And though it is not yet fully determined whether poisons can be generated by the animal system of living beings without the participation and interference of microbes, it is ascertained that the animal does produce venomous substances in its physiological or living state.
** It might be supposed that these "fiery lives" and the microbes of science are identical.
This is not true.
The "fiery lives" are the seventh and highest subdivision of the plane of matter, and correspond in the individual with the One Life of the Universe, though only on that plane.
The microbes of science are the first and lowest sub-division on the second plane -- that of material prana (or life).
The physical body of man undergoes a complete change of structure every seven years, and its destruction and preservation are due to the alternate function of the fiery lives as "destroyers" and "builders." They are "builders" by sacrificing themselves in the form of vitality to restrain the destructive influence of the microbes, and, by supplying the microbes with what is necessary, they compel them under that restraint to build up the material body and its cells.
They are "destroyers" also when that restraint is [[Footnote continued on next page]] [[Vol.
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experimenters as Pasteur are the best friends and helpers of the Destroyers and the worst enemies of the Creators -- if the latter were not at the same time destroyers too.
However it may be, one thing is sure in this: The knowledge of these primary causes and of the ultimate essence of every element, of its lives, their functions, properties, and conditions of change -- constitutes the basis of MAGIC.
Paracelsus was, perhaps, the only Occultist in Europe, during the last centuries since the Christian era, who was versed in this mystery.
Had not a criminal hand put an end to his life, years before the time allotted him by Nature, physiological Magic would have fewer secrets for the civilized world than it now has.
( d ) But what has the Moon to do in all this?
we may be asked.
What have "Fish, Sin and Moon" in the apocalyptic saying of the Stanza to do in company with the "Life-microbes"?
With the latter nothing, except availing themselves of the tabernacle of clay prepared by them; with divine perfect man everything, since "Fish, Sin and Moon" make conjointly the three symbols of the immortal Being.
This is all that can be given.
Nor does the writer pretend to know more of this strange symbol than may be inferred about it from exoteric religions; from the mystery perhaps, which underlies the Matsya (fish) [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- [[Footnote continued from previous page]] removed and the microbes, unsupplied with vital constructive energy, are left to run riot as destructive agents .
Thus, during the first half of a man's life (the first five periods of seven years each) the "fiery lives" are indirectly engaged in the process of building up man's material body; life is on the ascending scale, and the force is used in construction and increase.
After this period is passed the age of retrogression commences, and, the work of the "fiery lives" exhausting their strength, the work of destruction and decrease also commences.
An analogy between cosmic events in the descent of spirit into matter for the first half of a manvantara (planetary as human) and its ascent at the expense of matter in the second half, may here be traced.
These considerations have to do solely with the plane of matter, but the restraining influence of the "fiery lives" on the lowest sub-division of the second plane -- the microbes -- is confirmed by the fact mentioned in the foot-note on Pasteur ( vide supra ) that the cells of the organs, when they do not find sufficient oxygen for themselves, adapt themselves to that condition and form ferments , which, by absorbing oxygen from substances coming in contact with them, ruin the latter.
Thus the process is commenced by one cell robbing its neighbour of the source of its vitality when the supply is insufficient; and the ruin so commenced steadily progresses.
[[Vol.
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Avatar of Vishnu, the Chaldean Oannes -- the Man-Fish, recorded in the imperishable sign of the Zodiac, Pisces , and running throughout the two Testaments in the personages of Joshua "Son of the Fish (Nun)" and Jesus; the allegorical "Sin" or Fall of Spirit into matter, and the Moon -- in so far as it relates to the "Lunar" ancestors, the Pitris.
For the present it may be as well to remind the reader that while the Moon-goddesses were connected in every mythology, especially the Grecian, with child-birth, because of the lunar influence on women and conception, the occult and actual connection of our satellite with fecundation is to this day unknown to physiology, which regards every popular practice in this reference as gross superstition.
As it is useless to discuss them in detail, we may only stop at present to discuss the lunar symbology casually, to show that the said superstition belongs to the most ancient beliefs, and even to Judaism -- the basis of Christianity.
