CHAPTER V.

" Learn to know all, but keep diyself unknown.*— Gnostic BCaxim.
"There it one God supreme over all gods, diviner than mortaisp Whose form is not like unto man*s, and as unlike his nature ; But vain mortals imagine that gods lik* tJUmtelves art begotten M^th human sensations, smd voice, and corporeal members.**
— ^XsNOPHANBS : CUm, AL Strom., v. 14, $ inx
**TycmAvm». — Can you tell me the reason, Philodes, why most men desire to lye, smd delight not only to jqieak fictions themselves, but give busie attention to others who do f
*' Philoclrs. — ^There be many reasons, Tychiades, which compdl some to speak lyes, because thej we 'tis profitable."—^ Dialogue 0/ Luciam.
** Spaktan.— Is it to thee, or to God, diat I must confess T
"Pribst.— ToGod.
** Spartan. — ^Then, man, stand bade ! ** — Plutarch : RetttarAabie Lacedemonian Saying*,
WE will now give attention to some of the most important Mysteries of the KabalUy and trace their relations to the philosophical myths of various nations.
In the oldest Oriental Kabala^ the Deity is represented as three cir- cles in one, shrouded in a certain smoke or chaotic exhalation. In the preface to the Sohar, which transforms the three primordial circles into Three Heads, over these is described an exhalation or smoke, neither black nor white, but colorless, and circumscribed within a circle. This is the unknown Essence.* The origin of the Jewish image may, perhaps, be traced to Hermes* Pimander^ the Egyptian Logos^ who appears within a cloud of a humid nature, with a smoke escaping from it. f In the Sohar the highest God is, as we have shown in the preceding chapter, and as in the case of the Hindu and Buddhist philosophies, a pure abstraction, whose objective existence is denied by the latter. It is Hakama, the " Supreme Wisdom, that cannot be understood by reflection," and that lies within 'and without the Cranium of Long Face J (Sephira), the uppermost of the three " Heads." It is the " boundless and the infinite En-Soph," the No-Thing.
The " three Heads," superposed above each other, are evidently taken from the three mystic triangles of the Hindus, which also superpose each other. The highest " head " contains the Trinity in Chaos ^ out of which springs the manifested trinity. En-Soph, the unrevealed forever, who is
♦ *' Kabbala Denudata ; " preface to the ** Sohar," it, p. 242.
t Sec Champollion*s *« Egypte." % ** Idra Rabba," vl, p. 58.
THE SUPREME ESSENCE NOT THE CREATOR. 213
boundless and unconditioned, cannot create, and therefore it seems to us a great error to attribute to him a " creative thought," as is commonly done by the interpreters. In every cosmogony this supreme Essence is passive ; if boundless, infinite, and unconditioned, it can have no thought nor idea. It acts not as the result of volition, but in obedience to its own nature, and according to the fatality of the law of which it is itself the embodiment. Thus, with the Hebrew kabalists, En-Soph is non-existent Vi?, for it is incomprehensible to our finite intellects, and therefore cannot exist to our minds. Its first emanation was Sephira, the crown nna. When the time for an active period had come, then was produced a natural expansion of this Divine essence from within outwardly, obedient to eter- nal and immutable law ; and from this eternal and infinite light (which to us is darkness) was emitted a spiritual substance,* This was the First Sephiroth, containing in herself the other nine nin^BO Sephiroth, or intel- ligences. In their totality and unity they represent the archetypal man, Adam Kadmon, the irpon-oyovos, who in his individuality or unity is yet dual, or bisexual, the Greek DidumoSy for he is the prototyi>e of all humanity. Thus we obtain three trinities, each contained in a " head.'* In the first head, or face (the three-faced Hindu Trimurti), we find Sephira y the first androgyne, at the apex of the upper triangle, emit- ting Ilackama, or Wisdom, a masculine and active potency — also called Jah, m— — and Binah^ na^a, or Intelligence, a female and passive potency, alfio represented by the name Jehovah mn^. These three form the first trinity or " face " of the Sephiroth. This triad emanated Hesed^ non, or Mercy, a masculine active potency, also called -£/, from which emanated Geburah •j-*"'* or Justice, also called Eloha, a feminine passive potency ; from the union of these two was produced Tiphereth n-^en, Beauty, Clemency, the Spiritual Sun, known by the divine name Elohim ; and the second triad, " face," or **head," was formed. These emanating, in their turn, the masculine potency Netzah^ nss, Firmness, or Jehovah Sabaoth, who issued the feminine passive potency Hod^ tin. Splendor, or Elohim Sabaoth ; the two produced Jesod, i'(o\ Foundation, who is the mighty living one El-Chai^ thus yielding the third trinity or " head." The tenth Sephiroth is rather a duad, and is represented on the diagrams as the lowest circle. It is Malchuth or Kingdom, maVa, and Shekinah n3'»a©, also called Adonai, and Cherubim among the angelic hosts. The first " Head" is called the Intellectual world ; the second *' Head " is the Sen- suous, or the world of Perception, and the third is the Material or Physical world. '
