Philosophia hermetica : a course of ten lessons, being an introduction to "The Philosophy of Alchemy,"
BF 1611 VfliflEEiTQDD : SS3HDNOD JO AHVHflLR J o_ * * < «? ^ -©lira * ^ ^ oVJIak* -^ ^ • , . ^ - -^ 0° '^W. °o > •« lilf : *>** " *<* ^ Philosophia Hermetica A Course of Ten Lessons, Being An Intro- duction to "The Philosophy of Alchemy*9 BY Dr. A. S. Raleigh (Hach Mactzin El Dorado Can.) Eierophant of the Mysteries of Isis, Publishers HERMETIC PUBLISHING COMPANY San Francisco, Calif. Distributors STERLING PUBLISHING COMPANY Chicago, U. S. A. 1916 *?i* COPYRIGHT. 1916 by A. S. RALEIGH Copyrighted and Registered at Stationers' Hall, London, England. (All Rights Reserved) COPYRIGHT IN ALL COUN- TRIES. SIGNATORIES TO THE BERNE CONVENTION the STERLING press MAY 29 1916 ©CU433188 $Iritrate lEirtttott of pjU00fljrffw ijtfrttwttra Jffor tty itaftttttiitrai Ha? of In evidence whereof it is strictly understood these Private Lessons must not be loaned as they come to you fully magnetised, and the magnetism must remain intact. &\$mb atti Btnteb tljtB . .iag of 101 .. / CONTENTS THOUGH UNMANIFEST GOD IS MOST MANIFEST. Text page 7 Lesson I. The God Beyond All Name 13 Lesson II. The Manifestation of God 27 Lesson III. The Manifest God 37 Lesson IV. The Unmanifest God 52 Lesson V. The Immanence of God 61 IN GOD ALONE IS GOOD AND ELSEWHERE NOWHERE. Text 75 Lesson VI. The Nature of the Good 79 Lesson VII. The Pleroma of the Bad 87 Lesson VIII. The Inherent Badness of Man 95 Lesson IX. The Beautiful and the Good 107 Lesson X. The Gnosis of the Good 115 DEDICATION To G. R. S. Mead, who through the publica- tion of his edition of the Sermons and Frag- ments of Hermes Trismegistos, under the title of Thrice Greatest Hermes; made it possible for the English Reading Public to gain access to the rich mine of Hermetic Wisdom contained therein; and in this way did a great deal in the great work of bringing the transcendental truths of Hermetic Philosophy to the knowl- edge of the Modern world ; who also through his work in reproducing the Gnosis through the medium of his writings on the Gnostic Fragments, but especially in his editing of the Gnostic Fragments ; thus aiding in the resto- ration of the Gnosis of the Mind, this series of Lessons on Hermetic Philosophy is lovingly dedicated. By the Author. PHILOSOPHIA HERMETICA Though Unmanifest God Is Most Manifest. (Text: G. R. S. Mead. Thrice Greatest Her- mes; Corpus Hermeticum (VI); G. Par- they, Hermetis Trismegisti, 41-48; Pat- rizzi, Nova de Universis Philosophia, 12b- 13b.) 1. I will recount to thee this sermon (logos) too, 0 Tat, that thou mayest cease to be with- out the mysteries of the God beyond all name. And mark thou well how That which to the many seems unmanifest, will grow most mani- fest for thee. Now, were It manifest, It would not be. For all that is made manifest is subject to becom- ing, for it hath been made manifest. But the Unmanifest forever is, for It doth not desire to be made manifest. It ever is, and maketh manifest all other things. Being Himself unmanifest, as ever being and ever making-manifest, Himself is not made manifest. God is not made Himself; by thinking-manifest, He thinketh all things manifest. Now "thinking-manifest" deals with things made alone, for thinking-manifest is nothing else than making. 2. He, then, alone who is not made, 'tis clear, is both beyond all power of thinking- manifest, and is unmanifest. And as He thinketh all things manifest, He manifests through all things and in all, and most of all in whatsoever things He wills to manifest. 8 PHILOSOPHIA HERMETIC A Do thou, then, Tat, my son, pray first unto our Lord and Father, the One-and-Only One, from whom the One doth come, to show His mercy unto thee, in order that thou mayest have the power to catch a thought of this so mighty God, one single beam of Him to shine into thy thinking. For thought alone "sees" the Unmanif est, in that it is itself unmanif est. If, then, thou hast the power, He will, Tat, manifest to thy mind's eyes. The Lord be- grudges not Himself to anything, but mani- fests Himself through the whole world. Thou hast the power of taking thought, of seeing it and grasping it in thy own "hands," and gazing face to face upon God's Image. But if what is within thee even is unmanif est to thee, how, then, shall He Himself who is within thy self be manifest for thee by means of [outer] eyes? 3. But if thou wouldst "see" Him, bethink thee of the sun, bethink thee of moon's course, bethink thee of the order of the stars. Who is the One who watcheth o'er that order? For every order hath its boundaries marked out by place and number. The sun's the greatest god of gods in heaven ; to whom all the heavenly gods give place as unto king and master. And he, this so-great one, he greater than the earth and sea, en- dures to have above him circling smaller stars than him. Out of respect to Whom, or out of fear of Whom, my son, [doth he do this] ? Nor like nor equal is the course each of these stars describes in heaven. Who [then] is He who marketh out the manner of their course and its extent? 