The Finns are a wonderfully simple nation, living in perfect touch and harmony with Nature. The old Finns clothed their perceptions of the world in a garland of sublime poetry. The Kalevala is more than 3,000 years old: it dates from the time when the Finnish tribes lived far south of their present home, probably on the Black Sea or the Caspian. The Finns are related to the peoples now settled on the tablelands of Tibet and Central Asia and stand to the Slavonian nations in the same mystical relation as the magicians and sorcerers of Thessaly stood to the rest of the Hellenes. In Russian folklore, Finn is almost a synonym of magician. Their cosmogonic myths and allegories are faithful echoes of the Dhyani-Chohans of the Secret Doctrine, a sublime radiation of Celestial Beings and fountainhead of humanity — formless on the plane of pure subjectivity — and their less spiritual emanations as they descend in the darkness of objectivity. Their beautiful duck corresponds exactly to Kalahamsa, the Swan out of Time and Space, convertible into the Swan in Time and Space of the Secret Doctrine.
The difference between Eternity and the “Seven Eternities” of the Secret Doctrine explained. Cosmic Pralaya differs greatly from deep sleep. Duration is infinite, time is a finite conception. Duration contains time but time has no duration. Space and duration are one and the same. One cannot image Space as not being. Space always is.
Book 2 of 17, translated from the Arabic by the Divine Doctor John Everard, next to the Greek which has probably descended from Psellus’ archetype. With Greek and English side-by-side. Thoth-Hermes Trismegistus is Self-created Logos, the Voice of Egypt’s Great Hierophants. The High Priest of Memphis and author of the Book of the Dead is simply a personification of the teachings of the sacerdotal caste of Egypt. Thus the Babylonian Nebo, the Egyptian Thoth, and the Greek Hermes, were all gods of Esoteric Wisdom and golden threads of destiny, i.e., agents of the Sun and revealers of the Secret Doctrine. Wisdom is inseparable from Divinity.
The Tetragrammaton is a mere mask concealing its connection with the supernal and the infernal worlds. Four statements, allegedly from the Kabbalah, which have been brought forward to oppose our septenary doctrine, are completely wrong. Ignorance is the curse of God. Knowledge barely understood is like a headstrong horse that throws the rider. Admitting ignorance is the first step to enlightenment. The four letters of the Tetragrammaton is a mere mask concealing its polar connection with the supernal and the infernal worlds. The Tetragrammaton is Microprosopus, a “Lesser Face,” and the infernal reflection of Macroprosopus, the “Limitless Face.” AHIH and IHVH are glyphs of existence and symbols of terrestrial-androgynous life; they cannot be confounded with EHEIEH which is the Parabrahman of the Vedantist, That of the Chhandogya Upanishad, The Absolute of Hegel, The One Life of the Buddhist, the Ain-Soph (the Hebrew Parabrahman). They are transient reflections of EHEIEH, and therefore illusions of separateness. The Tetragrammaton is a phantom veiled with four breaths. It is dual, triple, quaternary, and septenary. Man is cube unfolding as cross. The One is She, the Spirit of the Elohim of Life. The “lesser countenance” of the Tetragrammaton is the fourth kabbalistic world. “Father-Mother,” being of bisexual material, belong to the creative world, out of which the “Son” or Universe is formed. This “Son” is Microprosopus, a blind to conceal the septenary constitution of man from the profane. The Tetragrammaton is “Father-Mother-Son” or Jehovah, whose name is IHVH and whose letters, when read symbolically, can be interpreted in two or twelve ways. Jehovah is merely a composite name for membrum virile and Eve, a hermaphrodite. He is, in one sense, Noah (Hebrew Yah) or, literally translated, inch — the British inch! Jehovah-Tsebaoth refused to create, as the seven mind-born sons of Brahmā did, but instead fought and conquered the Dragon of Wisdom. Thus the child of matter and sin was born, and Divinity was hurled down into the bottomless pit. The Theosophist’s Deity is not the two-faced Tetragrammaton, but the Crown, which has nought to do with the material world. Madame Blavatsky declined union with the lower sevenfold and seven-lettered Jehovah, and preferred pinning her faith to Ain-Soph — Pure and Simple. The nature of the material world is also seven-fold. Is the Tetragrammaton in the midst of us, or the Negatively Existent One? Shekinah is primordial light emanating from the ever-concealed Ain-Soph. In the archetypal world she is Sephirah. In the material and formative worlds she becomes Shekinah, which is latent life and light. She is the Buddhi of the physical body. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil has seven branches, on each of which are four leaves and three fruits. Anyone endowed with a moderate dose of ingenuity can make what he likes of the unpointed Hebrew words and letters. But the explanations herewith presented require nothing but knowledge of the Seventh Esoteric Key. There now follow six different readings of the first word only (B’rashith) in Genesis — one of countless examples of Christian deceit and scriptural manipulation. Madame Blavatsky always sought conciliation with disputants over doctrinal mistakes or misinterpretations, and shunned quarrels and point-scoring. The Occultist prefers working for the Cause and the triumph of Truth with all his heart and soul, than prevailing over piffling disputations. Materialism is raising its ghastly head higher than ever. Pontifications of an anti-kabbalistic champion of modern science. The whole essence of Truth cannot be transmitted from mouth to ear. Nor can any pen describe it, not even that of the recording Angel, unless man finds the answer in the sanctuary of his own heart, in the innermost depths of his divine intuitions. A spurious prophecy attributed to Hosea See how, by the Notarikon method of kabbalistic reading, one could make biblical sentences read almost anything. The Seven Scales of Consciousness Every sense is primarily a mental sense. The transference of a sensation from any organ to consciousness is nearly instantaneous. The Occultist should train himself to receive and transmit along the line of the seven scales of his consciousness every impression simultaneously. He who does this quicker progresses faster. The consciousness of the Higher Ego is atomic and spiritual, and so are the atoms which form the higher principles of the man. That of the lower ego is molecular, forming around the atoms, and is normally invisible unless condensed. The Higher Ego, being the subject of every state of consciousness, is Absolute Unity. Knowing, feeling, and willing are not faculties of the lower mind.
What is Divine Logos? 1. A “Breath of Darkness” moving over “the slumbering Waters of Life,” i.e., primordial substance awakened by latent Consciousness. 2. A Ray descending from “no-place” and shooting “like a falling star through the planes of non-being into the first world of being,” of the Secret Doctrine. 3. Brahma, the first god of the Hindu Trimurti. 4. “Passive Wisdom in Heaven and Conscious, Self-Active Wisdom on Earth.” 5. The Ain-Soph of the Kabbalist. 6. The First Cause of the Bible. 7. “The Germ that dwelleth in darkness and breathes [moves] over [in] the slumbering waters of life,” of the Secret Doctrine. 8. The “Highest Consciousness” of the Occultist or, to be more precise, “the sum total of Dhyani-Chohanic consciousness.” 9. The Ishvara of the Indian Mystic. 10. The Monas of Pythagoras.
Fohat, the Light of Logos, shapes the atoms from crude material, which is as yet invisible to us. Since sound and rhythm are closely related to the Four Elements of the Ancients, the potency of the spoken word awakens their corresponding powers with good or bad results. As the differentiation of the Divine Monas precedes the evolution of the Dhyani-Chohans of the Third Hierarchy of Being in the primary creation, before those Devas can occupy their first ethereal form, so animal creation has to precede the evolution of man on earth. Then the Great Breath vibrates and differentiates the primordial, first manifested Atom. How could you make yourself understood by those semi-intelligent Forces, whose means of communication with us are not through spoken words but through sounds and colours in correlated vibrations between the two? By employing sound, light and colours, which are understood by these grades of intelligence. Light and heat are ghosts of matter in motion. Natural-born magicians are those whose inner selves are connected, by reason of their direct descent, with that group of Dhyani-Chohans who are “the first-born of Ether.” No substance possesses any inherent gustatory or olfactory property. Taste and odour are mere sensations caused by vibrations — hence illusionary perceptions. We taste and smell in our dreams and visions. Akasha is primordial substance, the vehicle of Divine Thought. Knowledge of Akasha and other mysteries can alone lead to knowledge of the Forces of Nature. Could air exist if there were no etheric medium in Space to buoy up its molecules? The waves and undulations of Science are all produced by atoms propelling their molecules into activity from within. Atoms fill the immensity of Space and, by their continuous vibration, are Eternal Motion (Atman), cyclic and spiral, which keeps the wheels of Life rolling.
