would be either the phallus or the phallus and yoni, .
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or male and female.
Indeed, the words translated by the generalizing terms male and female, in the 27th verse of the 1st chapter of Genesis are .
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sacr and n ' cabrah , or literally, phallus and yoni,**** while the representation of the phallic emblems would barely indicate the genital members of the human body, when their functions and the development of the seed-vesicles emanating from them was considered; then would come into indication a mode of measures of lunar time, and, through lunar, of solar time." .
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This is the physiological or anthropological key to the Moon symbol.
The key that opens the mystery of theogony, or the evolution of the Manvantaric gods, is more complicated, and has nothing phallic in it.
All is mystical and divine there.
But the Jews, beyond connecting Jehovah directly with the Moon as a generative god, preferred to ignore the higher hierarchies, and have made of some of them (zodiacal constellations and planetary gods) their Patriarchs, thus euhemerizing the [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * A caricatured and dwarfed Vedantin notion of Parabrahmam containing within itself the whole Universe as being that boundless Universe itself, and there existing nothing outside of itself.
** Just as they are to this day in India, the bull of Siva and the cow representing several Sakti -- goddesses.
*** Hence the worship of the moon by the Hebrews.
**** " Male and female , created he them." [[Vol.
1, Page]] 391 THE TIME PERIODS.
purely theosophical idea and dragging it down to the level of sinful humanity.
( See section " Holy of Holies " in the " Symbolism " of Book II.
) The MSS .
from which the above is extracted explains very clearly to what hierarchy of gods Jehovah belonged, and who this Jewish G OD was; for it shows in clear language that which the writer has always insisted upon -- namely, that the God with which the Christians have burdened themselves was no better than the lunar symbol of the reproductive or generative faculty in nature.
They have ever ignored even the Hebrew secret god of the Kabalists, Ain-Soph, as grand as Parabrahmam in the earliest Kabalistic and mystical conceptions.
But it is not the Kabala of Rosenroth that can ever give the true original teachings of Simeon-Ben-Iochai, as metaphysical and philosophical as any.
And how many are there among the students of the Kabala who knew anything of them except in their distorted Latin translations.
Let us glance at the idea which led the ancient Jews to adopt a substitute for the ever U NKNOWABLE, and which has misled the Christians into mistaking the substitute for the reality.
"If to these organs (phallus and yoni) as symbols of creative cosmic agencies the idea of .
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time periods can be attached, then, indeed, in the construction of Temples as Dwellings of Deity, or of Jehovah, that post designated as the Holy of Holies, or the most High Place, should borrow its title from the recognized sacredness of the generative organs, considered as symbols of measures as well as of creative Cause." "With the ancient wise, there was no name, and no idea, and no symbol, of a First Cause.* With the Hebrews, the indirect conception of such was couched in a term of negation of comprehension -- viz .
, Ain-Soph , or the Without Bounds.
But the symbol of its first comprehensible manifestation , was the conception of a circle with its diameter line.
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(See the Proem of Book I., Part I.) to carry at once a geometric, phallic, and astronomic idea .
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for the one takes its birth from the nought or the Circle, without which it could not be, and from one, or primal one, spring the nine digits, and, geometrically, all plane shapes.
So in the Kabala this Circle, with its diameter line, is the picture of the ten Sephiroth or Emanations, composing the Adam Kadmon, the Archetypal Man, the creative origin of all things.
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This idea of connecting the circle and its diameter line, that is, number ten, with the signification of the reproductive organs, and the Most Holy Place, was carried out constructively in the King's Chamber, or Holy of Holies, of the great Pyramid, in the Tabernacle of Moses, and in the Holy of Holies of the Temple of Solomon.
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It is the picture of a double-womb , for in Hebrew the letter he is at the same time the number 5 and symbol of the womb, and twice 5 is 10, or the phallic number." This "double womb" also shows the duality of the idea carried from [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * Because it was too sacred.
It is referred to as T HAT in the Vedas: it is the "Eternal Cause," and cannot, therefore, be spoken of as a "First Cause," a term implying the absence of any cause, at one time.
[[Vol.
1, Page]] 392 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
the highest, spiritual, down to the lowest or terrestrial plane; and by the Jews limited to the latter.
With them, therefore the number 7 has acquired the most prominent place in their exoteric religion, a cult of external forms and empty rituals; as their Sabbath, for instance, the seventh day sacred to their deity, the moon, symbolical of the generative Jehovah.
While with other nations the number seven was typical of theogonic evolution, of cycles, cosmic planes, and the Seven Forces and Occult Powers in Kosmos, as a boundless whole, whose first upper triangle was unreachable to the finite intellect of man -- while other nations, therefore, busied themselves, in their forcible limitation of Kosmos in Space and Time, only with its septenary manifested plane, the Jews centred this member solely in the moon, and based all their sacred calculations thereupon.
Hence we find the thoughtful author of the MSS .
just quoted, remarking, in reference to the metrology of the Jews that: "If 20,612 be multiplied by 4/3 the product will afford a base for the ascertainment of the mean revolution of the moon , and if this product be again multiplied by 4/3, this continued product will afford a base for finding the exact period of the mean solar year, .
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this form .