4. The Bear up there that turneth round PHILOSOPHIA HEBMETICA itself, and carries round the whole cosmos with it — Who is the owner of this instru- ment? Who He who hath set round the sea its bounds? Who He who hath set on its seat the earth? For, Tat, there is someone who is the Maker and the Lord of all these things. It could not be that number, place and measure could be kept without someone to make them. No order whatsoever could be made by that which lacketh place and lacketh measure; nay; even this is not without a Lord, my son. For if the orderless lacks something, in that it is not lord of order's path, it also is beneath a lord — the one who hath not yet ordained it order. 5. Would it were possible for thee to get thee wings, and soar into the air, and, poised midway 'tween earth and heaven, behold the earth's solidity, the sea's fluidity (the flowing of its streams), the spaciousness of air, fire's swiftness, [and] the coursing of the stars, the swiftness of heaven's circuit round them [all] ! Most blessed sight were it, my son, to see all these beneath one sway — the motionless in motion, and the unmanifest made manifest; whereby is made this order of the cosmos and the cosmos which we see of order. 6. If thou would'st see Him too through things that suffer death, both on the earth and in the deep, think of a man's being fash- ioned in the womb, my son, and strictly scru- tinize the art of Him who fashions him, and learn who fashioneth this fair and godly image of the Man. Who [then] is He who traceth out the cir- 10 PHILOSOPHIA HEBMETICA cles of the eyes; who He who boreth out the nostrils and the ears; who He who openeth [the portal of] the mouth ; who He who doth stretch out and tie the nerves; who He who channels out the veins; who He who hardeneth the bones ; who He who covereth the flesh with skin; who He who separates the fingers and the joints ; who He who widens out a treading for the feet; who He who diggeth out the ducts ; who He who spreadeth out the spleen ; who He who shapeth heart like to a pyramid ; who He who setteth ribs together; who He who wideneth the liver out; who He who mak- eth lungs like to a sponge ; who He who mak- eth belly stretch so much; who He who doth make prominent the parts most honorable, so that they may be seen, while hiding out of sight those of least honor? 7. Behold how many arts [employed] on one material, how many labors on one single sketch ; and all exceeding fair, and all in per- fect measure, yet all diversified ! Who made them all? what mother, or what sire, save God alone, unmanifest, who hath made all things by His Will? 8. And no one saith a statue or a picture comes to be without a sculptor or [without] a painter; doth [then] such workmanship as this exist without a Worker? What depth of blindness, what deep impiety, what depth of ignorance! See, then, thou ne'er, son Tat, deprivest works of Worker! Nay, rather is He greater than all names, so great is He, the Father of them all. For verily He is the Only One; and this His work, to be a father. 9. So, if thou f orcest me somewhat too bold, PHILOSOPHIA HEBMETICA 11 to speak, His being is conceiving of all things and making [them]. And as without its maker it is impossible that anything should be, so ever is He not un- less He ever makes all things, in heaven, in air, in earth, in deep, in all of cosmos, in every part that is and that is not of every- thing. For there is naught in all the world that is not He. He is Himself, both things that are and things that are not. The things that are He hath made manifest, He keepeth things that are not in Himself. He is the God beyond all name ; He the un- manifest, He the most manifest; He whom the mind [alone] can contemplate, He visible unto the eyes [as well] ; He is the one of no body, the one of many bodies, nay, rather He of every body. Naught is there which He is not. For all are He and He is all. And for this cause hath He all names, in that they are one Father's. And for this cause hath He Himself no name, in that He's Father of [them] all. Who, then, may sing Thee praise of Thee, or [praise] to Thee? Whither, again, am I to turn my eyes to sing Thy praise; above, below, within, without? There is no way, no place [is there] about Thee, nor any other thing of things that are. All [are] in Thee; all [are] from Thee; 0 Thou who givest all takest naught, for Thou hast all and naught is there Thou hast not. 11. And when, 0 Father, shall I hymn Thee? For none can seize Thy hour or time. For what, again, shall I sing hymn? For things that Thou hast made, or things Thou 12 PHILOSOPHIA HERMETICA hast not? For things Thou hast made mani- fest, or things Thou hast concealed? How, further, shall I hymn Thee? As being of myself? As having something of mine own? As being other? For that Thou art whatever I may be ; Thou art whatever I may do ; Thou art whatever I may speak. For Thou art all, and there is nothing else which Thou art not. Thou art all that which doth exist, and Thou art what