"Therefore, it was taught in the inner temples that this visible universe of spirit and matter is but the concrete image of the ideal abstraction; it was built on the model of the first DIVINE IDEA.
Thus our universe existed from Eternity in a latent state.
The soul animating this purely spiritual universe is the central sun, the highest deity itself.
It was not the One who built the concrete form of the idea, but the first-begotten; and as it was constructed on the geometrical figure of the dodecahedron,* the first-begotten 'was pleased to employ twelve thousand years in its creation.' The latter number is expressed in the Tyrrhenian cosmogony,** which shows man created in the sixth millennium.
This agrees with the Egyptian theory of 6,000 'years'*** and with the Hebrew computation.
But it is the exoteric form of it.
The secret computation explains that the 'twelve thousand and the 6,000 years' are YEARS OF B RAHMA -- one day of Brahma being equal to 4,320,000,000 years.
Sanchoniathon**** in his Cosmogony , declares that when the wind (spirit) became enamoured of its own principles (the chaos), an intimate union took place, which connection was called pothos , and from this sprang the seed of all.
And the chaos knew not its own production, for it was senseless; but from its embrace with the wind was generated Mot, or the ilus (mud).***** From this proceeded the spores of creation and the generation of the universe.
"Zeus-Zen (aether), and Chthonia (the chaotic earth) and Metis (the water), his wives; Osiris and Isis-Latona -- the former god also representing ether -- the first emanation of the Supreme Deity, Amun, the primeval source of light; the goddess earth and water again; Mithras,****** the rock-born god, the symbol of the male mundane-fire, or the personified primordial light, and Mithra, the fire-goddess, at once his mother and his wife: the pure element of fire (the active or male principle) regarded as light and heat, in conjunction with earth and water, or matter (female, or passive, elements of Cosmical generation) [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * Plato: "Timaeus." ** "Suidas" v.
Tyrrhenia." *** The reader will understand that by "years" is meant "ages," not mere periods of thirteen lunar months each.
**** See the Greek translation by Philo Byblius.
***** Cory: "Ancient Fragment." ****** Mithras was regarded among the Persians as the Theos ekpetros -- god of the rock.
[[Vol.
1, Page]] 341 ONE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE.
Mithras is the son of Bordj, the Persian mundane mountain,* from which he flashed out as a radiant ray of light.
Brahma, the fire-god, and his prolific consort; and the Hindu Agni, the refulgent deity from whose body issue a thousand streams of glory and seven tongues of flame, and in whose honour certain Brahmans preserve to this day a perpetual fire; Siva, personated by the mundane mountain of the Hindus, the Meru : these terrific fire-gods, who are said in the legend to have descended from heaven, like the Jewish Jehovah, in a pillar of fire , and a dozen other Archaic double-sexed deities, all loudly proclaim their hidden meaning.
And what could these dual myths mean but the psychochemical principle of primordial creation?
The first Evolution in its triple manifestation of spirit, force and matter; the divine correllation at its starting point, allegorized as the marriage of Fire and water, products of electrifying spirit, union of the male active principle with the female passive element, which become the parents of their tellurian child, cosmic matter, the prima materia , whose soul is AEther, and whose shadow is the ASTRAL LIGHT!" ( I SIS U NVEILED).
The fragments of the systems that have now reached us are rejected as absurd fables.
Nevertheless, occult Science -- having survived even the great Flood that submersed the antediluvian giants and with them their very memory, save in the Secret Doctrine, the Bible and other Scriptures -- still holds the Key to all the world problems.
Let us apply that Key to the rare fragments of long-forgotten cosmogonies and try by their scattered parts to re-establish the once Universal Cosmogony of the Secret Doctrine.
The Key fits them all.
No one can study ancient philosophies seriously without perceiving that the striking similitude of conception between all -- in their exoteric form very often, in their hidden spirit invariably -- is the result of no mere coincidence, but of a concurrent design: and that there was, during the youth of mankind, one languages, one knowledge, one universal religion, when there were no churches, no creeds or sects, but when every man was a priest unto himself.