Bewitchment, whether voluntary or involuntary, physical or moral is a homicide — and the more infamous because it eludes self-defence by the victim and punishment by law. Moral maladies are far more contagious than physical. Some triumphs of infatuation are comparable to leprosy or cholera. Bewitchment by means of currents is exceedingly common, morally as well as physically; most of us are carried away by the crowd. Absolute hatred, unleavened by rejected passion or personal cupidity, is a death sentence for its object. Black magic is a graduated combination of sacrileges and murders designed for the perversion of the human will. It is the religion of the devil, the cultus of darkness, and the hatred of good carried to the height of paroxysm. Not only do the wicked torment the good, but the good torture the wicked unconsciously. We may die through love as well as through hate, for there are absorbing passions under the breath of which we feel depleted like the spouses of vampires. Antipathy is the presentiment of a possible bewitchment, either of love or hatred, for we find love frequently succeeding repulsion. Instantaneous sympathies and electric infatuations are explosions of the astral light, which is akin to the discharge of strong magnetic batteries. Bewitchment by a will persistently confirmed in ill-doing, cannot be pulled back without risk of death. The spell may be staved off by substitution or deflection of the astral current. But the sorcerer who releases a spell must have another object for his malevolence, or he himself will perish by his own spell because every poisoned magnetic emission that cannot reach its target will return with force to its point of departure. Virtue is one of the elixirs of long life and well-being. While vice is hid by hypocrisy, virtue is suspected to be hypocrisy. Sorcery, whether by spells or love-potions, is venomous magic. We write not to instruct but to warn. Sorcerers are often poor country folks, repulsed by all, and therefore afflicted by enduring bitterness. The fear which they inspired was their consolation and their revenge. Magical emblems and characters, engraved on amulets and talismans, are relics of old religious rites, the meaning of which is no longer understood. Only harmlessness and brotherhood in thought and deed, coupled with non-resistance to evil, can shield us from evil. Real protection comes from personal merit and virtue, not from talismans. Nought is permitted to the virtuous man. Love, above all in a woman, is a veritable hallucination; for want of a prudent motive, it will frequently select an absurd one. Cyanide, when not lethal, will enfeeble the mind already poisoned by an evil will. Stay clear of bitter almonds (as well as the kernels of apricot, peach, and cherry), almond flavour extracts such as Amaretto, almond milk, soaps, and perfumes, Datura stramonium, and other hallucinogens. Tobacco, by smoking or otherwise, is a dangerous and stupefying philtre and brain poison. Nicotine is not less deadly than cyanide. Moreover, the latter is present in tobacco in larger quantities than in bitter almonds. But the most terrific of all philtres is the exaltation of misdirected devotion. By fuelling the imagination, excessive fear becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Goodness is much stronger than evil. Rise then above childish fears and dumb desires. Stamp out evil influence by controlling unbridled imagination and fanciful speculation. Believe in supreme wisdom for true wisdom cannot ensnare your intelligence. Poisons can may make you ill but never immoral. Weakness sympathises with vice because vice itself is a weakness that assumes the mask of strength. Madness holds reason in horror, and delights in the exaggerations of falsehood. Every human being, whether magus or not, should oppose violence by mildness, chastise evil by good, cruelty by tenderness. There can be nothing more dangerous than to make magic a pastime, or part of an evening’s entertainment. Magnetic experiments, performed under such conditions, can only exhaust the subjects, mislead opinions, and defeat science. The milder and calmer you are, the more effective will be your anger; the more energetic you are, the more precious will be your