doth not exist, — Mind when Thou thinkest, and Father when Thou makest, and God when Thou dost ener- gize, and Good and Maker of all things. (For that the subtler part of matter is the air, of air the soul, of soul the mind, and of mind God.) LESSON I The God Beyond All Name Text: 1. I will recount for thee this sermon (logos) too, 0 Tat, that thou may'st cease to be without the mysteries of the God beyond all name. And mark thou well how That which to the many seems unmanifest, will grow most manifest for thee. Now, were It manifest, It would not be. For all that is made manifest is subject to becom- ing, for it hath been made, manifest. But the Unmanifest for ever is, for It doth not desire to be made manifest. It ever is, and maketh manifest all other things. Being Himself unmanifest, as ever being and ever making-manifest, Himself is not made manifest. God is not made Himself; by thinking-manifest, He thinketh all things manifest. Now "thinking-manif est" deals with things made alone, for thinking-manifest is nothing else than making. I will recount for thee this sermon (logos) too, 0 Tat, that thou may'st cease to be with- out the mysteries of the God beyond all name. And mark thou well how that which to the many seems unmanifest, will grow most man- ifest for thee. 13 14 PHILOSOPHIA EEBMETICA The subject matter of this sermon is the mys- tery of the God beyond all name. To enable one to understand the nature of the God beyond all name is the purpose of this discourse, and this knowl- edge must ever be the basic principle in Hermetic Philosophy. Without this understanding we can- not advance in the study of our subject. All of our Philosophy is based upon this knowledge and therefore, our first step must be to understand this mystery. First of all, we must understand just what is meant by being beyond all name. Words are composed of determinate numbers of syllables, each syllable representing a determinate sound. In spoken language, a definate sound is the result of a determinate modification of the breath, in such a manner as to produce that specific sound. Words are therefore combinations of sounds, and hence, combinations of definite modifications of the breath. Breath is air in motion, hence it has become the symbol of all energy acting under the impulse of an inward and outward motion, in other words the periodicity of Centripetal and Centrif- ugal motion. A word then, will be the synthesis of two or more modifications of force, the result being a complex or synthetic modification of force. We are told that words are the signs of Ideas, which means that an Idea causes the modification of force essential to give dynamic expression to it, and hence words are in reality the names of Ideas, and are at all times the correspondents of the Ideas which they express. In other words, the Ideative Faculty creates an Idea, which acts upon the dynamic will force, in such a way as to give dynamic expression to it, which, acting upon the vocal organs, causes a modification of the breath in such a manner as to express that Idea through the medium of corresponding sound. Words then are the living expressions of corresponding Ideas. Man thinks not as he will, but as he must. The Ideative Faculty in man, is but the reflection of PHILOSOPHIA HEBMETICA 15 the Ideative Principle of the Kosmos, the Logos in fact. In other words, there is an absolute Law governing the formation of Ideas, and they can be formed in no other way. The Eacial Mind operates as a nnit, and Language is the expres- sion of this Eacial Mind. A Language is not an invention, but an Evolution, the Infallible coun- terpart of the evolving Psychology of the Eace. It is for this reason that every effort to form an International Language has proved a failure and always will fail. Language evolves in accordance with an absolute law, and no language can ever evolve in any manner different than it has. A word in any given language could not possibly be any thing except just what it is, and could not possibly have any other meaning. Where a false meaning has been given to a word, it is simply due to the fact that the people do not un- derstand their own language. Words change through usage because the Ideas of the people change, and of course the language, the mission of which is to express the Ideas of the people who use it, changes automatically with their Ideas. Of course there are technical words that have been arbitrarily given, but in the main this principle enunciated here will apply. Words are given to objects as distinguishing names, and in the main the word is given which corresponds to the attributes of the object so named. In other words, there is a perfect cor- respondence between the dynamic power of the word and the dynamic power of that to which it is applied. A name then can only be applied to something the attributes of which are in corre- spondence with the dynamic elements of the word which is used as the name for it. Names there- fore can only be given to things whose natures are to be determined by comparison