" Before he gave any shape to the universe," says the Kabala^ " before
♦ Idra Suta : " Sohar," il
214 ISIS UNVEILED.
he produced any form, he was alone without any form and resemblance to anything else. Who, then, can comprehend him, how he was before the creation, since he was formless ? Hence, it is forbidden to represent him by any form, similitude, or even by his sacred name, by a single letter, or a single point. . . . The Aged of the Aged, the Unknown of the Unknown, has a form, and yet no form. He has a form whereby the universe is preserved, and yet has no form, because he cannot be com- prehended. When he first assumed a form (in Sephira, his first emana- tion), he caused nine splendid lights to emanate from it." *
And now we will turn to the Hindu esoteric Cosmogony and defini- tion of ** Him who is, and yet is not."
" From him who is, f from this immortal Principle which exists in our minds but cannot be perceived by the senses, is bom Purusha, the Divine male and female, who became Narayana^ or the Divine Spirit moving on the water."
Swayarabhuva, the unknown essence of the Brahmans, is identical with En-Soph, the unknown essence of the kabalists. As with the latter, the ineffable name could not be pronounced by the Hindus, under the pen- alty of death. In the ancient primitive trinity of India, that which may be certainly considered as pre-Vedic, the germ which fecundates the mother -principle^ the mundane ^g'g^ or the universal womb, is called Niara^ the Spirit, or the Holy Ghost, which emanates from the primordial essence. It is like Sephira, the oldest emanation, called \h^ pritnor dial pointy and the White Head, for it is the point of divine light appearing from within the fathomless and boundless darkness. In Manu it is " Nara, or the Spirit of God, which moves on Ayana (Chaos, or place of motion), and is called Narayana, or moving on the waters." J In Hermes, the Egyptian, we read : " In the beginning of the time there was naught in the chaos." But when the ** verbum^*^ issuing from the void like a "colorless smoke," makes its appearance, then " this verbum moved on the humid princi- ple." § And in Genesis we find : " And darkness was upon the face of the deep (chaos). And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." In the Kabala, the emanation of the primordial passive principle (Sephira), by dividing itself into two parts, active and passive, emits Chochma- Wisdom and Binah- Jehovah, and in conjunction with these two acolytes, which complete the trinity, becomes the Creator of the abstract Universe ; the physical world being the production of later and still more material powers. \ In the Hindu Cosmogony, Swayambhuva emits
• Idra Suta : •' Sohar,'* iiu , p. 288 a. \ Ego sum qui sum (see " Bible "),
X See ** Institutes of Manu,'* translated by Sir William Jones. § ChampolUon. I We are fully aware that some Christian kabalists term En^Soph the *' Crown,"
ALL WORLD-RELIGIONS FUNDAMENTALLY IDENTICAL. 21$
Nara and Nari, its bisexual emanation, and dividing its parts into two lialves, male and female, these fecundate the mundane egg, within which develops Brahma, or rather Viradj, the Creator. " The starting-point of the Egyptian mythology," says Champollion, *' is a triad . . . namely, Kneph, Neith, and Phtah ; and Ammon, the male, the father ; Muth, the female and mother ; and Khons, the son.
