The seven Rishis and the fourteen Manus of the seven Manvantaras -- issue from Brahma's head; they are his "mind-born sons," and it is with them that begins the division of mankind and its races from the Heavenly man, "the Logos" (the manifested), who is Brahma Prajapati.
Says (V.
70 in) the "Ha Idra Rabba Qadisha" (the Greater Holy Assembly) of the skull (head) [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * See for the length of such cycles or Yugas in Vriddha Garga and other ancient astronomical Sections (Jyotisha).
They vary from the cycle of five years -- which Colebrooke calls "the cycle of the Vedas," specified in the institutes of Parasara, "and the basis of calculation for larger cycles" ( Miscell.
Essays, Vol.
I., pp.
106 and 108) -- up to the Mahayuga or the famous cycle of 4,320,000 years.
** The Hebrew word for "week" is Seven; and any length of time divided by Seven would have been a "week" in their day, even 49,000,000 years, as it is seven times seven millions.
But their calculation is throughout septiform.
[[Vol.
2, Page]] 625 THE HAIRY SYMBOL.
of Macroprosopus, the ancient One* ( Sanat, an appellation of Brahma), that in every one of his hairs is a "hidden fountain issuing from the concealed brain." "And it shineth and goeth forth through that hair unto the hair of Microprosopus, and from it (which is the manifest Q UATERNARY, the Tetragrammaton ) his brain is formed; and thence that brain goeth into THIRTY and TWO paths" (or the triad and the duad, or again 432).
And again: (V.
80) "Thirteen curls of hair exist on the one side and on the other of the skull" -- i.e.
, six on one and six on the other, the thirteenth being also the fourteenth, as it is male-female, "and through them commenceth the division of the hair" (the division of things, Mankind and Races).
"We six are lights which shine forth from a seventh (light)," saith Rabbi Abba; " thou art the seventh light " (the synthesis of us all, he adds, speaking of Tetragrammaton and his seven "companions," whom he calls "the eyes of Tetragrammaton.") T ETRAGRAMMATON is Brahma Prajapati, who assumed four forms, in order to create four kinds of supernal creatures, i.e.
, made himself fourfold, or the manifest Quaternary (see Vishnu Purana, Book I.
ch.
V.); and who, after that, is re-born in the seven Rishis, his Manasaputras, "mind-born sons," who became later, 9, 21 and so on, who are all said to be born from various parts of Brahma** [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * Brahma creates in the first Kalpa (day one) various "sacrificial animals" pasu - - or the celestial bodies and the Zodiacal signs, and plants which he uses in sacrifices at the opening of Treta Yuga.
The esoteric meaning of it shows him proceeding cyclically and creating astral prototypes on the descending spiritual arc and then on the ascending physical arc.
The latter is the sub-division of a two-fold creation, subdivided again into seven descending and seven ascending degrees of spirit falling, and of matter ascending -- the inverse of what takes place (as in a mirror which reflects the right on the left side) in this manvantara of ours.
It is the same, esoterically, in the Elohistic Genesis (chap.
i.), and in the Jehovistic copy, as in Hindu cosmogony.
** It is very surprising to see theologians and Oriental scholars express indignation at the " depraved taste of the Hindu mystics" who, not content with having invented the "Mind-born" Sons of Brahma, make the Rishis, Manus, and Prajapatis of every kind spring from various parts of the body of their primal Progenitor -- Brahma (see Wilson's footnote in his Vishnu Purana, Vol.
I., p.
102).
Because the average public is unacquainted with the Kabala, the key to, and glossary of, the much veiled Mosaic Books, therefore, the clergy imagines the truth will never out.
Let any one turn to the English, Hebrew, or Latin texts of the Kabala, now so ably translated by several scholars, and he will find that the Tetragrammaton, which is the Hebrew IHVH, is also both the "Sephirothal Tree"-- i.e.
, it contains all the Sephiroth except Kether, the crown -- and the united body of the "Heavenly man" (Adam Kadmon) from whose limbs emanate the Universe and everything in it.
Furthermore, he will find that the idea in the Kabalistic Books (the chief of which in the Zohar are the "Books of Concealed Mystery," of the "Greater," and the "Lesser Holy Assembly") is entirely phallic and far more crudely expressed than is the four-fold Brahma in any of the Puranas.
(See " Kabala Unveiled, " by Mr.
S.
L.
Mathers, Chap.
xxii., concerning the remaining members of Microprosopus).
[[Vol.
2, Page]] 626 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
There are two Tetragrammatons: the Macro and the Microprosopus.
The first is the absolute perfect Square, or the T ETRACTIS within the Circle, both abstract conceptions, and is therefore called A IN -- the Non-being, i.e ., illimitable or absolute Be-ness.
But when viewed as Microprosopus, or the "Heavenly man," the manifested Logos, he is the triangle in the square -- the sevenfold cube not the fourfold, or the plane Square.
For it is written in the same "Greater Holy Assembly" -- (83): "And concerning this, the children of Israel wished to know in their minds, like as it is written ( Exod.
xvii.
