Everywhere the speculations of the Kabalists treat of Evil as a FORCE, which is antagonistic, but at the same time essential, to Good, as giving it vitality and existence, which it could never have otherwise.
There would be no life possible (in the Mayavic sense) without Death , nor regeneration and reconstruction without destruction.
Plants would perish in eternal sunlight, and so would man, who would become an automaton without the exercise of his free will and aspirations [[Vol.
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after that sunlight, which would lose its being and value for him had he nothing but light.
Good is infinite and eternal only in the eternally concealed from us, and this is why we imagine it eternal.
On the manifested planes, one equilibrates the other.
Few are those theists and believers in a personal God, who do not make of Satan the shadow of God; or who, confounding both, do not believe they have a right to pray to that idol asking its help and protection for the exercise and impunity of their evil and cruel deeds.
"Lead us not into Temptation" is addressed daily to "our Father, which art in Heaven," and not to the Devil, by millions of human Christian hearts.
They do so, repeating the very words put in the mouth of their Saviour, and do not give one thought to the fact that their meaning is contradicted point blank by James "the brother of the Lord." "Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man." -- (The Gen.
Ep.
of James, i, 13).
Why, then, say that it is the Devil who tempts us, when the Church teaches us on the authority of Christ that it is God who does so?
Open any pious volume in which the word "temptation" is defined in its theological sense, and forthwith you find two definitions: (1) "Those afflictions and troubles whereby God tries his people; " (2) Those means and enticements which the Devil makes use of to ensnare and allure mankind.
(St.
James i., 2, 12, and Mat.
vi., 13.) If accepted literally, the two teachings of Christ and James contradict each other, and what dogma can reconcile the two if the occult meaning is rejected?
Between the alternative allurements, wise will be that philosopher who will be able to decide where God disappears to make room for the Devil!
Therefore when we read that "the Devil is a liar and the father of it," i.e.
, INCARNATE LIE, and are told in the same breath that Satan -- the Devil -- was a son of God and the most beautiful of his archangels, rather than believe that Father and Son are a gigantic, personified and eternal LIE, we prefer to turn to Pantheism and to Pagan philosophy for information.
Once that the key to Genesis is in our hands, it is the scientific and symbolical Kabala which unveils the secret.
The great Serpent of the Garden of Eden and the "Lord God" are identical, and so are Jehovah and Cain ONE -- that Cain who is referred to in theology as the "murderer" and the LIAR to God!
Jehovah tempts the King of Israel to number the people, and Satan tempts him to do the same in another place.
Jehovah turns into the fiery serpents to bite those he is displeased with; and Jehovah informs the brazen serpent that heals them.
These short, and seemingly contradictory, statements in the Old Testament (contradictory because the two Powers are separated instead of being regarded as the two faces of one and the same thing) are the [[Vol.
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echoes -- distorted out of recognition by exotericism and theology -- of the universal and philosophical dogmas in nature, so well understood by the primitive Sages.
We find the same groundwork in several personifications in the Puranas, only far more ample and philosophically suggestive.
Thus Pulastya, a "Son of God" -- one of the first progeny -- is made the progenitor of Demons, the Rakshasas, the tempters and the Devourers of men.
Pisacha (female Demon) is a daughter of Daksha, a "Son of God" too, and a God, and the mother of all the Pisachas ( Padma Purana ) .
The Demons, so called in the Puranas, are very extraordinary devils when judged from the standpoint of European and orthodox views about these creatures, since all of them -- Danavas, Daityas, Pisachas, and the Rakshasas -- are represented as extremely pious, following the precepts of the Vedas, some of them even being great Yogis.
But they oppose the clergy and Ritualism, sacrifices and forms -- just what the full-blown Yogins do to this day in India -- and are no less respected for it, though they are allowed to follow neither caste nor ritual; hence all those Puranic giants and Titans are called Devils.
The Missionaries, ever on the watch to show, if they can, the Hindu traditions no better than a reflection of the Jewish Bible, have evolved a whole romance on the alleged identity of Pulastya with Cain, and of the Rakshasas with the Cainites, "the accursed," the cause of the Noachian Deluge.
