The Tarot of the Bohemians (Papus) · 74 of 134 · tr. A.P. Morton
Chapter XIV (part 5)
Osiris , the author of being, the source of all life, is Goodness.
"The Egyptian god is called Amen when he is regarded as the hidden force which brings all things to the light; he is Ptah when he accomplishes all things with skill and truth; lastly, when he is the good and beneficent god, he is named Osiris ."--JAMBLIQUE Indeterminable Principle RA Divine Trinity : + AMEN - PTAH ∞ OSIRIS HINDU THEOGONY.
Indeterminable Principle PARABRAHM: + BRAHMA Creator - VISHNU Preserver ∞ SIVA Transformer Here is an analysis of this conception applied to Cosmogony.-- PRIMITIVE, HINDU COSMOGONY, ACCORDING TO THE RIG-VEDA.
There was neither being nor no-being, nor ether, nor the roof of the heavens; nothing enveloping nor enveloped.
There was neither death nor immortality; nothing separated the darkness of night from the light of day.
But That One, the HE, breathed alone with HER, whose life was sustained in his breast.
Of all those who have existed since that time, no other then existed.
The darkness covered them like an ocean, which cannot be lightened.
This universe was indistinct, like the fluids mingled with the waters; but this mass, which was covered by a crust, was at last organized by the power of contemplation.
The first wish was formed in its intelligence, and it became the original productive seed.
This productive seed became Providence or sensitive souls ; and Matter or Elements , SHE who was supported in his breast was the inferior part, and HE who observes was the superior part.
Who can know exactly, and who in this world can assert, from whom or how this creation took place?
The gods are posterior to this creation of the world.
KABBALISTIC THEOGONY.
Indeterminable Principle EN SOPH The Absolute Divine Trinity : + CHOCMAH Absolute Wisdom - BINAH Absolute Intelligence ∞ KETHER Absolute Equilibrist Power We might carry these comparisons much further; but it is useless to prolong our studies unreasonably.
The curious reader can refer to the works on the ancient theogonies, and see the universal harmony that exists in the primitive principles of all religions.
It will be sufficient if we determine the universality of the three first principles, which we name, like the Christians, in order to be clearly understood-- + GOD THE FATHER - GOD THE SON ∞ GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT These principles once defined, we shall see them in action throughout creation.
The first principle had manifested its existence to itself in the second principle named by Christians: the Son.
Lastly, these two principles had embodied themselves in the third, which gave them substance.
This is why we have named the Holy Spirit the body of God.
Now the same law of creation acting in the affinities of the first principle with the second, will manifest itself in the action of the first ternary upon itself, to give birth to the following Trinity:-- God the Father , the principle of Will , is entirely self-reflected in the rough ADAM, the principle of Power ; God the Son , the principle of Intelligence , is self-reflected in the gentle EVE, the principle of Authority .
Lastly, God as a whole, or God the Holy Spirit, clothed these two mystical unities in a body, and made a reality of them in the balanced creation of Adam-Eve, or of HUMANITY.
Humanity , the image of Love , also contains in itself a rough, astringent principle (see Jacob Boëhm ), and a gentle, insinuating principle (Jacob Boëhm).
The first of these principles, symbolized by Adam, is the origin of brute Force, of Power in all its manifestations.
Describing the divine only by negation—God transcends all positive categories and concepts; the via negativa.
The Rig-Veda quote describes the primordial state as 'neither being nor no-being' and asks 'Who can know exactly... from whom or how this creation took place?'.
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 author explicitly seeks to determine the 'universality of the three first principles' across different religions and maps divine principles (Father/Son/Spirit) onto human archetypes (Adam/Eve/Humanity).
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.
A significant portion of the text is dedicated to comparing and quoting narratives of cosmic origin from Egyptian, Hindu (Rig-Veda), Kabbalistic, and Christian traditions.
Pronoia — the doctrine that the divine actively orders the unfolding of the cosmos and human affairs toward intelligible ends, against pure chance or blind necessity.
The text mentions 'Providence or sensitive souls' arising from the productive seed in the Hindu cosmogony section.
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 passage outlines a structured flow from an Indeterminable Principle through various trinities (Egyptian, Hindu, Kabbalistic, Christian) down to the creation of Humanity.
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 Rig-Veda quote mentions creation occurring through 'power of contemplation' and the 'first wish was formed in its intelligence'.