With the Israelites, the chief function of Jehovah was child-giving, and the esotericism of the Bible, interpreted Kabalistically, shows undeniably the Holy of Holies in the temple to be only the symbol of the womb.
This is now proven beyond doubt and cavil, by the numerical reading of the Bible in general, and of Genesis especially.
This idea must certainly have been borrowed by the Jews from the Egyptians and Indians, whose Holy of Holies was, and with the latter is to this day, symbolised by the King's chamber in the Great Pyramid (see " Source of Measures ") and the Yoni symbols of exoteric Hinduism.
To make the whole clearer and to show at the same time the enormous difference in the spirit of interpretation and the original meaning of the same symbols between the ancient Eastern Occultists and the Jewish Kabalists we refer the reader to Book II., "The Holy of Holies."* ------- STANZA VII.
-- Continued.
6.
F ROM THE FIRST-BORN ( primitive , or the first man ) THE THREAD BETWEEN THE SILENT WATCHER AND HIS SHADOW BECOMES MORE [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * Phallic worship has developed only with the loss of the keys to the true meaning of the symbols.
It was the last and most fatal turning point from the highway of truth and divine knowledge into the side path of fiction, raised into dogma through human falsification and hierarchic ambition.
[[Vol.
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STRONG AND RADIANT WITH EVERY CHANGE ( re - incarnation ) ( a ) .
T HE MORNING SUN-LIGHT HAS CHANGED INTO NOON-DAY GLORY .
.
.
.
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 explicitly draws an analogy between cosmic manvantara cycles and the human body's seven-year cycles of building and destruction, mapping the same structure at different scales.
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 'One Life of the Universe' is described as corresponding with the fiery lives within the physical body, implying the divine pervades all of creation including the material plane.
Naturally-existing, non-human intelligences native to a single element — earth, air, fire, or water — rather than the fourfold-composite human nature: Paracelsus's gnomes, sylphs, salamanders, and undines; the Deva Kingdom or fairy kingdom of Western occultism, forming their own parallel kingdom capable of incarnating in or forming relationships with humans. Distinct from artificial_elemental (a manufactured thought-entity deliberately created by a single operator, not a naturally-occurring species) and animism (the general doctrine that nature-places host indwelling spirits, of which this is one specific taxonomic system organised around the four elements rather than locality).
The 'fiery lives' function as naturally-existing fire-associated intelligences operating on the physical body, analogous to Paracelsian salamanders, though framed as a subdivision of the material plane rather than a distinct elemental kingdom.
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 describes a structured hierarchy of planes (seventh subdivision of matter, second plane of material prana) with the 'One Life of the Universe' at the top corresponding to the fiery lives.
Esoteric teachings reserved for those ready to receive them; outer meaning conceals an inner liberating truth.
The passage presents itself as an esoteric interpretation of the 'apocalyptic saying of the Stanza,' revealing hidden symbolic meanings (Fish, Sin, Moon) beneath an outer surface.
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 'fiery lives' are described as non-physical entities that actively build and destroy the physical body's cells, operating as an unseen dimension interpenetrating and affecting embodied life.
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 explicitly describes 'the descent of spirit into matter for the first half of a manvantara' and 'its ascent at the expense of matter in the second half,' naming the directional cosmic process of involution paired with its complementary evolution.
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 centrally asserts that the human body's cycle of construction and decay mirrors the cosmic descent and ascent of spirit through a manvantara, making the human the privileged mirror of cosmic structure.
The Hermetic doctrine of a measured swing or pendulum motion between poles — action and reaction, flow and outflow, rise and fall — operating in mental, physical, and cosmic-historical registers alike. Distinct from apocatastasis (cosmic-scale eschatological restoration after vast cycles) in naming a constant, ever-present oscillation rather than a singular restorative event.
The passage explicitly describes a measured pendulum motion: five periods of seven years of building followed by retrogression and destruction, with a parallel cosmic rhythm in the manvantara.