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becoming, for the finding of astronomical periods of time, of very great service." This double number (male and female) is symbolized also in some well-known idols: e.g ., "Ardanari-Iswara, the Isis of the Hindus, Eridanus, or Ardan, or the Hebrew Jordan, or source of descent.
She is standing on a lotus-leaf flowing on the water.
Attributing human characteristics, emotions, or form to the divine; embodied divine imagery.
The passage critiques the Jews for 'dragging it down to the level of sinful humanity' and making of divine hierarchies their Patriarchs, which is a critique of anthropomorphizing the divine.
Describing the divine only by negation—God transcends all positive categories and concepts; the via negativa.
Ain-Soph is defined as 'the Without Bounds' and described as 'the UNKNOWABLE,' with the passage noting that 'there was no name, and no idea, and no symbol, of a First Cause' because it was 'too sacred' to be spoken of, which is a clear apophatic approach.
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 entire passage is built on multi-layered correspondences: phallic emblems = lunar time measures = generative faculty; circle with diameter = ten Sephiroth = reproductive organs = Holy of Holies; letter he = number 5 = womb; twice 5 = 10 = phallic number, making the Hermetic axiom of structural reflection at every scale the organizing principle.
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 discusses theogony (the evolution of Manvantaric gods) and the creative origin of all things through the Circle with its diameter line producing the ten Sephiroth and Adam Kadmon.
A secondary creator deity—often ignorant or malevolent—responsible for fashioning the material world, distinct from the supreme transcendent God.
The passage argues that Jehovah is 'no better than the lunar symbol of the reproductive or generative faculty in nature,' a secondary creator figure distinct from the truly unknowable Ain-Soph/Parabrahmam, which is a classic demiurgic reading.
The supreme God's radical concealment beyond ordinary knowledge or perception; the Hidden Father.
The passage emphasizes the 'ever UNKNOWABLE' and the 'Hebrew secret god of the Kabalists, Ain-Soph' as radically concealed beyond ordinary knowledge, with the Jews having adopted 'a substitute for the ever UNKNOWABLE.'
The infinite, unknowable aspect of the divine prior to and beyond all emanation; the hidden root from which the Sephirot unfold.
Ain-Soph is explicitly named and described as 'the Without Bounds,' 'as grand as Parabrahmam in the earliest Kabalistic and mystical conceptions,' and as the 'indirect conception' of a First Cause couched in 'a term of negation of comprehension,' making it a central concept of the passage.
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 the descent of the 'double womb' idea from the highest spiritual plane down to the lowest terrestrial plane, and the Sephiroth as emanations composing Adam Kadmon, the creative origin of all things.
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 reference to 'the true original teachings of Simeon-Ben-Iochai, as metaphysical and philosophical as any' and the Kabala of Rosenroth implies a chain of transmission from master to disciple across time.
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 passage is centrally devoted to the masculine-feminine generative principle as a structural feature of creation itself, present from the phallic emblems through the Sephiroth to the Holy of Holies, explicitly stating that the organs are 'symbols of creative cosmic agencies' not merely biological.
Esoteric teachings reserved for those ready to receive them; outer meaning conceals an inner liberating truth.
The passage presents esoteric interpretations of Genesis and the Kabala, referencing 'the Hebrew secret god of the Kabalists, Ain-Soph' and 'the true original teachings of Simeon-Ben-Iochai' hidden in distorted translations, making the outer text a veil for inner meaning.
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 duality of the idea carried from the highest, spiritual, down to the lowest or terrestrial plane,' naming the directional descent of divine principle through successive levels.
The twenty-two Hebrew letters as the building blocks through which God creates and sustains all existence.
The Hebrew letter 'he' is identified as simultaneously the number 5 and the symbol of the womb, demonstrating the creative power of individual letters in the Kabbalistic system.
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 human reproductive organs (phallus and yoni) are explicitly identified as symbols of creative cosmic agencies and measures of time, making the human body a microcosmic mirror of macrocosmic structure.
Numbers, proportions, and mathematical relationships as the underlying structure of divine reality.
Numbers are central to the passage's argument: the letter he = 5 = womb, twice 5 = 10 = the phallic number = the ten Sephiroth; the number 7 as typical of theogonic evolution and cycles; the metrological calculations (20,612 × 4/3) yielding lunar and solar periods; the circle with diameter = 10.
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 male-female duality (phallus and yoni) is presented as a structural feature operating at all planes from the highest spiritual to the lowest terrestrial, with the 'double womb' showing this duality carried across the entire cosmic range.
Critique of outward religious observance that lacks inner transformation; form without substance.
The passage criticizes the Jewish religion as 'a cult of external forms and empty rituals' that centered the number 7 solely in the moon, contrasting it with the deeper meaning other nations preserved.
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 passage distinguishes between the 'higher hierarchies' and the Jewish 'euhemerized' version, between the 'purely theosophical idea' and its dragging 'down to the level of sinful humanity,' implying two registers of truth.
The ten attributes or emanations through which the Ein Sof (Infinite) reveals itself and creates the universe in Kabbalistic theology.
The passage explicitly identifies the Circle with its diameter line as 'the picture of the ten Sephiroth or Emanations, composing the Adam Kadmon, the Archetypal Man, the creative origin of all things,' making the Sephiroth a central structural element of the argument.