or contrast with other things. We cannot give a name to the Absolute God, because that would in the very 16 PHILOSOPHIA HERMETICA nature of things bring Him into relation with other things, and by asserting that He was pos- sessed of certain attributes, deny to Him all other attributes. As all attributes emanate from Him, we cannot do this. We cannot even give to Him all names, because this would limit Him to the Pleroma of things, and He is much more than this, being Source of all, rather than the All of things. Hence is He the One beyond all name, or the Nameless One. This Nameless One, who is to the world un- manifest, seeing that It does not manifest Itself to their consciousness, owing to the fact that their consciousness is made up of the conscious- ness of things, will, however, become most mani- fest to the one who is able to get back of the mystery through Spiritual Abstraction. Now were It manifest, It would not be. For all that is made manifest is subject to becom- ing, for it hath been made manifest. But the Unmanifest forever is, for It doth not desire to be made manifest. It ever is, and maketh manifest all things. Manifestation is one condition, Beness is an- other. All manifestation is becoming. The manifestations are merely sequences of becom- ings, while permanency is true of the Unmani- fest alone. Manifestation subsists in the act of becoming. All becomings are related to other becomings, and hence all becomings are related to time. When any thing becomes, or comes into being, it is made manifest at the time of its be- coming. All such becomings, or manifestations, are in the nature of effects, related to corre- sponding causes. Hence they are the effects of causation. On the other hand, the Unmanifest is perpetually the same. It is not subject to PHILOSOPHIA HEBMETIGA 17 change, or alteration. It is not in the nature of an effect, but is the Causeless Cause of all ef- fects. All manifestations come from It, and yet It is never manifested at all. The reason why It can never become manifested is not hard to dis- cover. To be made manifest is to become. To become is to become something that was not pre- vious to such act of becoming. Nothing can be- come any thing without assuming a difference from its previous state. The Unmanifest can therefore never manifest itself, because to do so would mean that It must become something other than It is in Itself, hence when the manifestation has become, it would not be the same as It was previous to such manifestation. Therefore, while the Unmanifest is never manifested, It is the Manifestor of all things manifested. It is forever and unchangeably the same, and all the manifestations come forth from It and in this way come into being, becoming what they are. Being an unchangeable Essence, the Unmani- fest can never become any thing, but must ever remain unchangeably what It is, hence to It manifestation is out of the question. It must ever be the One Causeless Causation of all the causes operating in the manifestation. Being Himself unmanifest, as ever being and ever making-manifest, Himself is not made manifest. God is not made Himself; by thinking-manifest, He thinketh all things manifest. God is in Himself unmanifest as we have pre- viously indicated, for His nature is to ever be eternally the same and to perpetually make manifest. He Himself is not made manifest, but His true nature ever remains in the unmanifest state. God Himself is not made, He for ever is, unchangeably the same. He causes all things to \ 18 PHILOSOPHIA HEBMETICA come into manifestation by thinking them into manifestation, for His thought must ever be- come manifest as the thing thought of. Now "thinking-manifest" deals with things made alone, for thinking-manifest is nothing else than making. Thinking-manifest, that is thinking into mani- festation is the very process of making, nothing is made in any other way. The process through which God makes all things is by thinking them, and causing the thought of them to take form. To understand this, we must bear in mind the Three Principles in God, Ku or the Divine Es- sence or more properly Esse, which is the La- tency of the Divine Principle, the Motherhood of God, Mind or the Intelligence or Fatherhood Principle, which acting upon the Ku causes the Centrifugal movement or Divine Energy which moves outward into manifestation. By thinking- manifest, the Thought of God, acting upon the Ku engenders movement which causes the en- gendering of a nucleus in this Ku substance, which becoming Centrifugal moves outward as an act of Divine "Will. In this way each and every thought of God is ensouled by Ku, and be- comes individually active, containing a will force of its own, becoming a sort of dynamic Thought Form. These in turn organize from the Prin- ciples with which they come in contact corre- sponding forms, so that as a matter of fact every thing in the manifestation is nothing more than the body engendered by the active thought of God. Thus all the thoughts of God spontaneously man- ifest themselves as