Chapter IX

THE TEINITY

All fruitful study of the Divine Existence
must start from the affirmation that it is
One. All the Sages have thus proclaimed
It; every religion has thus affirmed It;
every philosophy thus posits It — "One only
without a second."1 "Hear, 0 Israel!"
cried Moses, "The Lord our God is one
Lord."2 "To us there is but one God,"3
declares S. Paul. "There is no God but
God," affirms the founder of Islam, and
makes the phrase the symbol of his faith.
One Existence unbounded, known in Its ful-
ness only to Itself — the word It seems more
reverent and inclusive than He, and is
therefore used. That is the Eternal Dark-
ness, out of which is born the Light.

1 Chhdndogyopanishat, VI. ii. 1.

2 Deut. vi. 4. 3 1 Cor. viii. 6.

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But as the Manifested God, the One
appears as Three. A Trinity of Divine
Beings, One as God, Three as manifested
Powers. This also has ever been declared,
and the truth is so vital in its relation to
man and his evolution that it is one which
ever forms an essential part of the Lesser
Mysteries.

Among the Hebrews, in consequence of
their anthropomorphising tendencies, the
doctrine was kept secret, but the Eabbis
studied and worshipped the Ancient of Days,
from whom came forth the Wisdom, from
whom the Understanding — Kether, Choch-
mah, Binah, these formed the Supreme
Trinity, the shining forth in time of the
One beyond time. The Book of the Wis-
dom of Solomon refers to this teaching,
making Wisdom a Being. " According to
Maurice, 6 The first Sephira, who is denomin-
ated Kether the Crown, Kadmon the pure
Light, and En Soph the Infinite,1 is the om-
nipotent Father of the universe. . . . The

1 An error : En, or Ain, Soph is not one of the Trinity,
but the One Existence, manifested in the Three; nor is
Kadmon, or Adam Kadmon, one Sephira, but their totality.

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second is the Chochmah, whom we have
sufficiently proved, both from sacred and
Rabbinical writings, to be the creative Wis-
dom. The third is the Binah, or heavenly-
Intelligence, whence the Egyptians had
their Cneph, and Plato his Nous Demi-
urges. He is the Holy Spirit who . . . per-
vades, animates, and governs this boundless
universe. ' 55 1

The bearing of this doctrine on Christian
teaching is indicated by Dean Milman in
his History of Christianity. He says:
"This Being [the Word or the Wisdom] was
more or less distinctly impersonated, accord-
ing to the more popular or more philosophic,
the more material or the more abstract,
notions of the age or people. This was
the doctrine from the Ganges, or even the
shores of the Yellow Sea, to the Ilissus ; it
was the fundamental principle of the Indian
religion and the Indian philosophy; it was
the basis of Zoroastrianism ; it was pure
Platonism ; it was the Platonic Judaism of
the Alexandrian school. Many fine pass-

1 Quoted in Williamson's The Great Law, pp. 201, 202.
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ages might be quoted from Philo on the
impossibility that the first self-existing Be-
ing should become cognisable to the sense
of man; and even in Palestine, no doubt,
John the Baptist and our Lord Himself
spoke no new doctrine, but rather the com-
mon sentiment of the more enlightened,
when they declared 6 that no man had seen
God at any time. ' In conformity with this
principle the Jews, in the interpretation of
the older Scriptures, instead of direct and
sensible communication from the one great
Deity, had interposed either one or more in-
termediate beings as the channels of com-
munication. According to one accredited
tradition alluded to by S. Stephen, the law
was delivered 6 by the disposition of angels ' ;
according to another this office was de-
legated to a single angel, sometimes called
the Angel of the Law (see Gal. hi. 19); at
others the Metatron. But the more ordin-
ary representative, as it were, of God, to
the sense and mind of man, was the Memra,
or the Divine Word ; and it is remarkable
that the same appellation is found in the
Indian, the Persian, the Platonic, and the

254

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Alexandrian systems. By the Targumists,
the earliest Jewish commentators on the
Scriptures, this term had been already ap-
plied to the Messiah ; nor is it necessary to
observe the manner in which it has been
sanctified by its introduction into the Christ-
ian scheme." 1

