The 'Ideal Forms' are the archetypal or formative ideas of the Neo-Platonists; the eternal and subjective concepts of things subsisting in the divine mind prior to 'becoming'" (p.
134).
[[Vol.
1, Page]] 282 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
from which all things proceed, while the author of the "Philosophy of the Unconscious" has come (in this respect only) as near to a solution of the great Mystery as mortal man can.
Few were those, whether in ancient or mediaeval philosophy, who have dared to approach the subject or even hint at it.
Paracelsus mentions it inferentially.
His ideas are admirably synthesized by Dr.
F.
Hartmann, F.T.S., in his "Life of Paracelsus." All the Christian Kabalists understood well the Eastern root idea: The active Power, the "Perpetual motion of the great Breath" only awakens Kosmos at the dawn of every new Period, setting it into motion by means of the two contrary Forces,* and thus causing it to become objective on the plane of Illusion.
In other words, that dual motion transfers Kosmos from the plane of the Eternal Ideal into that of finite manifestation, or from the Noumenal to the Phenomenal plane.
Everything that is, was, and will be , eternally IS, even the countless forms, which are finite and perishable only in their objective, not in their ideal Form.
They existed as Ideas, in the Eternity,** and, when they pass away, will exist as reflections.
Neither the form of man, nor that of any animal, plant or stone has ever been created, and it is only on this plane of ours that it commenced "becoming," i.e., objectivising into its present materiality, or expanding from within outwards, from the most sublimated and supersensuous essence into its grossest appearance.
Therefore our human forms have existed in the Eternity as astral or ethereal prototypes; according to which models, the Spiritual Beings (or Gods) whose duty it was to bring them into objective being and terrestrial Life, evolved the protoplasmic forms of the future Egos from their own essence.
After which, when this human Upadhi, or basic mould was ready, the natural terrestrial Forces began to work on those supersensuous moulds which contained, besides their own, the elements of all the past vegetable and future animal forms of this globe in them.
Therefore, man's outward shell passed through every vegetable and animal body before it assumed the human shape.
As this will be fully [[Footnote(s) -------------------------------------------------]] * The centripetal and the centrifugal forces, which are male and female, positive and negative, physical and spiritual, the two being the one Primordial Force.
** Occultism teaches that no form can be given to anything, either by nature or by man, whose ideal type does not already exist on the subjective plane.
More than this; that no such form or shape can possibly enter man's consciousness, or evolve in his imagination, which does not exist in prototype, at least as an approximation.
[[Vol.
1, Page]] 283 PARACELSUS ANTICIPATED TYNDALL.
described in Book II., with the Commentaries thereupon, there is no need to say more of it here.
According to the Hermetico-Kabalistic philosophy of Paracelsus, it is Yliaster -- the ancestor of the just-born Protyle, introduced by Mr.
Crookes in chemistry -- or primordial Protomateria that evolved out of itself the Kosmos.
"When Evolution took place the Yliaster divided itself.
.
.
.
melted and dissolved, developing from within itself the Ideos or Chaos, called re spectively Mysterium magnum, Iliados, Limbus Major, or Primordial Matter.
This Primordial essence is of a monistic nature, and manifests itself not only as vital activity, a spiritual force, an invisible, incomprehensible, and indescribable power, but also as vital matter of which the substance of living beings consists." In this Ideos of primordial matter, or the proto-ilos -- which is the matrix of all created things -- is contained the substance from which everything is formed.
It is the Chaos .
.
.
out of which the Macrocosm, and, later on, by evolution and division in Mysteria Specialia,* each separate being, came into existence.
"All things and all elementary substances were contained in it in potentia but not in actu " -- which makes the translator, Dr.
F.
Hartmann, justly observe that "it seems that Paracelsus anticipated the modern discovery of the 'potency of matter' three hundred years ago" (P.
42).
This Magnus Limbus, then, or Yliaster of Paracelsus, is simply our old friend "Father-Mother," within, before it appeared in Space, of the second and other Stanzas.
It is the universal matrix of Kosmos, personified in the dual character of Macro- and Microcosm (or the Universe and our Globe)** by Aditi-Prakriti, the Spiritual and the physical nature.