The ten Sephiroth are copies taken from the ten Pr4djapatis created by Viradj, called the " Lords of all beings/' and answering to the bibli- cal Patriarchs.
Justin Martyr explains some of the '* heresies " of the day, but in a very unsatisfactory manner. He shows^ however^ the identity of all the world-religions at tJieir starting-points. The first beginning opens inva- riably with the unknown and passive deity, producing from himself a cer-
identify him with Sephira ; call En-.Soph '* an emanation from God,'* and make the ten Sephiroth comprise "En Soph" as a unity. They also very erroneously reverse the first two emanations of Sephira — Chochma and Binah. The greatest kabalists have always held Chochma (Wisdom) as a male and active intelligence, Jah n""» and placed it nnder the No. 2 on the right side of the. triangle, whose apex is the crown, while Binah (Intelligence) or XW^1% ^ under No. 3 ou the left hand. But the latter, being represented by its divine name as Jehovah nin*^* very naturally showed the God of ' I'Tael as only a third emanation, as well as a feminine, passive principle. Hence when the time came for the Talmudists to transform their multifarious deities into one living God, they resorted to their Masoretic points and combined to transform Jehovah into Adonai, " the Lord." This, under the persecution of the Mediaeval kabalists by the Church, also forced some of the former to change their female Sephiroth into male, and vice versa, so as to avoid being accused of di>respect and blasphemy to Jehovah ; whose name, moreover, by mutual and secret agreement they accepted as a iubstittUe for Jah, or the mystery name lAO. Alone the initiated knew of it, but later it gave rise to a great confusion among the uninitiated. It would be worth while — were it not for lack of space — to quote a few of the many passages in the oldest Jewish authorities, such as Rabbi Akiba, and the *' Sohar,^' which corroborate our assertion. Chochma- Wisdom b a male principle everywhere, and Binah- Jehovah, a female potency. The writings of Irenasus, Theodoret, and Epiphanius, teeming with accusations against the Gnostics and *' Haeresies," repeatedly show Simon Magus and Cercnthus making of Binah the feminine divine Spirit which inspired Simon. Binah is Sophia, and the Sophia of the Gnostics is surely not a male potency, but simply the feminine Wisdom, or Intelligence. (See any ancient "Arbor Kabbalistica," or Tree of the Sephiroth.) EHphas Levi, in the " Rituel dela Haute Magie," vol. L, pp. 223 and 231, places Choch- ma as No. 2 and as a male Sephiroth on the right hand of the Tree. In the " Kabala" tUe three male Sephiroth — Chochma, Chesed, Netsah — are known as the Pillar of Mercy • r.nd the three feminine on the left, namely, Binah, Geburah, Hod, are nametl the Pillar of Judgnient ; while the four Sephiroth of the centre — Kether, Tiphereth, Jesod, and Malchuth— are called the Middle Pillar. And, as Mackenzie, in the " Royal Masonic Cyclopaedia," shows, " there is an analogy in these three pillars to the three Pillars of Wiijdom, Strength, and Beauty m a Crafi I^dge of Masonry, while the En-Soph forms tlie mysterious blazing star, or mystic light of the East " (p. 407).
2l6 ISIS UNVEILED.
tain active power or virtue, " Rational," which is sometimes called Wisdom, sometimes the Son, very often God, Angel, Lord, and Logos.* The latter is sometimes applied to the very first emanation, but in several systems it proceeds from the first androgyne or double ray produced at the beginning by the unseen. Philo depicts this wisdom as male and female. But though its first manifestation had a beginning, for it pro- ceeded from Oulom \ (Ai6n, time), the highest of the -^ons, when emitted from the Fathers, it had remained with him before all creations^ for it is part of him. J Therefore, Philo J udaeus calls Adam Kadmon *•*• mind'^ (the Ennoia of Byihos in the Gnostic system). " The mind, let it be named Adam." §
Strictly speaking, it is difficult to view the Jewish Book of Genesis otherwise than as a chip from the trunk of the mundane tree of universal Cosmogony, rendered in Oriental allegories. As cycle succeeded cycle, and one nation after another came upon the world's stage to play its brief