Page 52 (part 2)

When the triangle is complete it becomes the Tetraktis, or the Triangle in the Square, and is the dual symbol of the four-lettered Tetragrammaton in the manifested Kosmos, and of its radical triple RAY in the unmanifested, or its noumenon. Put more metaphysically, the classification given here of Cosmic Ultimates, is more one of convenience than of absolute philosophical accuracy. At the commencement of a great Manvantara, Parabrahm manifests as Mulaprakriti and then as the Logos. This Logos is equivalent to the "Unconscious Universal Mind," etc., of Western Pantheists. It constitutes the Basis of the SUBJECT-side of manifested Being, and is the source of all manifestations of individual consciousness. Mulaprakriti or Primordial Cosmic Substance, is the foundation of the OBJECT-side of things -- the basis of all objective evolution and Cosmogenesis. Force, then, does not emerge with Primordial Substance from Parabrahmic Latency. It is the transformation into energy of the supra-conscious thought of the Logos, infused, so to speak, into the objectivation of the latter out of potential latency in the One Reality. Hence spring the wondrous laws of matter: hence the "primal impress" so vainly discussed by Bishop Temple. Force thus is not synchronous with the first objectivation of Mulaprakriti. But as, apart from it, the latter is absolutely and necessarily inert -- a mere abstraction -- it is unnecessary to weave too fine a cobweb of subtleties as to the order of succession of [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * According to Dr. A. Wilder's learned definition, Genesis, [[ genesis ]], is not generation, but " a coming out of the eternal into the Kosmos and Time": "a coming from esse into exsistere, " or "from B E-NESS into 'being' " -- as a Theosophist would say. [[Vol. 2, Page]] 25 MAN, THE THIRD LOGOS. the Cosmic Ultimates. Force succeeds Mulaprakriti; but, minus Force, Mulaprakriti is for all practical intents and purposes non-existent.* The "Heavenly Man" (Tetragrammaton) who is the Protogonos, Tikkoun, the firstborn from the passive deity and the first manifestation of that deity's shadow, is the universal form and idea, which engenders the manifested Logos, Adam Kadmon, or the four-lettered symbol, in the Kabala, of the Universe itself, also called the second Logos . The second springs from the first and develops the third triangle (see the Sephirothal Tree); from the last of which (the lower host of Angels) MEN are generated. It is with this third aspect that we shall deal at present. The reader must bear in mind that there is a great difference between the L OGOS and the Demiurgos, for one is Spirit and the other is Soul; or as Dr. Wilder has it: " Dianoia and Logos are synonymous, Nous being superior and closely in affinity with [[ T o agathon ]], one being the superior apprehending, the other the comprehending -- one noetic and the other phrenic." Moreover, Man was regarded in several systems as the third Logos. The esoteric meaning of the word Logos (speech or word, Verbum ) is the rendering in objective expression, as in a photograph, of the concealed thought. The Logos is the mirror reflecting DIVINE MIND, and the Universe is the mirror of the Logos, though the latter is the esse of that Universe. As the Logos reflects all in the Universe of Pleroma, so man reflects in himself all that he sees and finds in his Universe, the Earth. It is the three Heads of the Kabala: " Unum intra alterum, et alterum super alterum " ( Zohar, Idra Suta, sec. VII ). "Every Universe (world or planet) has its own Logos," says the doctrine. The Sun was always called by the Egyptians "the eye of Osiris," and was himself the Logos, the first-begotten, or light made manifest to the world, "which is the Mind and divine intellect of the Concealed." It is only by the sevenfold Ray of this light that we can become cognizant of the Logos through the Demi-urge, regarding the latter as the creator of our planet and everything pertaining to it, and the former as the guiding Force of that "Creator" -- good and bad at the same time, the origin of good and the origin of evil. This "Creator" is neither good nor bad per se, but its differentiated aspects in nature make it assume one or the other character. With the invisible and the unknown Universes disseminated through space, none of the sun-gods had anything to do. The idea is expressed very clearly in the "Books of Hermes," and in every ancient folk lore. It is symbolised generally by the Dragon and the Serpent -- the Dragon of Good and the Serpent of Evil, represented on Earth by [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * For a clearer explanation of the origins, as contained in the esotericism of the Bhagavad Gita, see the Notes thereon published in the " Theosophist " for February, March and June, 1887, Madras. [[Vol. 2, Page]] 26 THE SECRET DOCTRINE. the right and the left-hand Magic. In the epic poem of Finland, the Kalewala,* the origin of the Serpent of Evil is given: it is born from the "spittle of Suoyatar . . . . and endowed with a living Soul by the Principle of Evil," Hisi. A strife is described between the two, the "thing of Evil" (the Serpent or Sorcerer), and Ahti, the Dragon; "Magic Lemminkainen." The latter is one of the seven sons of Ilmatar, the virgin "daughter of the air," she "who fell from heaven into the sea," before Creation, i.e ., Spirit transformed into the matter of sensuous life. There is a world of meaning and Occult thought in these few lines, admirably rendered by Dr. J. M. Crawford, of Cincinnati. The hero Lemminkainen, the good magician, "Hews the wall with might of magic, Breaks the palisade in pieces, Hews to atoms seven pickets, Chops the Serpent wall to fragments. . . . . . . When the monster little heeding, . . . . . . Pounces with his mouth of venom At the head of Lemminkainen. But the hero, quick recalling, Speaks the Master words of Knowledge, Words that came from distant ages, Words his ancestors had taught him . . . .