As above said by the learned Dean, the
idea of the Word, the Logos, was universal,
and it formed part of the idea of a Trinity.
Among the Hindus, the philosophers speak
of the manifested Brahman as Sat-Chit-
Ananda, Existence, Intelligence, and Bliss.
Popularly, the Manifested God is a Trinity ;
Shiva, the Beginning and the End ; Vishnu,
the Preserver; Brahma, the Creator of the
Universe. The Zoroastrian faith presents
a similar Trinity ; Ahuramazdao, the Great
One, the First; then "the twins," the dual
Second Person — for the Second Person in a
Trinity is ever dual, deteriorated in modern
days into an opposing God and Devil — and
the Universal Wisdom, Armaiti. In
Northern Buddhism we find Amitabha, the

1 H. H. Milman. The History of Christianity, 1867, pp.
70-72.

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boundless Light ; Avalokiteshvara, the
source of incarnations, and the Universal
Mind, Mandjusri. In Southern Buddhism
the idea of God has faded away, but with
significant tenacity the triplicity re-appears
as that in which the Southern Buddhist
takes his refuge — the Buddha, the Dharma
(the Doctrine), the Sangha (the Order).
But the Buddha Himself is sometimes wor-
shipped as a Trinity ; on a stone in Buddha
Gaya is inscribed a salutation to Him as an
incarnation of the Eternal One, and it is
said: "Om! Thou art Brahma, Vishnu,
and Mahesha (Shiva). ... I adore Thee,
who art celebrated by a thousand names
and under various forms, in the shape of
Buddha, the God of Mercy."1

In extinct religions the same idea of a
Trinity is found. In Egypt it dominated
all religious worship. " We have a hieoro-
glyphical inscription in the British Museum
as early as the reign of Senechus of the
eighth century before the Christian era,
showing that the doctrine of Trinity in

1 Asiatic Researches, i. 285.
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The Trinity

Unity already formed part of their relig-
ion."1 This is true of a far earlier date.
Ra, Osiris, and Horns formed one widely
worshipped Trinity; Osiris, Isis, and Horns
were worshipped at Abydos; other names
are given in different cities, and the triangle
is the frequently used symbol of the Triune
God. The idea which underlay these Trin-
ities, however named, is shown in a passage
quoted from Marutho, in which an oracle,
rebuking the pride of Alexander the Great,
speaks of: " First God, then the Word, and
with Them the Spirit."2

In Chaldsea, Anu, Ea, and Bel were the
Supreme Trinity, Anu being the Origin of
all, Ea the Wisdom, and Bel the creative
Spirit. Of China Williamson remarks:
"In ancient China the emperors used to sac-
rifice every third year to ' Him who is one
and three.' There was a Chinese saying,
'Fo is one person but has three forms. ' . . .
In the lofty philosophical system known in
China as Taoism, a trinity also figures:

1 S. Sharpe. Egyptian Mythology and Egyptian Christ-
ology, p. 14.

2 See Williamson's The Great Law, p. 196.

17 257

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' Eternal Keason produced One, One pro-
duced Two, Two produced Three, and Three
produced all things,' which, as Le Compte
goes on to say, ' seems to show as if they
had some knowledge of the Trinity.'

In the Christian doctrine of the Trinity
we find a complete agreement with other
faiths as to the functions of the three Divine
Persons, the word Person coming from per-
sona, a mask, that which covers something,
the mask of the One Existence, Its Self-
revelation under a form. The Father is the
Origin and End of all ; the Son is dual in
His nature, and is the Word, or the Wis-
dom ; the Holy Spirit is the creative Intelli-
gence, that brooding over the chaos of prim-
eval matter organises it into the materials
out of which forms can be constructed.

It is this identity of functions under so
many varying names which shows that we
have here not a mere outer likeness, but an
expression of an inner truth. There is
something of which this triplicity is a mani-
festation, something that can be traced in

1Loc. Cit., pp. 208, 209.
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The Trinity

nature and in evolution, and which, be-
ing recognised, will render intelligible the
growth of man5 the stages of his evolving
life. Further, we find that in the universal
language of symbolism the Persons are dis-
tinguished by certain emblems, and may be
recognised by these under diversity of forms
and names.

But there is one other point that must be
remembered ere we leave the exoteric state-
ment of the Trinity — that in connection
with all these Trinities there is a fourth
fundamental manifestation, the Power cf
the God, and this has always a feminine
form. In Hinduism each Person in the
Trinity has His manifested Power, the One
and these six aspects making up the sacred
Seven. With many of the Trinities one
feminine form appears, then ever specially
connected with the Second Person, and then
there is the sacred Quaternary.

Let us now see the inner truth.