And, if it is shown that already in those ages which are shut out from our sight by the exuberant growth of tradition, human religious thought developed in uniform sympathy in every portion of the globe; then, it becomes evident that, born under whatever latitude, in the cold North or the burning South, in the East or West, that thought was inspired by the same revelations, and man was nurtured under the protecting shadow of the same TREE OF KNOWLEDGE.
[[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * Bordj is called a fire-mountain -- a volcano ; therefore it contains fire, rock, earth and water: the male, or active and the female, or passive, elements.
The myth is suggestive.
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The universal fluid or medium of occult philosophy — Lévi's Great Magical Agent — that transmits will, thought, and magical influence between minds and matter, and preserves the impress of all forms and actions as a book of consciences; cognate with akasha and the anima mundi. Distinct from cosmic_sympathy (a doctrine of hidden affinity) in being a substantival medium that can be charged, directed, and abused.
The Astral Light is explicitly named as the 'shadow' of cosmic matter (prima materia), identifying it as a specific occult medium tied to the material plane.
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 visible universe is described as 'but the concrete image of the ideal abstraction,' making the physical a legible reflection of the spiritual at every level.
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 is fundamentally a comparative cosmogonic account, drawing on Sanchoniathon, Tyrrhenian, Egyptian, Hebrew, and Hindu creation narratives to reconstruct a universal cosmogony of the Secret Doctrine.
A secondary creator deity—often ignorant or malevolent—responsible for fashioning the material world, distinct from the supreme transcendent God.
The first-begotten is explicitly identified as the builder of the concrete form, distinct from the One who is the supreme source, fitting the pattern of a secondary creator distinct from the transcendent God.
The uncreated luminous quality of the divine, sometimes experienced directly in mystical states; illumination as revelation.
Mithras is described as 'the personified primordial light,' Agni as 'the refulgent deity from whose body issue a thousand streams of glory,' and the 'primeval source of light' (Amun) is explicitly invoked.
The reunification of complementary divine principles (male-female, spirit-matter) as a symbol of wholeness and salvation.
The 'marriage of Fire and water' and 'union of the male active principle with the female passive element' which become 'parents of their tellurian child' is a cosmogonic divine marriage producing the material world.
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 clear cascade from the One to the first-begotten to the concrete form of the universe, with the first-begotten as the agent who constructs on the model of the divine idea.
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 entire passage is structured around the male active principle (fire/spirit) and female passive element (earth/water/matter) as the generative duality of cosmic creation, with multiple mythological examples of this structural feature.
Esoteric teachings reserved for those ready to receive them; outer meaning conceals an inner liberating truth.
The passage explicitly distinguishes exoteric from esoteric meaning ('But it is the exoteric form of it. The secret computation explains...') and references teachings 'in the inner temples.'
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 'first Evolution in its triple manifestation of spirit, force and matter' describes the directional process of spirit descending through successive stages to full materialization as cosmic matter.
The divine reason, word, or ordering principle through which the universe was created; mediates between the transcendent God and the material world.
The 'first DIVINE IDEA' on which the visible universe was built as a concrete image functions as the ordering principle mediating between the transcendent source and the material world.
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.
The universe is described as 'the concrete image of the ideal abstraction' built on 'the model of the first DIVINE IDEA,' implying the cosmos is a mental construct.
Numbers, proportions, and mathematical relationships as the underlying structure of divine reality.
Twelve thousand years, 6,000 years, the dodecahedron (12 faces), and the equation of one day of Brahma to 4,320,000,000 years all treat numbers as the structural grammar of cosmic creation.
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).
Fire/light/heat (active, male) is set against earth/water/matter (passive, female) as two poles of the same generative principle whose union produces cosmic matter.
The doctrine that all existence is ultimately one substance or one divine reality; non-duality as a theological claim.
The claim of 'one language, one knowledge, one universal religion' and a single source (the One, the first DIVINE IDEA) from which all diversity flows implies underlying oneness.