7.): 'Is the Tetragrammaton in the midst of us, or the Negatively Existent One?'* ( Where did they distinguish between Microprosopus, who is called Tetragrammaton, and between Macroprosopus, who is called A IN, Ain the negatively existent?) "** Therefore, Tetragrammaton is the THREE made four and the FOUR made three, and is represented on this Earth by his seven "companions," or "Eyes" -- the "Seven eyes of the Lord." Microprosopus is, at best, only a secondary manifested Deity.
Attributing human characteristics, emotions, or form to the divine; embodied divine imagery.
The passage extensively describes divine creation through bodily imagery: Brahma's head, hair, brain, and limbs; the 'phallic' nature of Kabbalistic books; the 'remaining members of Microprosopus' — all attributing human form and anatomy to the divine.
Describing the divine only by negation—God transcends all positive categories and concepts; the via negativa.
The supreme principle is defined by negation: 'A IN — the Non-being,' 'the Negatively Existent One,' and the question 'Is the Tetragrammaton in the midst of us, or the Negatively Existent One?' frames the divine through what it is not.
A secondary creator deity—often ignorant or malevolent—responsible for fashioning the material world, distinct from the supreme transcendent God.
Microprosopus is explicitly called 'at best, only a secondary manifested Deity,' distinct from the absolute Macroprosopus/AIN, mapping directly onto the Gnostic distinction between the supreme hidden God and a secondary creator.
The infinite, unknowable aspect of the divine prior to and beyond all emanation; the hidden root from which the Sephirot unfold.
AIN is explicitly identified as 'the Non-being, i.e., illimitable or absolute Be-ness' and 'the Negatively Existent One' — the infinite, unknowable divine prior to all emanation, distinct from the manifested Tetragrammaton/Microprosopus.
A chain of divine beings or principles flowing downward from a single transcendent source (the One or the Father), each level less perfect than the one above.
The entire passage is structured around cascading emanation: Brahma's head → mind-born sons → Rishis → division of mankind; Macroprosopus → hair → Microprosopus → brain → thirty-two paths; Adam Kadmon's limbs emanating the Universe.
The doctrine that the cosmos unfolds as a structured descent of spirit into matter — a directional process traced stage by stage from an unconditioned principle down through successive planes to full materialization — complemented by its own eventual return ('evolution'). Distinct from emanation_hierarchy (the static structure of the resulting levels of the cascade) and cosmogony (a single originating event rather than an ongoing staged process) in naming the directional cosmic PROCESS of descent itself, paired with its own complementary ascent.
The passage explicitly describes 'seven descending and seven ascending degrees of spirit falling, and of matter ascending' as a 'two-fold creation' with a 'descending spiritual arc' and 'ascending physical arc,' naming the directional process of spirit's descent into matter and its return.
The divine reason, word, or ordering principle through which the universe was created; mediates between the transcendent God and the material world.
The Logos is explicitly named as 'the manifested' and identified with Brahma Prajapati and the 'Heavenly man' (Microprosopus), serving as the mediating principle between the absolute (Macroprosopus/AIN) and the created world.
The light-world beings of Sethian cosmology — the twelve androgynous luminaries, expanded to seventy-two and then three hundred sixty in numerical hierarchies — the structured population of the divine realm, each ruling its own aeons and heavens; distinct from aeons (the divine archetypes themselves) in being the administrative light-orders of the pleroma.
Rabbi Abba's declaration 'We six are lights which shine forth from a seventh (light)' and the 'Seven eyes of the Lord' / 'seven companions' of Tetragrammaton directly parallel the Sethian luminaries as structured light-beings of the divine realm.
The human being as a small-scale image of the entire cosmos; the body, soul, and intellect mirroring the structure of the heavens and the divine — distinct from correspondence in that it makes the human the privileged mirror.
Adam Kadmon (the 'Heavenly man') is described as the 'united body' from whose 'limbs emanate the Universe and everything in it,' making the divine human form the template for the entire cosmos.
The absolutely simple, undivided first principle from which all multiplicity and existence flows.
AIN is described as 'the absolute perfect Square... both abstract conceptions... illimitable or absolute Be-ness' — the absolutely simple, undivided first principle from which all multiplicity flows.
Numbers, proportions, and mathematical relationships as the underlying structure of divine reality.
The passage is saturated with numerical symbolism: seven Rishis, fourteen Manus, thirteen curls, thirty-two paths, the Tetractis in the Circle, the triangle in the square, the sevenfold cube, 'the THREE made four and the FOUR made three,' septiform calculation, and the Mahayuga of 4,320,000 years.
The ten attributes or emanations through which the Ein Sof (Infinite) reveals itself and creates the universe in Kabbalistic theology.
The 'Sephirothal Tree' is explicitly named and described as containing 'all the Sephiroth except Kether, the crown,' with the Tetragrammaton identified as both this tree and the united body of Adam Kadmon.