Man, like Micawber, may exclaim: "The Spirit of my Creator is inherent within me-- and yet I am not HE!" How different this from the shocking half-truth so vociferously announced by certain of the half-wise, who fill the air with their raucous cries of: "I am God!" Imagine poor Micawber, or the sneaky Uriah Heep, crying: "I Am Dickens"; or some of the lowly clods in one of Shakespeare's plays, eloquently announcing that: "I Am Shakespeare!" THE ALL is in the earthworm, and yet the earth-worm is far from being THE ALL.
And still the wonder remains, that though the earth-worm exists merely as a lowly thing, created and having its being solely within the Mind of THE ALL--yet THE ALL is immanent in the earthworm, and in the particles that go to make up the earth-worm.
Can there be any greater mystery than this of "All in THE ALL; and THE ALL in All?" The student will, of course, realize that the illustrations given above are necessarily imperfect and inadequate, for they represent the creation of mental images in finite minds, while the Universe is a creation of Infinite Mind--and the difference between the two poles separates them.
And yet it is merely a matter of degree--the same Principle is in operation--the Principle of Correspondence manifests in each--"As above, so Below; as Below, so above." And, in the degree that Man realizes the existence of the Indwelling Spirit immanent within his being, so will he rise in the spiritual scale of life.
This is what spiritual development means--the recognition, realization, and manifestation of the Spirit within us.
Try to remember this last definition--that of spiritual development.
It contains the Truth of True Religion.
There are many planes of Being--many sub-planes of Life--many degrees of existence in the Universe.
And all depend upon the advancement of beings in the scale, of which scale the lowest point is the grossest matter, the highest being separated only by the thinnest division from the SPIRIT of THE ALL.
And, upward and onward along this Scale of Life, everything is moving.
All are on the Path, whose end is THE ALL.
All progress is a Returning Home.
All is Upward and Onward, in spite of all seemingly contradictory appearances.
Such is the message of the Illumined.
The Hermetic Teachings concerning the process of the Mental Creation of the Universe, are that at the beginning of the Creative Cycle, THE ALL, in its aspect of Being, projects its Will toward its aspect of "Becoming" and the process of creation begins.
It is taught that the process consists of the lowering of Vibration until a very low degree of vibratory energy is reached, at which point the grossest possible form of Matter is manifested.
This process is called the stage of Involution, in which THE ALL becomes "involved," or "wrapped up," in its creation.
This process is believed by the Hermetists to have a Correspondence to the mental process of an artist, writer, or inventor, who becomes so wrapped up in his mental creation as to almost forget his own existence and who, for the time being, almost "lives in his creation," If instead of "wrapped" we use the word "rapt," perhaps we will give a better idea of what is meant.
The Hermetic axiom that the structure of the cosmos is reflected at every scale — 'as above, so below; as within, so without' — making each level a legible map of the others.
The text explicitly cites the Hermetic axiom 'As above, so Below; as Below, so above' as a central principle manifesting in each level of being.
Narratives or doctrines of cosmic origin — how heaven, earth, and the primordial deities first came into being. The Kojiki's deities born alone on the Plain of High Heaven, Voluspo's Ginnungagap, Genesis's tohu wa-bohu, the Timaeus's Demiurge fashioning the Receptacle, the Hesiodic Theogony, the Kalevala's egg-cosmogony, Egyptian Nun-and-Atum. Distinct from emanation_hierarchy (structural-ontological cascade), letters_of_creation (mechanism of creation), and apocatastasis/frashokereti (end-state restoration); cosmogony is temporally-narrative beginning.
The text outlines a specific narrative of cosmic origin involving THE ALL projecting Will and lowering vibration to manifest matter (Involution).
The supreme God's radical concealment beyond ordinary knowledge or perception; the Hidden Father.
The passage describes THE ALL becoming 'involved,' or 'wrapped up,' in its creation during Involution, suggesting a concealment of the source within matter.
The doctrine of the universe as boundless and without center or circumference, populated by innumerable worlds — Bruno's rejection of the closed Aristotelian sphere; the divine and the cosmos as ontologically infinite.
The text mentions the 'Universe is a creation of Infinite Mind' and contrasts finite minds with the infinite nature of THE ALL.
The divine spark or luminous quality residing within the human person, potentially recognisable through introspection.
The text defines spiritual development as the 'recognition, realization, and manifestation of the Spirit within us' and mentions the 'Indwelling Spirit immanent within his being.'
The Hermetic doctrine that THE ALL is Mind, and the Universe is mental in nature — a created thought held in the mind of THE ALL. Distinct from unity_of_being in specifying WHAT the underlying oneness is (mind, not an unspecified single substance), and from logos (a mediating ordering word BETWEEN a transcendent God and a separate material world) in collapsing that mediation entirely — under mentalism there is no world outside mind to mediate to.
The text states the Universe is a 'creation of Infinite Mind' and describes THE ALL projecting its Will in a process analogous to an artist's mental creation.
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.
The passage implies the human contains the Spirit of the Creator ('inherent within me') and reflects the universal principle of 'All in THE ALL.'
The recognition of one's own true divine nature as the primary path to liberation; 'know thyself' as soteriology.
The passage links spiritual development to the realization of the Spirit within, implying that knowing this inner nature is key to rising in the spiritual scale.
The doctrine that all existence is ultimately one substance or one divine reality; non-duality as a theological claim.
The passage centrally argues that 'THE ALL is in the earthworm' and 'All in THE ALL; and THE ALL in All,' emphasizing the fundamental oneness of existence.
The Hermetic doctrine that nothing rests — matter, energy, mind, and spirit are a single continuum differing only in rate of vibration, from the grossest matter to the least material spirit. Distinct from cosmic_sympathy (affinity resonating BETWEEN separate things) in being a claim about what constitutes any one thing in the first place, and from magical_equilibrium (Lévi's operational balancing technique, which presupposes some vibration doctrine rather than stating this general principle).
The passage details the 'lowering of Vibration' as the mechanism of creation and describes the scale of life from grossest matter to Spirit based on vibratory energy.