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 Heavenly Man whose 'ten limbs' are the ten Sephiroth, and the Microprosopus as 'the prototype of man on the terrestrial plane' with six limbs corresponding to the six cosmic planes, make the human the privileged mirror of the cosmos.
Numbers, proportions, and mathematical relationships as the underlying structure of divine reality.
The entire structure is organized around numbers: the ten Sephiroth, the six Forces, the seventh as synthesizer, the Seven Sons, the threefold, the seven creations, and the specific ordering of the Japanese spirits.
The dissolution of binary oppositions (male/female, inner/outer, above/below) as a mark of spiritual completion.
The Androgyne and Adam Kadmon as the undivided unity before the male/female separation, and the statement that the two were 'ONE; yet unconscious of being two,' point to a pre-dual wholeness.
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 male (Yo) and female (In) principles, the androgynous dual-sexed spirits, and the statement that 'these two were ONE; yet unconscious of being two' express the identity-in-difference of polar opposites.
The diagrammatic arrangement of the ten Sephirot as a structured 'Tree of Life' mapping divine and cosmic forces.
The hierarchical arrangement of the ten Sephiroth, the six-pointed star with its central point, and the vertical ordering from Kether through the six limbs to Malkuth map the Tree of Life structure.
The ten attributes or emanations through which the Ein Sof (Infinite) reveals itself and creates the universe in Kabbalistic theology.
The ten Sephiroth are the central structural framework of the passage, with explicit references to Kether, Binah, Malkuth, the six limbs, and the 'formation and evolution of the Sephiroth' as the true meaning of Fiat Lux.
The doctrine that all existence is ultimately one substance or one divine reality; non-duality as a theological claim.
The passage repeatedly emphasizes that the differentiated multiplicity (Seven Sons, six planes, male/female) is one unified source: 'these two were ONE,' the Androgyne as the first undivided being, and the central point synthesizing all six.