The One becomes manifest as the First
Being, the Self-Existent Lord, the Eoot of
all, the Supreme Father; the word Will, or
Power, seems best to express this primary
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Self -revealing, since until there is Will to
manifest there can be no manifestation, and
until there is Will manifested, impulse is
lacking for further unfoldment. The uni-
verse may be said to be rooted in the divine
Will. Then follows the second aspect of the
One^ — Wisdom; Power is guided by Wis-
dom, and therefore it is written that " with-
out Him was not anything made that is
made;"1 Wisdom is dual in its nature, as
will presently be seen. When the aspects
of Will and Wisdom are revealed, a third
aspect must follow to make them effective
— Creative Intelligence, the divine mind in
Action. A Jewish prophet writes: "He
hath made the earth by His Power, He hath
established the world by His Wisdom ; and
hath stretched out the heaven by His Un-
derstanding," 2 the reference to the three
functions being very clear.3 These Three
are inseparable, indivisible, three aspects of
One. Their functions may be thought of
separately, for the sake of clearness, but
cannot be disjoined. Each is necessary to

*S. John i, 3. 2Jer. li. 15,

3 See Ante, pp. 178, 179.
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The Trinity

each, and each is present in each. In the
First Being, Will, Power, is seen as pre-
dominant, as characteristic, but Wisdom
and Creative Action are also present ; in the
Second Being, Wisdom is seen as predomi-
nant, but Power and Creative Action are
none the less inherent in Him ; in the Third
Being, Creative Action is seen as predomi-
nant, but Power and Wisdom are ever also
to be seen. And though the words First,
Second, Third are used, because the Beings
are thus manifested in Time, in the order of
Self-unfolding, yet in Eternity they are
known as interdependent and co-equal,
"None is greater or less than Another."1

This Trinity is the divine Self, the divine
Spirit, the Manifested God, He that " was
and is and is to come,"2 and He is the root
of the fundamental triplicity in life, in con-
sciousness.

But we saw that there was a Fourth Per-
son, or in some religions a second Trinity,
feminine, the Mother. This is That which
makes manifestation possible, That which

1 Athanasian Creed.

261

2 Rev. iv. 8.

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eternally in the One is the root of limitation
and division, and which, when manifested,
is called Matter. This is the divine Not-
Self, the divine Matter, the manifested Nat-
ure. Regarded as One, She is the Fourth,
making possible the activity of the Three,
the Field of Their operations by virtue of
Her infinite divisibility, at once the "Hand-
maid of the Lord,"1 and also His Mother,
yielding of Her substance to form His Body,
the universe, when overshadowed by His
power.2 Regarded carefully She is seen to
be triple also, existing in three inseparable
aspects, without which She could not be.
These are Stability — Inertia or Resistance
— Motion, and Rhythm ; the fundamental
or essential qualities of Matter, these are
called. They alone render Spirit effective,
and have therefore been regarded as the
manifested Powers of the Trinity. Stability
or Inertia affords a basis, the fulcrum for
the lever; Motion is then rendered manifest,
but could make only chaos ; then Rhythm is
imposed, and there is Matter in vibration,

lS. Lukei. 38. 2 Ibid. , 35,

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capable of being shaped and moulded. When
the three qualities are in equilibrium, there is
the One, the Virgin Matter, unproductive.
When the power of the Highest overshad-
ows Her, and the breath of the Spirit comes
upon Her, the qualities are thrown out of
equilibrium, and She becomes the divine
Mother of the worlds.

The first interaction is between Her and
the Third Person of the Trinity; by His ac-
tion She becomes capable of giving birth to
form. Then is revealed the Second Person,
who clothes Himself in the material thus
provided, and thus becomes the Mediator,
linking in His own Person Spirit and mat-
ter, the Archetype of all forms, Only
through Him does the First Person become
revealed, as the Father of all Spirits.

It is now possible to see why the Second
Person of the Trinity of Spirit is ever dual ;
He is the One who clothes Himself in Mat-
ter, in whom the twin-halves of Deity ap-
pear in union, not as one. Hence also is He
Wisdom ; for Wisdom on the side of Spirit
is the Pure Eeason that knows itself as the
One Self and knows all things in that Self5
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and on the side of Matter it is Love, draw-
ing the infinite diversity of forms together,
and making each form a unit, not a mere
heap of particles — the principle of attraction
which holds the worlds and all in them in a
perfect order and balance. This is the Wis-
dom which is spoken of as " mightily and
sweetly ordering all things,"1 which sus-
tains and preserves the universe.

