Page 84 (part 10)

"Au spectacle de tant [[footnote continued on next page]] [[Vol. 2, Page]] 555 THE LAW OF RETRIBUTION. genuine philosophers and students of truth who possessed the knowledge of the really existing in opposition to mere seeming; of the always existing in opposition to the transitory; and of that which exists permanently in opposition to that which waxes, wanes, and is developed and destroyed alternately.* Speusippus and Xenocrates followed in his footsteps. The O NE, the original, had no existence, in the sense applied to it by mortal men. "The [[ timion ]] ( honoured one) dwells in the centre as in the circumference, but it is only the reflection of the Deity -- the world Soul"** -- the plane of the surface of the circle. The Cross and Circle are a universal conception -- as old as human mind itself. They stand foremost on the list of the long series of, so to say, international symbols, which expressed very often great scientific truths, besides their direct bearing upon psychological, and even physiological mysteries; and this symbol is precisely one of this kind, and is based upon the oldest esoteric cosmogony. It is no explanation to say, as Eliphas Levi does, that God, the universal Love, having caused the male unit to dig an abyss in the female Binary, or chaos, produced thereby the world. Besides being as gross a conception as any, it does not remove the difficulty of conceiving it without losing one's veneration for the rather too human-like ways of the Deity. It is to avoid such anthropomorphic conceptions that the Initiates never use the epithet "God" to designate the One and Secondless Principle in the Universe; and that -- faithful in this to the oldest traditions of the Secret Doctrine the world over -- they deny that such imperfect and often not very clean work could ever be produced by Absolute Perfection. There is no need to mention here other still greater metaphysical difficulties. Between speculative Atheism and idiotic anthropomorphism there must be a philosophical mean, and a reconciliation. The Presence of the Unseen Principle throughout all nature, and the highest manifestation of it on Earth -- MAN, can alone help to solve the Problem, which is that of the mathematician whose x must ever elude the grasp of our terrestrial algebra. The Hindus have tried to solve it by their avatars, the Christians think [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- [[Continued from previous page]] de grandeur oppose a celui de tant de misere, l'esprit qui se met a observer ce vaste ensemble, se represente je ne sais quelle grande diviniti qu'une diviniti, plus grande et plus pressante encore, aurait comme brisee et mise en pieces en dispersant les debris dans tout l'Univers." The "still greater and still more exacting divinity" than the god of this world, supposed so "good" -- is K ARMA. And this true Divinity shows well that the lesser one, our inner God (personal for the time being), has no power to arrest the mighty hand of this greater Deity, the C AUSE awakened by our actions generating smaller causes, which is called the L AW OF R ETRIBUTION. * See "Isis Unveiled," Before the Veil, xii. (Vol. I.). ** Plato: "Parmenides," 141, E. [[Vol. 2, Page]] 556 THE SECRET DOCTRINE. they did it -- by their one divine Incarnation. Exoterically -- both are wrong ; esoterically both of them are very near the truth. Alone, among the Apostles of the Western religion, Paul seems to have fathomed -- if not actually revealed -- the archaic mystery of the Cross. As for the rest of those who, by unifying and individualizing the Universal Presence, have thus synthesized it into one symbol -- the central Point in the Crucifix -- they have shown thereby that they have never seized the true Spirit of the teaching of Christ, and by their interpretations they have degraded it in more than one way. They have forgotten the Spirit of that universal symbol and have selfishly monopolized it -- as though the Boundless and the Infinite can ever be limited and conditioned to one manifestation individualized in one man, or even in a nation! The four arms of the " ," the decussated cross, and of the "Hermetic," pointing to the four cardinal points -- were well understood by the mystical minds of the Hindus, Brahmins and Buddhists, thousands of years before it was heard of in Europe; and that symbol was and is found all over the world. They bent the ends of that cross and made of it their Swastica now the Wan of the Buddhist Mongolian.* It implies that the "Central point" is not limited to one individual, however perfect. That the Principle (God) is in Humanity, and Humanity, as all the rest, is in it, like drops of water are in the Ocean, the four ends being toward the four cardinal points, hence losing themselves in infinity. Isarim, an Initiate, is said to have found at Hebron, on the dead body of Hermes, the well known Smaragdine tablet, which, it is said, contained the essence of Hermetic wisdom . . . . "Separate the earth from the fire, the subtile from the gross . . . . Ascend from the earth to heaven and then descend again to earth" was traced on it. The riddle of the cross is contained in these words, and its double mystery is solved -- to the Occultist. "The philosophical cross, the two lines running in opposite directions, the horizontal and the perpendicular, the height and breadth, which the geometrizing Deity divides at the intersecting point, and which forms the magical as well as the scientific quaternary, when it is inscribed within the perfect square, is the basis of the occultist. Within its mystical precinct lies the master-key which opens the door of every science, physical as well as spiritual. It symbolizes our human existence, for the circle of life circum- [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * The Swastica is certainly one of the oldest symbols of the Ancient Races. In our century, says Kenneth R. H. Mackenzie ( Royal Masonic Cyclopeadia ) it (the Swastica) "has survived in the form of the mallet" in the Masonic Fraternity. Among the many "meanings" the author gives of it, we do not find, however, the most important one, masons evidently not knowing it. [[Vol. 2, Page]] 557 THE PRIMITIVE CROSS scribes the four points of the cross, which represent in succession birth, life, death, and IMMORTALITY. " 'Attach thyself,' say the alchemists, 'to the four letters of the tetragram disposed in the following manner: The letters of the ineffable name are there, although thou mayest not discern them at first.