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2), or the great Deep of the Infinite Space. And this Spirit is Nara-yana , or Vishnu. [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * See "The Holy of Holies." ** The word "eternity," by which Christian theologians interpret the term "for ever and ever," does not exist in the Hebrew tongue -- either as a word or meaning. Oulam , says Le Clerc, only imports a time when beginning or end is not known. It does not mean " infinite duration," and the word for ever in the Old Testament, only signifies a "long time." Nor is the term "eternity" used in the Christian sense in the Puranas. For in Vishnu Purana, it is clearly stated that by Eternity and Immortality only "existence to the end of the Kalpa" is meant (Book II. chap. viii.). *** Orphic theogony is purely Oriental and Indian in its Spirit. The successive transformations it has undergone, have now separated it widely from the spirit of ancient Cosmogony, as may be seen by comparing it even with Hesiod's theogony. Yet the truly Aryan Hindu spirit breaks forth everywhere in both Hesiod's and the Orphic theogony. (See the remarkable work of James Darmesteter, Cosmogonies Aryennes , in his Essais Orientaux. ) Thus the original Greek conception of Chaos is that of the Secret Wisdom Religion. In Hesiod, therefore, Chaos is infinite, boundless, endless and beginningless in duration, an abstraction at the same time as a visible presence. S PACE filled with darkness, which is primordial matter in its precosmic state. For in its etymological sense, Chaos is Space, according to Aristotle, and Space is the ever Unseen and Unknowable Deity in our philosophy. [[Vol. 1, Page]] 337 DARKNESS, IS LIGHT. "And God said, Let there be a firmament. . ." (v. 6), and "God," the second, obeyed and " made the firmament" (v. 7). "And God said let there be light," and "there was light." Now the latter does not mean light at all, but in the Kabala, the androgyne "Adam Kadmon," or Sephira ( Spiritual light ), for they are one; or, according to the Chaldean "Book of Numbers," the secondary angels, the first being the Elohim who are the aggregate of that "fashioning" god . For to whom are those words of command addressed? And who is it who commands? That which commands is the eternal Law , and he who obeys, the Elohim , the known quantity acting in and with x , or the coefficient of the unknown quantity, the Forces of the ONE Force. All this is Occultism, and is found in the archaic STANZAS. It is perfectly immaterial whether we call these "Forces" the Dhyan Chohans, or the Ophanim , as St. John does. "The one Universal Light, which to Man is Darkness , is ever existent," says the Chaldean "Book of Numbers." From it proceeds periodically the E NERGY, which is reflected in the "Deep" or Chaos, the store-house of future worlds, and, once awakened, stirs up and fructifies the latent Forces, which are the ever present eternal potentialities in it. Then awake anew the Brahmas and Buddhas -- the co-eternal Forces -- and a new Universe springs into being. . . . . In the Sepher Jezireh , the Kabalistic Book of Creation, the author has evidently repeated the words of Manu. In it, the Divine Substance is represented as having alone existed from the eternity, boundless and absolute; and as having emitted from itself the Spirit.* "One is the Spirit of the living God, blessed be I TS name, which liveth for ever! Voice, Spirit, and Word, this is the Holy Spirit;"** and this is the Kabalistic abstract Trinity, so unceremoniously anthropomorphised by the Christian Fathers. From this triple O NE emanated the whole Kosmos. First from O NE emanated number T WO, or Air (the Father), the creative element; and then number T HREE, Water (the Mother), proceeded from the air; Ether or Fire completes the mystic four, the Arba-il.*** "When the Concealed of the Concealed wanted to reveal Himself, he first made a point (primordial point, or the first Sephiroth, air, or Holy Ghost), shaped into a sacred form (the ten Sephiroth, or the Heavenly man), and covered it with a rich and splendid garment, that is the world. "**** [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * The manifested Spirit; Absolute, Divine Spirit is one with absolute Divine Substance: Parabrahm and Mulaprakriti are one in essence. Therefore, Cosmic Ideation and Cosmic Substance in their primal character are one also. ** "Sepher Jezireh," chap. 1, Mishna ix. *** Ibid. It is from Arba that Abram is made to come. **** "Zohar," I., 2a. [[Vol. 1, Page]] 338 THE SECRET DOCTRINE. "He maketh the wind His messengers, flaming Fire His servants," says the Jezireh, showing the cosmical character of the later euhemerised Elements,* and that the Spirit permeates every atom in Kosmos. This "primordial Substance" is called by some Chaos: Plato and the Pythagoreans named it the Soul of the World after it had been impregnated by the Spirit of that which broods over the Primeval Waters, or Chaos. It is by being reflected in it, say the Kabalists, that the brooding Principle created the phantasmagoria of a visible, manifested Universe. Chaos , before -- Ether, after, the "reflection;" it is still the deity that pervades all Space and things. It is the invisible, imponderable Spirit of things and the invisible, but too tangible fluid that radiates from the fingers of the healthy magnetizer, for it is Vital Electricity -- L IFE itself. Called in derision by the Marquis de Mirville "the nebulous Almighty," it is termed by the Theurgists and Occultists to this day "the living Fire"; and there is not a Hindu who practises at dawn a certain kind of meditation but knows its effects.** It is the "Spirit of [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * "Sepher Jezireh," Mishna ix., 10. Everywhere throughout the Acts, Paul calls the invisible Kosmic Beings the "Elements." ( See Greek Texts.