The Holy is the seventh of all," etc.
(p.
415).
This, besides showing a strange identity with the cosmogony of the Puranas ( e.g ., Vishnu Purana 1st Book), corroborates with regard to number seven, all our teachings as briefly given in "Esoteric Buddhism." The Hindus have an endless series of allegories to express this idea.
In the primordial Chaos, before it became developed into the Seven Oceans (Sapta Samudra) -- emblematical of the seven gunas (conditioned qualities) composed of trigunas (Satwa, Rajas and Tamas, see Puranas) -- lie latent both Amrita (immortality) and Visha (poison, death, evil).
This allegory is found in the "Churning of the Ocean" by the gods.
Amrita is beyond any guna, for it is UNCONDITIONED per se; yet when fallen into the phenomenal creation it got mixed up with E VIL, Chaos , with latent theos in it, and before Kosmos was evolved.
Hence, one finds Vishnu -- standing here for eternal Law -- periodically calling forth Kosmos into activity -- "churning out of the primitive Ocean (boundless Chaos) the Amrita of Eternity, reserved only for the gods and devas; and he has to employ in the task Nagas and Asuras -- demons in exoteric Hinduism.
The whole allegory is highly philosophical, and we find it repeated in every philosophical System.
Plato, having fully embraced the ideas of Pythagoras -- who had brought them from India -- compiled and published them in a form more intelligible than the mysterious numerals of the Greek Sage.
Thus the Kosmos is "the Son" with Plato, having for his father and mother the Divine Thought and Matter.* "The Egyptians," says Dunlap,** "distinguish between an older and younger Horus; the former the brother of Osiris, the latter the son of Osiris and Isis." The first is the Idea of the world remaining in the Demiurgic Mind, "born in darkness before the creation of the world." The second Horus is this "Idea" going forth from the Logos , becoming clothed with matter, and assuming an actual existence.*** "The Mundane God, eternal, boundless, young and old, of winding form,"**** say the Chaldean oracles.
This "winding form" is a figure to express the vibratory motion of the Astral Light, with which the ancient priests were perfectly well acquainted, though its name was invented by the Martinists.
Now Cosmolatry has the finger of scorn pointed at its superstitions by modern Science, which ought, however, as advised by a French [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * Plutarch, "Isis and Osiris," I., vi.
** "Spirit History of Man," p.
88.
*** Mover's "Phoinizer," 268.
**** Cory, "Fragments," 240.
[[Vol.
1, Page]] 349 THE MANY ARE ONE.
savant, before laughing at it "to remodel entirely its own system of cosmo-pneumatological education." Satis eloquentiae , sapientiae parvum.
Cosmolatry like Pantheism may be made to yield in its ultimate expression the words applied to Vishnu .
.
.
.
"He is only the ideal Cause of the Potencies to be created in the work of creation; and from him proceed the potencies to be created, after they have become the real cause.
Save that one ideal cause , there is no other to which the world can be referred.
.
.
.
Through the potency of that cause , every created thing comes by its proper nature." ( Original Sanskrit Texts , Part iv.
, pp.
32, 33.) -------------- [[This page continued in next section]]
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 passage explicitly names the Astral Light and describes its 'vibratory motion,' noting that ancient priests were well acquainted with it though the name was later coined by Martinists.
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 asserts that the same allegory is 'repeated in every philosophical System' across Hindu, Greek, Egyptian, and Chaldean traditions, implying structural reflection across scales and cultures.
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 devoted to comparing cosmogonic narratives across traditions—the Churning of the Ocean, the primordial Chaos, the Seven Oceans, the Egyptian Horus cosmogony, and the Chaldean Oracles—making cosmic origin the central theme.
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 unconditioned Amrita/primordial Chaos through the Seven Oceans (gunas) to the manifested Kosmos, with Vishnu periodically calling forth creation from the boundless Chaos.
A historical or mythical chain of transmission for secret wisdom from master to disciple across time and cultures — the credential of the teaching, not merely its content. Distinct from oral_tradition (the spoken-not-written modality of transmission, which a lineage may or may not use) and hidden_sayings (the concealment-for-readiness of a teaching's meaning, independent of who transmitted it or in what unbroken chain).
The passage explicitly traces a chain of transmission: India → Pythagoras → Plato, presenting this as the credential and historical basis for the shared cosmogonic teaching.
Esoteric teachings reserved for those ready to receive them; outer meaning conceals an inner liberating truth.
The passage frames the Churning of the Ocean as 'highly philosophical' allegory and references 'Esoteric Buddhism,' indicating that outer mythological narratives conceal inner doctrinal truths.
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 traces a directional descent from the unconditioned Amrita 'fallen into the phenomenal creation' and 'mixed up with Evil, Chaos' before Kosmos is evolved, describing a staged process of spirit descending into matter.
The divine reason, word, or ordering principle through which the universe was created; mediates between the transcendent God and the material world.
The passage explicitly references the younger Horus as the 'Idea going forth from the Logos, becoming clothed with matter,' and identifies the Divine Thought as the father of the Kosmos in Plato.
The absolutely simple, undivided first principle from which all multiplicity and existence flows.
Amrita is explicitly described as 'UNCONDITIONED per se' and Vishnu as the single 'ideal Cause' from which all potencies proceed, functioning as an absolutely simple first principle.
Numbers, proportions, and mathematical relationships as the underlying structure of divine reality.
The number seven is central to the passage, appearing in the Seven Oceans, the seven gunas, and the 'seventh of all,' with explicit reference to Pythagorean numerals and their Indian origin.
The Hermetic doctrine that nothing rests — matter, energy, mind, and spirit are a single continuum differing only in rate of vibration, from the grossest matter to the least material spirit. Distinct from cosmic_sympathy (affinity resonating BETWEEN separate things) in being a claim about what constitutes any one thing in the first place, and from magical_equilibrium (Lévi's operational balancing technique, which presupposes some vibration doctrine rather than stating this general principle).
The 'winding form' of the Chaldean Oracles is explicitly interpreted as expressing the vibratory motion of the Astral Light, making vibration a structural cosmic principle.