In the world-symbols, found in every relig-
ion, the Point — that which has position
only — has been taken as a symbol of the
First Person in the Trinity. On this symbol
S. Clement of Alexandria remarks that we
abstract from a body its properties, then
depth, then breadth, then length; "the
point which remains is a unit, so to speak,
having position ; from which if we abstract
position, there is the conception of unity."2
He shines out, as it were, from the infinite
Darkness, a Point of Light, the centre of a
future universe, a Unit, in whom all exists
inseparate ; the matter which is to form the

*Book of Wisdom, viii. 1.

2 Vol. IV. Ante-Nicene Library. S. Clement of Alex-
andria, Stromata, bk. V., ch. ii.

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The Trinity

universe, the field of His work, is marked
out by the backward and forward vibration
of the Point in every direction, a vast
sphere, limited by His Will, His Power.
This is the making of "the earth by His
Power," spoken of by Jeremiah.1 Thus the
full symbol is a Point within a sphere, repre-
sented usually as a Point within a circle.
The Second Person is represented by a Line,
a diameter of this circle, a single complete
vibration of the Point, and this Line is
equally in every direction within the sphere ;
this Line dividing the circle in twain signi
fies also His dualitj7, that in Him Matter
and Spirit — a unity in the First Person — are
visibly two, though in union. The Third
Person is represented by a Cross formed by
two diameters at right angles to each other
within the circle, the second line of the
Cross separating the upper part of the circle
from the lower. This is the Greek Cross.2

When the Trinity is represented as a
Unity, the Triangle is used, either inscribed
within a circle, or free. The universe is

1 See Ante, p. 260. 2 See Ante, p. 205.

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symbolised by two triangles interlaced, the
Trinity of Spirit with the apex of the trian-
gle upward, the Trinity of Matter with the
apex of the triangle downward, and if col-
ours are used, the first is white, yellow,
golden or flame-coloured, and the second
black, or some dark shade.

The kosmic process can now be readily
followed. The One has become Two, and
the Two Three, and the Trinity is revealed.
The Matter of the universe is marked out
and awaits the action of Spirit. This is the
"in the beginning" of Genesis, when "God
created the heaven and the earth," 1 a state-
ment further elucidated by the repeated
phrases that He "laid the foundations of
the earth; "2 we have here the marking out
of the material, but a mere chaos, " without
form and void." 3

On this begins the action of the Creative
Intelligence, the Holy Spirit, who "moved
upon the face of the waters,"4 the vast-
ocean of matter. Thus His was the first

1 Gen. i. 1. 2 Job xxxviii. 4; Zech. xii. 1; &c.
3 Gen. i. 2. 4 Ibid.

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activity, though He was the Third Person —
a point of great importance.

In the Mysteries this work was shown in
its detail as the preparation of the matter
of the universe, the formation of atoms, the
drawing of these together into aggregates,
and the grouping of these together into
elements, and of these again into gaseous,
liquid, and solid compounds. This work in-
cludes not only the kind of matter called
physical, but also all the subtle states of
matter in the invisible worlds. He further
as the " Spirit of Understanding" conceived
the forms into which the prepared matter
should be shaped, not building the forms,
but by the action of the Creative Intelli-
gence producing the Ideas of them, the
heavenly prototypes, as they are often
called. This is the work referred to when
it is written, He " stretched out the heaven
by His Understanding." 1

The work of the Second Person follows
that of the Third. He by virtue of His
Wisdom " established the world,"2 building

1 See Ante, p. 260.

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all globes and all things upon them, "all
things were made by Him."1 He is the
organising Life of the worlds, and all be-
ings are rooted in Him.2 The life of the
Son thus manifested in the matter prepared
by the Holy Spirit— again the great " Myth "
of the Incarnation — is the life that builds
up, preserves, and maintains all forms, for
He is the Love, the attracting power, that
gives cohesion to forms, enabling them to
grow without falling apart, the Preserver,
the Supporter, the Saviour. That is why
all must be subject to the Son,3 all must be
gathered up in Him, and why "no man
cometh unto the Father but by " Him. 4

For the work of the First Person follows
that of the Second, as that of the Second
follows that of the Third. He is spoken of
as "the Father of Spirits, " 5 the "God of the
Spirits of all flesh,"6 and His is the gift of
the divine Spirit, the true Self in man. The
human Spirit is the outpoured divine Life

1 S. John i. 3. 2 BJiagamd Gitd, ix. 4.

3 1 Cor. xv. 27, 28.