(See the work of Abbe Gorresio, who "etymologises" Pulastya's name as meaning the "rejected," hence Cain, if you please).
Pulastya dwells in Kedara , he says, which means a "dug-up place," a mine , and Cain is shown in tradition and the Bible as the first worker in metals and a miner thereof!
While it is very probable that the Gibborim (the giants) of the Bible are the Rakshasas of the Hindus, it is still more certain that both are Atlanteans, and belong to the submerged races.
However it may be, no Satan could be more persistent in slandering his enemy, or more spiteful in his hatred, than the Christian theologians are in cursing him as the father of every evil.
Compare their vituperations and opinions given about the Devil with the philosophical views of the Puranic sages and their Christ-like mansuetude.
When Parasara, whose father was devoured by a Rakshasa, was preparing himself to destroy (magically) the whole race, his grandsire, Vasishta, says a few extremely suggestive words to him.
He shows the irate Sage, on his own confession, that there is Evil and Karma , but no "evil spirits." "Let thy wrath be appeased," he says.
"The Rakshasas are not culpable; thy father's death was the work of Karma.
Anger is the passion of fools; it becometh not a wise man.
By whom , it may be asked , is any one killed?
Every man reaps the consequences of his own acts.
Describing the divine only by negation—God transcends all positive categories and concepts; the via negativa.
The statement that Good is 'infinite and eternal only in the eternally concealed from us' implies the divine transcends all positive categories accessible to human cognition.
The cosmic law that manifests as each being's own duty — right order known not as abstract truth but as the specific obligation of one's nature and station (svadharma), so that maintaining the cosmos and performing one's proper work are one act; the Gita's 'one's own duty, though defective, is better than another's well performed.' Sits beside asha_cosmic_order and maat_cosmic_order as a right-order concept but is distinct in individuating the order into personal vocation; distinct from good_thought_word_deed (ethical triad) in binding duty to cosmic station.
The passage explicitly invokes Karma as a governing principle: 'there is Evil and Karma, but no evil spirits' and 'Every man reaps the consequences of his own acts.'
The supreme God's radical concealment beyond ordinary knowledge or perception; the Hidden Father.
The passage states 'Good is infinite and eternal only in the eternally concealed from us, and this is why we imagine it eternal,' identifying the supreme reality as fundamentally hidden from human perception.
Esoteric teachings reserved for those ready to receive them; outer meaning conceals an inner liberating truth.
The passage explicitly argues that scriptural contradictions are 'echoes distorted out of recognition by exotericism and theology' of 'universal and philosophical dogmas,' and that the 'occult meaning' and 'key to Genesis' must be unlocked to understand the true teaching.
The balance of two contrary forces as the structural law of cosmos and operation — Lévi's equilibrium, expressed in Kabbalah by the senary: the will of God in its first cause, liberty in man, mathematical equilibrium in matter; the twofold vibration required to direct the Astral Light safely.
The passage explicitly states 'On the manifested planes, one equilibrates the other,' describing the balance of contrary forces as a structural law of the cosmos.
Using apparent contradiction, reversal, or riddle to destabilise ordinary understanding and induce insight.
The passage uses the apparent contradiction between Christ's 'Lead us not into temptation' and James's 'God cannot be tempted with evil' as a pedagogical device to demonstrate that exoteric reading is insufficient and the occult meaning must be sought.
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 entire passage is structured around the doctrine that apparent opposites (Good/Evil, God/Devil, Serpent/Lord, Jehovah/Cain) are 'the two faces of one and the same thing,' with Evil being 'antagonistic, but at the same time essential, to Good.'
The doctrine that all existence is ultimately one substance or one divine reality; non-duality as a theological claim.
The passage repeatedly asserts that apparently opposite powers are 'the two faces of one and the same thing,' that 'the great Serpent of the Garden of Eden and the Lord God are identical,' and that 'Jehovah and Cain' are ONE.