Page 46 (part 4)

Thus the latter became the earliest of geometrical figures. The author of "New Aspects of Life" and of the Kabalistic Mysteries -- objects to the objectivization, so to speak, of the Pythagorean conception and use of the equilateral triangle, and calls it a misnomer. His argument that a solid equilateral body -- "one whose base, and each of its sides, form equal triangles -- must have four co-equal sides or surfaces, while a triangular plane will as necessarily possess five," demonstrates on the contrary the grandeur of the conception in all its esoteric application to the idea of [[Vol. 1, Page]] 617 PHANTOMS OF THE MIND. the pregenesis , and the genesis of Kosmos. Granted, that an ideal triangle, depicted by mathematical, imaginary lines "can have no sides at all, being simply a phantom of the mind (if sides be imputed to which, they must be the sides of the object it constructively represents)." But in such case most of the scientific hypotheses are no better than "phantoms of the mind"; they are unverifiable, except on inference, and have been adopted merely to answer scientific necessities. Furthermore, the ideal triangle -- "as the abstract idea of a triangular body, and, therefore, as the type of an abstract idea" -- accomplished and carried out to perfection the double symbolism intended. As an emblem applicable to the objective idea, the simple triangle became a solid. When repeated in stone on the four cardinal points, it assumed the shape of the Pyramid -- the symbol of the phenomenal merging into the noumenal Universe of thought -- at the apex of the four triangles; and, as an "imaginary figure constructed of three mathematical lines," it symbolized the subjective spheres -- those lines "enclosing a mathematical space -- which is equal to nothing enclosing nothing." Because, to the senses and the untrained consciousness of profane and scientist, everything beyond the line of differentiated matter -- i.e. , outside of, and beyond the realm of even the most spiritual substance -- has to remain for ever equal to nothing. It is the A IN- S OPH -- the No -THING. Yet these "phantoms of the mind" are in truth no greater abstractions than the abstract ideas in general upon evolution and physical development -- e.g ., Gravity, Matter, Force, etc. -- on which the exact sciences are based. Our most eminent chemists and physicists are earnestly pursuing the not hopeless attempt of finally tracing to its hiding-place the protyle , or the basic line of the Pythagorean triangle. The latter is, as said, the grandest conception imaginable, as it symbolizes both the ideal and the visible universes.* For if " the possible unit is only a possibility as an actuality of nature , as an individual of any kind ," and as every individual natural object is capable of division, and by division loses its unity, or ceases to be a unit ,** it is so only in the realm of exact sciences in a world as deceptive as it is illusive. In the realm of the Esoteric sciences the unit divided ad infinitum , instead of losing its unity, approaches with every division the planes of the only eternal R EALITY. The eye of the S EER can follow and behold it in all its pregenetic glory. This same idea of the reality of the subjective, and the unreality of the objective universes, is found at the bottom of the Pythagorean and Platonic teachings -- limited to the Elect alone; for [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * In the world of Form, having found its expression in the Pyramids, Symbolism has in them both a triangle and a square, with their four co-equal triangles or surfaces, the four basic points, and the fifth -- the apex. ** "New Aspects of Life." [[Vol. 1, Page]] 618 THE SECRET DOCTRINE. Porphyry, speaking of the Monad and the Duad , says that the former only was considered substantial and real, " that most simple Being , the cause of all unity and the measure of all things. " But the Duad, although the origin of Evil, or Matter -- thence unreal in philosophy -- is still Substance during Manvantara, and is often called the third monad, in Occultism, and the connecting line as between two Points, . . . or Numbers which proceeded from THAT, "which was before all Numbers," as expressed by Rabbi Barahiel. And from this Duad proceeded all the Scintillas of the three upper and the four lower worlds or planes -- which are in constant interaction and correspondence. This is a teaching which the Kabala has in common with Eastern Occultism. For in the occult philosophy there are the " O NE Cause" and the " Primal Cause," which latter thus becomes, paradoxically, the second, as clearly expressed by the author of the " Qabbalah , from the philosophical writings of Ibn Gabirol ," -- "in the treatment of the Primal cause, two things must be considered, the Primal Cause per se , and the relation and connection of the Primal Cause with the visible and unseen universe." Thus he shows the early Hebrews following in the steps of the Oriental philosophy -- Chaldean, Persian, Hindu, Arabic, etc. Their Primal Cause was designated at first "by the triadic Shaddai, the (triune) Almighty, subsequently by the Tetragrammaton, YHVH , symbol of the Past, Present, and Future," and, let us add, of the eternal I S, or the I A M. Moreover, in the Kabala the name YHVH (or Jehovah) expresses a He and a She, male and female, two in one, or Hokhmah and Binah, and his, or rather their Shekinah or synthesizing spirit (grace), which makes again of the Duad a Triad. This is demonstrated in the Jewish Liturgy for Pentecost, and the prayer, "In the name of Unity, of the Holy and Blessed Hu (He), and His Shekinah, the Hidden and Concealed Hu, blessed be YHVH (the Quaternary) for ever." "Ha is said to be masculine and YAH feminine, together they make the i.e. , one YHVH . One, but of a male-female nature. The Shekinah is always considered in the Qabbalah as feminine" (p. 175). And so it is considered in the exoteric Puranas, for Shekinah is no more than Sakti -- the female double or lining of any god, in such case. And so it was with the early Christians whose Holy Spirit was feminine, as Sophia was with the Gnostics. But in the transcendental Chaldean Kabala or "Book of Numbers," "Shekinah" is sexless, and the purest abstraction, a State, like Nirvana, not subject or object or anything except an absolute P RESENCE. Thus it is only in the anthropomorphised systems (such as the Kabala has now greatly become) that Shekinah-Sakti is feminine.