4 S. John xiv. 6. See also the further meaning of this
text on p. 270. 5 Heb. xii. 9. 6 Numb. xvi. 22.

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of the Father, poured into the vessel pre-
pared by the Son, out of the materials vivi-
fied by the Spirit. And this Spirit in man,
being from the Father — from whom came
forth the Son and the Holy Spirit — is a
Unity like Himself, with the three aspects
in One, and man is thus truly made "in our
image, after our likeness,"1 and is able to
become "perfect, even as your Father
which is in heaven is perfect."2

Such is the kosmic process, and in human
evolution it is repeated; "as above, so be-
low."

The Trinity of the Spirit in man, being in
the divine likeness, must show out the di-
vine characteristics, and thus we find in
him Power, which, whether in its higher
form of Will or its lower form of Desire,
gives the impulse to his evolution. We find
also in him Wisdom, the Pure Eeason,
which has Love as its expression in the
world of forms, and lastly Intelligence, or
Mind, the active shaping energy. And in
man also we find that the manifestation of

1 Gen. i. 26. 2 S. Matt, v. 48.

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these in his evolution is from the third to
the second, and from the second to the first.
The mass of humanity is unfolding the
mind , evolving the intelligence, and we can
see its separative action everywhere, isolat-
ing, as it were, the human atoms and de-
veloping each severally, so that they may be
fit materials for building up a divine Hu-
manity. To this point only has the race ar-
rived, and here it is still working.

As we study a small minority of our race,
we see that the second aspect of the divine
Spirit in man is appearing, and we speak of
it in Christendom as the Christ in man. Its
evolution lies, as we have seen, beyond the
first of the Great Initiations, and Wisdom
and Love are the marks of the Initiate,
shining out more and more as he develops
this aspect of the Spirit. Here again is it
true that "no man cometh to the Father
but by Me," for only when the life of the
Son is touching on completion can He pray :
"Now, 0 Father, glorify Thou Me with
Thine own Self, with the glory which I had
with Thee before the world was."1 Then

1 S. John xvii. 5.
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The Trinity

the Son ascends to the Father and becomes
one with Him in the divine glory ; He mani-
fests self-existence, the existence inherent
in his divine nature, unfolded from seed to
flower, for "as the Father hath life in Him-
self, so hath He given to the Son to have
life in Himself."1 He becomes a living
self-conscious Centre in the Life of God,
a Centre able to exist as such, no longer
bound by the limitations of his earlier life,
expanding to divine consciousness, while
keeping the identity of his life unshaken,
a living, fiery Centre in the divine Flame.

In this evolution now lies the possibility
of divine Incarnations in the future, as this
evolution in the past has rendered possi-
ble divine Incarnations in our own world.
These living Centres do not lose Their iden-
tity, nor the memory of Their past, of
aught that They have experienced in the
long climb upwards; and such a Self-con-
scious Being can come forth from the
Bosom of the Father, and reveal Himself
for the helping of the world. He has main-
tained the union in Himself of Spirit and

1 S. John v. 26.
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Matter, the duality of the Second Person —
all divine Incarnations in all religions are
therefore connected with the Second Person
in the Trinity — and hence can readily re-
clothe Himself for physical manifestation,
and again become Man,. This nature of the
Mediator He has retained, and is thus a link
between the celestial and terrestrial Trini-
ties, "God with us"1 He has ever been
called.

Such a Being, the glorious fruit of a past
universe, can come into the present world
with all the perfection of His divine Wis-
dom and Love, with all the memory of His
past, able by virtue of that memory to be
the perfect Helper of every living Being,
knowing every stage because He has lived
it, able to help at every point because He
has experienced all. "In that He Himself
hath suffered being tempted, He is able to
succour them that are tempted.'52

It is in the humanity behind Him that
lies this possibility of divine Incarnation ;
He comes down, having climbed up, in order

1 S. Matt. i. 22. 2 Heb. ii. 18.

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to help others to climb the ladder. And as
we understand these truths, and something
of the meaning of the Trinity, above and
below, what was once a mere hard unintel-
ligible dogma becomes a living and vivi-
fying truth. Only by the existence of the
Trinity in man is human evolution intelligi-
ble, and we see how man evolves the life of
the intellect, and then the life of the Christ.
On that fact mysticism is based, and our
sure hope that we shall know God. Thus
have the Sages taught, and as we tread the
Path they show, we find that their testi-
mony is true.

18

273