things, but ever taking their individuality from the original thought. There- fore, thinking-manifest merely means, the mani- festation in form of each and every thought of God. This process operates spontaneously, having PHILOSOPHIA HEBMETICA 19 no element of design involved therein. The mani- festation is nothing other than the form assumed by the thought of God. As the mind of God is very active, there is a perpetual stream of thought perpetually coming into manifestation, . I and hence the manifestation is forever being re- newed by the perpetual stream of Divine Thought. God creates nothing, on the contrary, His Thought is forever becoming manifest. All things are therefore nothing other than the Thought of God made manifest. The Universe therefore could not possibly be other than' it is, seeing that it is the form assumed by the Thought of God. It is thus that all Noumena come into being. The Monad is nothing other than the original form assumed by the Thought of God. Because nothing can possibly come into being save through the engendering potency of a Thought of God, it follows that Will of God, that is the Centrifugal Action of the Divine Thought, is the cause of all things. Thus is Kis- met seen to be perfectly true, and this is the ul- timate principle of Fate or Eternal Necessity. Thus, by thinking-manifest, God thinks all things into manifestation, and there is no other possi- ble mode of creation save the thinking into mani- festation. This is the true secret of Divine Al- chemy, and he who has mastered our meaning here has become a master of the Art of Creation. 2. He, then, alone who is not made, 'tis clear, is both beyond all power of thinking- manifest, and is unmanif est. And as He thinketh all things manifest, He manifests through all things and in all, and most of all in whatsoever things He wills to manifest. Do thou, then, Tat, my son, pray first unto our Lord and Father, the One-and-Only One, 20 PHILOSOPHIA EERMETICA from whom the One doth come, to show His mercy unto thee, in order that thou rnayest have the power to catch a thought of this so mighty God, one single beam of Him to shine into thy thinking. For thought alone "sees" the Unmanif est, in that it is itself unmanif est. If, then, thou hast the power, He will, Tat, manifest to thy mind's eyes. The Lord be- grudgeth not Himself to anything, but mani- fests Himself through the whole world. Thou hast the power of taking thought, of and gazing face to face upon God's Image. But if what is within thee even is unmanif est to thee, how, then, shall He Himself who is within thy self be manifest for thee by means of [outer] eyes? He, then, alone who is not made, 'tis clear, is both beyond all power of thinking-manifest, and is unmanif est. The meaning of this is that the One-and-only One is not made at any time, but forever is, abides forever beyond all power of thinking Him- self into manifestation. While the thought which thinks into manifestation emanates from His mind, yet, when it comes into manifestation, it takes on the condition of the manifestation, and hence ceases to be what it was while it abode in the Mind, therefore He Himself can never be thought into manifestation, though all manifes- tations are thought out of that Mind. Hence, that Mind can never be manifested, though all manifestations come forth from It. And like- wise, Ku can never be manifested, though all manifestations come from It, yet when the mani- festation takes place, it ceases to be Ku, there- fore is Ku not manifested. Neither is the Mind PHILOSOPHIA HEBMETICA 21 of Ku manifested, though all manifestations are originated by the Mind and born of Ku, thus is not God made Manifest, though He manifests all things. And as He thinketh all things manifest, He manifests through all things and in all, and most of all in whatsoever things He wills to manifest. In as much as God thinks all things into mani- festation, He manifests through all things and in all. While the true nature of God is not made manifest in any thing, yet His fiat or image is reflected or mirrored in whatever He has thought into manifestation. Though God Himself is in nothing, yet His image is in every thing, and through every thing can we see his picture, thus affording a means by which we can reach an ap- prehension of God through the Analogy of Na- ture. However, His image is much clearer in those things which are the immediate manifesta- tions of His will, that is the purest forms of the Intelligent Kosmos, the true and perfect Image of God. It is here that we are able to see the clearest reflection of God Himself. They being in the nature of the First and the Direct Ema- nation. Do thou, then, Tat, my son, pray first unto our Lord and Father, the One-and-Only One, from whom the One doth come, to show His mercy unto thee, in order that thou mayest have the power to catch a thought of this so mighty God, one single beam of Him to shine into thy thinking. For thought alone "sees" the Unmanifest, in that it is itself unmanif est. The One-and-Only One is the