These "Father and Son" were interchangeable in their functions and worked harmoniously together in their effects upon terrestrial nature and humanity; hence they were regarded as ONE, though TWO in personified Entities.
They were both males, and both had their distinct and also collaborative work in the causative generation of Humanity.
So much from the astronomical and cosmic standpoints viewed and expressed in symbolical language -- which became in our last races theological and dogmatic.
But behind this veil of Cosmic and Astrological symbols, there were the Occult mysteries of Anthropography and the primeval genesis of man.
And in this, no knowledge of symbols -- or even the key to the post-diluvian symbolical language of the Jews -- will, or can help, save only with reference to that which was laid down in national scriptures for exoteric uses; the sum of which, however cleverly veiled, was only the smallest portion of the real primitive history of each people, often relating, moreover, -- as in the Hebrew Scriptures -- merely to the terrestrial human, not divine life of that nation.
That psychic and spiritual element belonged to MYSTERY and INITIATION.
There were things never recorded in scrolls, but, as in Central Asia, on rocks and in subterranean crypts.
Nevertheless, there was a time when the whole world was "of one lip and of one knowledge," and Man knew more of his origin than he does now, and thus knew that the Sun and Moon, however large a part they do play in the constitution, growth and development of the human body, were not the direct causative agents of his appearance on Earth; [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- [[Footnote continued from previous page]] conjunctions that regulate conceptions, and every astrologer in India knows it.
During the previous and the present races, at least at the beginning of this one, those who indulged in marital relations during certain lunar phases that made those relations sterile were regarded as sorcerers and sinners.
But even now those sins of old, based on the Occult knowledge and the abuse of it, would appear preferable to the crimes of to-day, which are perpetrated because of the complete ignorance of, and disbelief in all such occult influences.
[[Vol.
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these agents being, in truth, the living and intelligent Powers which the Occultists call Dhyan Chohans.
As to this, a very learned admirer of the Jewish Esotericism tells us that "the Kabala says expressly that Elohim is a ' general abstraction ' ; what we call in mathematics 'a constant co-efficient' or a 'general function' entering into all construction, not particular; that is, by the general ratio 1 to 31415, (the astro-Dhyanic and) Elohistic figures." To this the Eastern Occultist replies: Quite so, it is an abstraction to our physical senses.
To our spiritual perceptions, however, and to our inner spiritual eye, the Elohim or Dhyanis are no more an abstraction than our soul and spirit are to us.
Reject the one and you reject the other -- since that which is the surviving Entity in us is partly the direct emanation from, and partly those celestial Entities themselves.
One thing is sure; the Jews were perfectly acquainted with sorcery and various maleficent forces; but, with the exception of some of their great prophets and seers like Daniel and Ezekiel (Enoch belonging to a far distant race and not to any nation but to all, as a generic character), they knew little of, nor would they deal with, the real divine Occultism, their national character being averse to anything which had no direct bearing upon their own ethnical, tribal, and individual benefits -- witness their own prophets, and the curses thundered by them against the "stiff-necked race." But even the Kabala plainly shows the direct relation between the Sephiroth, or Elohim, and men.
Therefore, when it is proved to us that the Kabalistic identification of Jehovah with Binah, a female Sephiroth, has still another, a sub-occult meaning in it, then and then only the Occultist will be ready to pass the palm of perfection to the Kabalist.
Until then, it is asserted that, as Jehovah is in the abstract sense of a "one living God," a single number, a metaphysical figment, and a reality only when put in his proper place as an emanation and a Sephiroth -- we have a right to maintain that the Zohar (as witnessed by the B OOK OF N UMBERS, at any rate), gave out originally, before the Christian Kabalists had disfigured it, and still gives out the same doctrine that we do; i.e.
, it makes Man emanate, not from one Celestial M AN, but from a Septenary group of Celestial men or Angels, just as in "Pymander, the Thought Divine." [[Vol.
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-- Continued.
(3) W HEN THE ONE BECOMES TWO -- THE "THREE-FOLD" APPEARS ( a ).
T HE THREE ARE ( linked into ) ONE; AND IT IS OUR THREAD, O L ANOO, THE HEART OF THE MAN-PLANT, CALLED S APTAPARNA ( b ).
( a ) "When the ONE becomes two, the three-fold appears": to wit, when the One Eternal drops its reflection into the region of Manifestation, that reflection, "the Ray," differentiates the "Water of Space"; or, in the words of the "Book of the Dead"; "Chaos ceases, through the effulgence of the Ray of Primordial light dissipating total darkness by the help of the great magic power of the WORD of the (Central) Sun." Chaos becomes male-female, and Water, incubated through Light, and the "three-fold being issues as its First-born." "Osiris-Ptah (or RA) creates his own limbs (like Brahma) by creating the gods destined to personify his phases" during the Cycle (xvii., 4).
The Egyptian Ra, issuing from the DEEP, is the Divine Universal Soul in its manifested aspect, and so is Narayana, the Purusha, " concealed in Akasa and present in Ether.
" This is the metaphysical explanation, and refers to the very beginning of Evolution, or, as we should rather say, of Theogony.
The meaning of the Stanza when explained from another standpoint in its reference to the mystery of man and his origin, is still more difficult to comprehend.
Divine archetypal beings or eternal attributes dwelling within the Pleroma, often arranged in male-female syzygies.
The Dhyan Chohans are described as 'living and intelligent Powers' and a 'Septenary group of Celestial men or Angels' who serve as the direct causative agents of human appearance, functioning as divine archetypal beings.