forbearance; the more skilful you are, the better will you profit by your intelligence and even by your virtues; the more indifferent you are, the more easily will you make yourself loved. Excessive love produces antipathy; blind hate counteracts and scourges itself; vanity leads to abasement and the most cruel humiliations. Remember that the magus is sovereign, and a sovereign never avenges because he has the right to punish; in the exercise of this right he performs his duty, and is implacable as justice. The way to see clearly is not to be always looking; and he who spends his whole life upon a single object will not attain it. Ceremonies are methods to create a habit of will, however, redundant when the habit is firmly established. We will now expose and stigmatise some of the most abhorrent acts. What sorcerers seek above all, in their evocations of the impure spirit, is that magnetic power which is the possession of the true adept, so that they can shamefully abuse it. Providence seems to scorn those who despise the martyrs, and to slay those who would deprive them of life. The terrible menace of hell inflicted by Christianity upon its flock has created more nightmares, more nameless diseases, more furious madness, than all vices and excesses combined. That is what the Hermetic artists of the middle ages represented by the incredible and unheard-of monsters, which they carved at the doors of basilicas. Moral equilibrium rests upon the immutable distinction between true and false, good and bad; one must place himself, by his works, in the empire of truth and goodness or relapse eternally, like the rock of Sisyphus, into a pandemonium of falsehood and evil. Wash carefully your clothes before giving them away. In times of epidemic the terror-struck are the first to be attacked. The secret of not fearing evil is to ignore it altogether. The wise men have scarcely any sorceries to fear, save those of fortune, but when called upon to advise they must persuade the bewitched to do some act of goodness to his bewitcher, to render him some service which he cannot refuse, and lead him to the communion of salt. The chemist imitates nature, the alchemist surpasses nature herself. Chemistry decomposes and recombines material substances, it purifies simple substances of foreign elements, but leaves the primitive elements unchanged. Alchemy changes the character of things, and raises them up into higher states of existence. As all the powers of the universe are potentially contained in us, our body and its organs are the representatives of the powers of nature and a constellation of the same powers that formed the stars in the sky.
The Good is the Centre; the Intellectual-Principle, an unmoving circle; Soul, a circle in motion. All good souls dwell in the far-spread heavens, infusing life into the stars, consciously moving around the One Centre, seeking nothing beyond. Eternity is stable in Unity. All is bound to The Good, but The Good to none: It is the object of all aspiration. In Unity there can be no knowing. The One can only know Itself through Plurality. But in the great illusion of form, The One stands distinct and apart: it is present without being inherent.
The Solitary Ray, shooting like a falling star through the planes of Non-being into the First World of Being, the Noumenal World of Truth, gives birth to the Ideal Triangle, before withdrawing whence it had come. The Solitary Ray is the Pythagorean Monad. It strides through the Seven Regions of the Universe in three steps: First Logos, The One. Second Logos, The One made Three, concreting into Third Logos, where the Three live within The One, thus making up the Perfect Square in heaven — and a Cube on earth. Terrestrial number 2 is useless and unlucky. Twin serpents conceal the One from the many. The Seven Rays of Logos, 3 + 4, are Three Principles + Four Vehicles on the material plane. They vivify Seven Worlds of Being, symbolised by the Ladder, as follows: Absolute, Archetypal, Spiritual, Manasic, Psychic, Astral, and Elemental. The Earth is no World.
Cosmic Fire is Deity in its universality. Hermetic Fire is the Spirit of the Truth. Crux ansata is the true Cross, Arani and Pramantha are its symbols. Swastika is Fire Crucified, the 3 made 4.