For we find it explained in Paracelsus that "the Magnus Limbus is the nursery out of which all creatures have grown, in the same sense as a tree grows out of a small seed; with the difference, however, that the great Limbus takes its origin from the Word, while the Limbus minor (the terrestrial seed or sperm) takes it from the earth.
[[Footnote(s) -------------------------------------------------]] * This word is explained by Dr.
Hartmann from the original texts of Paracelsus before him, as follows.
According to this great Rosicrucian: "Mysterium is everything out of which something may be developed, which is only germinally contained in it.
A seed is the 'Mysterium' of a plant, an egg that of a living bird, etc." ** It is only the mediaeval Kabalists who, following the Jewish and one or two Neo-Platonists, applied the term Microcosm to man.
Ancient philosophy called the Earth the Microcosm of the Macrocosm, and man the outcome of the two.
[[Vol.
1, Page]] 284 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
The great Limbus is the seed out of which all beings have come, and the little Limbus is each ultimate being that reproduces its form, and that has itself been produced by the 'great.' The latter possesses all the qualifications of the great one, in the same sense as a son has an organization similar to that of his father." ( See Comment.
Book II.
para.
iii.
) .
.
.
"As Yliaster dissolved, Ares, the dividing, differentiating, and individualising power ( Fohat, another old friend,) .
.
.
began to act.
All production took place in consequence of separation.
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 seed-to-tree analogy and 'a son has an organization similar to that of his father' express the Hermetic axiom that structure at one scale mirrors structure at another.
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 entire passage is a narrative of cosmic origin: how Yliaster divided and evolved the Kosmos, how the human form passed through vegetable and animal stages, and how the 'Magnus Limbus' as seed produced all beings.
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 descent from the 'plane of the Eternal Ideal' through Spiritual Beings (Gods) down to material forms, with each level less perfect than the one above.
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 stated as operating at the structural level of creation itself: 'male and female, positive and negative, physical and spiritual' as the two aspects of the one Primordial Force.
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 passage describes 'astral or ethereal prototypes,' 'supersensuous moulds,' and the 'plane of the Eternal Ideal' as a non-physical dimension interpenetrating 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 explicitly describes the directional process of 'transferring Kosmos from the plane of the Eternal Ideal into that of finite manifestation' and 'expanding from within outwards, from the most sublimated and supersensuous essence into its grossest appearance.'
The Hermetic doctrine that THE ALL is Mind, and the Universe is mental in nature — a created thought held in the mind of THE ALL. Distinct from unity_of_being in specifying WHAT the underlying oneness is (mind, not an unspecified single substance), and from logos (a mediating ordering word BETWEEN a transcendent God and a separate material world) in collapsing that mediation entirely — under mentalism there is no world outside mind to mediate to.
Forms existing as 'Ideas, in the Eternity' in the 'divine mind prior to becoming' and the claim that no form can exist whose 'ideal type does not already exist on the subjective plane' suggest the universe is mental in nature.
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 explicitly names 'Macro- and Microcosm (or the Universe and our Globe)' and the footnote states 'Ancient philosophy called the Earth the Microcosm of the Macrocosm, and man the outcome of the two.'
The absolutely simple, undivided first principle from which all multiplicity and existence flows.
The 'one Primordial Force' underlying the two contrary forces and the 'monistic nature' of Yliaster as the single undivided source from which all 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).
The central claim that 'the two being the one Primordial Force' is precisely the polarity doctrine: apparent opposites (male/female, positive/negative, physical/spiritual) are identical in nature, differing only in direction or degree.
The doctrine that reality has two registers — an Absolute truth as the divine or ultimate mind knows it, and a Relative truth as finite human reason perceives and must act on — with both held as legitimate on their own plane rather than the second being simply an error to correct. Distinct from apophatic_theology (a claim about how the divine may be described, by negation) and unity_of_being (a claim that being is ultimately one) in being a claim about two coexisting registers of truth-claim itself.
The distinction between the 'Noumenal' and 'Phenomenal' planes, with forms being 'finite and perishable only in their objective, not in their ideal Form,' holds two registers of reality as legitimate on their own plane.