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 astronomical and cosmic symbols onto terrestrial nature and humanity, showing how celestial structure is reflected in human constitution and origin.
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 explicitly narrates the beginning of Theogony: 'Chaos ceases, through the effulgence of the Ray of Primordial light dissipating total darkness' and 'the three-fold being issues as its First-born,' describing the origin of the cosmos.
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.
Narayana is described as 'concealed in Akasa and present in Ether,' and the Dhyanis are said to be partly 'the direct emanation from, and partly those celestial Entities themselves' within us.
The uncreated luminous quality of the divine, sometimes experienced directly in mystical states; illumination as revelation.
The 'Ray of Primordial light dissipating total darkness' and the 'effulgence of the Ray' describe the uncreated luminous quality of the divine as the creative and revelatory force.
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 the One becoming Two, the three-fold appearing, the One Eternal dropping its reflection into Manifestation, and Man emanating from a Septenary group of Celestial men (Dhyan Chohans).
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 passage describes 'Chaos becomes male-female' as a structural feature of cosmic generation, notes both Father and Son are male, and discusses Binah as a female Sephiroth, showing the masculine-feminine principle operating on the cosmic plane.
Salvation through direct experiential knowledge of the divine nature, not through faith, ritual, or moral works alone.
The passage contrasts exoteric scriptural knowledge with the 'psychic and spiritual element' that 'belonged to MYSTERY and INITIATION,' implying direct experiential knowledge reserved for initiates.
Esoteric teachings reserved for those ready to receive them; outer meaning conceals an inner liberating truth.
The passage explicitly distinguishes exoteric scriptural knowledge from esoteric 'MYSTERY and INITIATION,' noting that 'behind this veil of Cosmic and Astrological symbols' lie deeper truths never recorded in scrolls.
The ritual admission of an individual into esoteric knowledge or a sacred order through a formal rite of passage — testing, ordeal, or ceremony — marking a definite before/after threshold in the initiate's status and access. Distinct from hidden_sayings (the doctrine being concealed, not the rite of admission to it) and esoteric_lineage (the historical chain of transmission across generations, not a single individual's admission).
The passage states the psychic and spiritual element 'belonged to MYSTERY and INITIATION,' referencing the formal threshold of access to esoteric knowledge.
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 Dhyan Chohans are described as 'living and intelligent Powers' that are 'an abstraction to our physical senses' but real to 'spiritual perceptions,' constituting a non-physical dimension interpenetrating the physical.
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 One Eternal dropping its reflection into the region of Manifestation, the Ray differentiating the Water of Space, and Chaos becoming male-female describe the directional descent from unconditioned principle to manifestation.
The divine reason, word, or ordering principle through which the universe was created; mediates between the transcendent God and the material world.
The 'great magic power of the WORD of the (Central) Sun' that dissipates darkness and effects creation identifies the divine word as the ordering and creative principle.
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 passage states the Sun and Moon play a part in 'the constitution, growth and development of the human body' and identifies the 'Heart of the Man-Plant' (Saptaparna) as the link between cosmic and human.
The absolutely simple, undivided first principle from which all multiplicity and existence flows.
The 'One Eternal' that drops its reflection and 'When the ONE becomes two' identifies the absolutely simple, undivided first principle from which multiplicity flows.
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).
'Chaos becomes male-female' and the One becoming Two express the differentiation into complementary poles as a structural feature of creation.
The ten attributes or emanations through which the Ein Sof (Infinite) reveals itself and creates the universe in Kabbalistic theology.
The passage extensively discusses the Sephiroth, the Kabala, the Zohar, Binah as a female Sephiroth, and the identification of Jehovah with Binah, making the Sephirotic framework a central topic.
The doctrine that the one Godhead or first principle subsists as three co-equal aspects or persons rather than a bare unity — the Christian Father/Son/Holy Ghost invoked in the recurring liturgical formula 'In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost,' but structurally the same pattern as the Egyptian Amen/Ptah/Osiris, the Hindu Brahma/Vishnu/Siva, and the Kabbalistic Chochmah/Binah/Kether triads that esoteric writers explicitly map onto it as instances of one universal law. Distinct from unity_of_being (the general claim that all existence is one substance, agnostic about internal plurality) and divine_simplicity (God as having no parts or divisions at all) in asserting a definite three-aspected differentiation within a single divine essence.
The Stanza explicitly states 'When the ONE becomes two, the three-fold appears' and 'The three are (linked into) one,' describing a three-aspected differentiation within a single divine essence.
The doctrine that all existence is ultimately one substance or one divine reality; non-duality as a theological claim.
The Father and Son are 'regarded as ONE, though TWO in personified Entities' and 'The three are (linked into) one,' affirming ultimate oneness despite apparent multiplicity.
The doctrine and practice that spoken or sung word carries causal-magical force — that uttering names, formulas, songs, or incantations alters reality directly rather than merely communicating about it. Vainamoinen's runo-songs that move mountains and command iron, Norse galdr, Vedic mantra, Shinto kotodama, the magician's barbarous names in the Greek Magical Papyri, Iamblichean arcane signatures and inexplicable symbols, biblical creation-by-word. Distinct from sacred_names (the ontological power of names themselves) and prayer (address to the divine); word_power_incantation is the magical-causal efficacy of the spoken word as such.
The 'great magic power of the WORD of the (Central) Sun' that dissipates darkness and effects creation implies the causal-magical force of the spoken/uttered word.