But this is a mystery which the writer dares not dwell upon at length, not being sure of being understood.
Thus the mystical side of the interpretation must be left to the intuition of the student.
Let us note one more thing in relation to the mysterious number five.
It symbolizes at one and the same time the Spirit of life eternal and the Spirit of life and love terrestrial -- in the human compound; and, it includes divine and infernal magic, and the universal and the individual quintessence of being.
Thus, the five mystic words or vowels ( vide infra ) uttered by Brahma at "creation," which forthwith became the Panchadasa (certain Vedic hymns, attributed to that God) are in their creative and magical potentiality, the white side of the black Tantrik five "makaras," or the five m ' s.
"Makara," the constellation, is a seemingly meaningless and absurd name.
Yet, even besides its anagrammatical significance in conjunction with the term "Kumara," the numerical value of its first syllable and its esoteric resolution into five has a very great and occult meaning in the mysteries of nature.
Suffice it to say, that as the sign of Makara is connected with the birth of the spiritual "microcosm," and the death or dissolution of the physical Universe (its passage into the realm of the Spiritual)*; so the Dhyan Chohans, called in India Kumara, are connected with both.
Moreover, in the exoteric religions, they have become the synonyms of the Angels of Darkness.
Mara is the God of Darkness, the Fallen One, and Death**; and yet it is one of the names of Kama, the first god in the Vedas, the Logos, from whom have sprung the Kumaras, and this [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * "When the Sun passes away behind the 30th degree of Makara and will reach no more the sign of the Meenam (pisces) then the night of Brahma has come." .
.
.
** Death of every physical thing truly; but Mara is also the unconscious quickener of the birth of the Spiritual.
[[Vol.
2, Page]] 580 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
connects them still more with our "fabulous" Indian Makara, and the crocodile-headed God in Egypt.* The crocodiles in the Celestial Nile are Five , and the God Toum, the primordial deity creating the heavenly bodies and the living beings, calls forth these crocodiles in his fifth creation.
When Osiris, "the defunct Sun," is buried and enters into Amenti, the sacred crocodiles plunge into the abyss of primordial Waters -- "the great Green One." When the Sun of life rises, they re-emerge out of the sacred river.
All this is highly symbolical, and shows how primeval esoteric truths found their expression in identical symbols.
But, as Mr.
T.
Subba Row truly declares, "The veil, that was dexterously thrown over certain portions of the mystery connected with the (Zodiacal) signs by the ancient philosophers, will never be fully lifted up for the amusement or edification of the uninitiated public.
" Nor was number five less sacred with the Greeks.
The five words ( Panchadasa ) of Brahma have become with the Gnostics the "Five Words" written upon the akasic (shining) garment of Jesus at his glorification: the words [[ ZAMA ZAMA OZZA PAXAMA, OZAI ]], translated by the Orientalists "the robe, the glorious robe of my strength." These words were, in their turn, the anagrammatic blind of the five mystic powers represented on the robe of the "resurrected" Initiate after his last trial of three days' trance; the five becoming seven only after his death, when the Adept became the full C HRISTOS, the full K RISHNA- V ISHNU, i.e.
, merged in Nirvana.
The E Delphicum, a sacred symbol, was the numeral five , again; and how sacred it was is shown by the fact that the Corinthians (according to Plutarch) replaced the wooden numeral in the Delphic Temple by a bronze one; and this one was transmuted by Livia Augusta into a fac-simile of gold.
It is easy to recognize in the two spirits -- the Greek accents or signs ( ) spoken of by Ragon ( vide supra ) -- Atma and Buddhi, or "divine spirit and its vehicle" (spiritual soul).
The six or the "Senary" is dealt with later, while the Septenary will be fully treated in the course of this volume.
( Vide the " Mysteries of the Hebdomad.
") The Ogdoad or 8 symbolizes the eternal and spiral motion of cycles, the 8, , and is symbolized in its turn by the Caduceus.
It shows the regular breathing of the Kosmos presided over by the eight great gods -- the seven from the primeval Mother, the One and the Triad.
Then comes the number nine or the triple ternary.
It is the number which reproduces itself incessantly under all shapes and figures in [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * Osiris is called in the " Book of the Dead " " Osiris, the double Crocodile." ( See Chapter " On the Names of Osiris, " cxlii.
) "He is the good and the bad Principle; the Day, and the Night Sun, the God, and the mortal man." Thus far the Macrocosm and the Microcosm.
[[Vol.
2, Page]] 581 THE MASTER MASON'S GRIP.
every multiplication.
It is the sign of every circumference, since its value in degrees is equal to 9, i.e., to 3 + 6 + 0.
It is a bad number under certain conditions, and very unlucky.
If number 6 was the symbol of our globe ready to be animated by a divine spirit, 9 symbolized our earth informed by a bad or evil spirit.
Ten, or the Decade, brings all these digits back to unity, and ends the Pythagorean table.
Hence this figure -- , unity within zero -- was the symbol of Deity, of the Universe, and of man.
Such is the secret meaning of "the strong grip of the Lion's paw, of the tribe of Judah" between two hands (the " master mason ' s grip ") , the joint number of whose fingers is ten.
If we now give our attention to the Egyptian cross, or the Tau, we may discover this letter, so exalted by Egyptians, Greeks, and Jews, to be mysteriously connected with the Decade.
The tau is the Alpha and the Omega of secret divine Wisdom, which is symbolized by the initial and the final letter of Thot (Hermes).
In Western Hermetic Qabalah, the specific harmonizing cosmic force symbolised by Tiphareth, the central Sephira of the Tree of Life — the equilibriating, compensating, healing, redeeming, and purifying factor of the universe, recognised by the occultist as one power among the hierarchy of supreme cosmic forces rather than assigned the exclusive position it holds for the Christian mystic. Distinct from logos (the ordering principle through which the universe was created, not this specific mediating/healing Sephirotic force) and trinity (a claim about the Godhead's internal three-personed structure, not a single emanation's function within a tenfold system).
The Adept becoming 'the full CHRISTOS' after the five become seven suggests Christ as a specific cosmic force or state of equilibration within a hierarchy, though the passage uses it more as a state of completion than as the Tiphareth-specific harmonizing force.
Esoteric teachings reserved for those ready to receive them; outer meaning conceals an inner liberating truth.
The passage is pervaded by the theme of concealed esoteric meaning: the writer 'dares not dwell upon' the mystery, the veil 'will never be fully lifted up for the amusement or edification of the uninitiated public,' and the anagrammatical and numerical codes throughout.
Numbers, proportions, and mathematical relationships as the underlying structure of divine reality.
The entire passage is a sustained exposition of the esoteric meanings of numbers five through ten, their symbolic correspondences, and their role as the underlying structure of divine and cosmic reality.
Combining, transposing, or cycling through letters or names as a meditative or theurgical technique.
The anagrammatical significance of 'Makara' in conjunction with 'Kumara,' and the Five Words as 'the anagrammatic blind of the five mystic powers,' indicate letter transposition as a theurgical or revelatory technique.
The Hermetic doctrine of a measured swing or pendulum motion between poles — action and reaction, flow and outflow, rise and fall — operating in mental, physical, and cosmic-historical registers alike. Distinct from apocatastasis (cosmic-scale eschatological restoration after vast cycles) in naming a constant, ever-present oscillation rather than a singular restorative event.
The Ogdoad (8) is described as symbolizing 'the eternal and spiral motion of cycles' and 'the regular breathing of the Kosmos,' expressing the pendulum of cosmic oscillation.
The doctrine and practice that spoken or sung word carries causal-magical force — that uttering names, formulas, songs, or incantations alters reality directly rather than merely communicating about it. Vainamoinen's runo-songs that move mountains and command iron, Norse galdr, Vedic mantra, Shinto kotodama, the magician's barbarous names in the Greek Magical Papyri, Iamblichean arcane signatures and inexplicable symbols, biblical creation-by-word. Distinct from sacred_names (the ontological power of names themselves) and prayer (address to the divine); word_power_incantation is the magical-causal efficacy of the spoken word as such.
The five mystic words/vowels uttered by Brahma at creation 'forthwith became' the Panchadasa, demonstrating that spoken/sung word carries direct creative-causal force.