Unmanifest God, Ku, Mind and Will, the thinker into manifest a- 22 PHILOSOPHIA HERMETICA tion. The One is the Manifestation, the purest aspect of the Image of God, which comes into being by being thought into manifestation through the spontaneous action of the Mind of God. The all important thing is that we should be able to catch a thought of that so mighty God, that is that we may catch within our own mind, one of His Thoughts, not that we may think of Him with our own mind, but that a Thought of His Mind may enter our own mind and enlighten it. This knowledge comes not through our own thinking, but through the action of His thought upon our own thinking and thus directing it along the upward way. Thought is unmanifest to the senses, and therefore it is able to unite with the thought of the Unmanifest and in that way bring into our mind a consciousness of the nature of the Unmanifest. Man can therefore see the Unmanifest God only in his thought; those claiming to have seen God in any other way, save as a mental concept, are liars if by God they mean the Unmanifest. He can be seen only through the Intelligence, and then only when the Divine Thought has penetrated the thought of the man, so that his thought is ele- vated to the Plane of the Unmanifest God and His Thought. This condition of exaltation is what we should seek above all other gifts. If, then, thou hast the power, He will, Tat, manifest to thy mind's eyes. The Lord be- grudgeth not Himself to anything, but mani- fests Himself through the whole world. God does not shut Himself off from anyone or anything, but on the contrary, He manifests Himself through the whole world, there being nothing that is not a manifestation of Him. We having the power through the spiritualization of our thought, to permit the Divine Thought to PHILOSOPHIA HERMETIC A 23 unite itself with our thought, in such a manner as to permit God to manifest Himself to the mind's eyes, or for the perceptive power of our mind to attain an Apprehension of God the One- and-Only One. It is not His Unwillingness to be seen that keeps us from seeing Him, but the con- dition of our thought which prevents Him from manifesting Himself in our Mind. Thus the Perfect man must see God, it is the imperfection of the average man that prevents him from see- ing the Unmanif est. Thou hast the power of taking thought, of -seeing it and grasping it in thy own "hands," and gazing face to face upon God's Image. But if what is in thee even is unmanifest to thee, how, then, shall He Himself who is with- in thy self be manifest for thee by means of [outer] eyes? The mind of man is so constituted that it is quite capable of manipulating pure thought with the same facility that it does the impressions de- rived from objects through the senses. Before any one can attack the problem of the Unmani- fest, he must have mastered this art of Abstract Thinking, so that the most abstract thoughts can be visualized, and made real to him, so that he can handle them as though they were familiar objects. When he has reached this state of ab- straction where the purest thoughts and ideas are perfectly real to him, where they are actual- ly things in his consciousness and can be clas- sified as things, one is able through this process of abstract reasoning to see God's Image, the Intelligible Kosmos, face to face, to attain First- Hand Knowledge relative to it. In this way, our understanding of the Intelligible Kosmos will be equally as definite as our grasp of the Sensible 24 PHILOSOPHIA HERMETIC A Kosmos. But while all this is possible to the master of his own mind, if one has not yet reached the point where he is conscious of the ul- timate workings of his own mind, if he cannot "see" the processes going on within himself, how can he, depending solely upon his outer senses for guidance, be able to grasp the work- ings of the Divine Mind, which is back of, and much more subtle and elusive than the thought of the human mind? It follows therefore, that no one can have this comprehension of God or even of the Image of God until he has mastered the difficult Art of Mental Introspection. The mind must be taught to react upon itself, and to indulge in self-analysis, until it has reached the utmost depths of its own possibilities, and when it has mastered all of its own mazes, will it be able to use its powers of abstraction to gaze forth upon God's Image, the Intelligible Kosmos. The difficulty then of inspecting this Image of God is not in the lack of the faculty, but in the fact that very few people know how to look at it. LESSON II The Manifestation of God. 3. But if thou wouldst "see" Him, bethink thee of the sun, bethink thee of moon's course, bethink thee of the order of the stars. Who is the One who watcheth o'er that order? For every order hath its boundaries marked out by place and number. The sun's the greatest god of gods in heaven; to whom all the heavenly gods give place, as unto king and master. And He, this so-great one, he greater than the earth and sea, endures to have above him circling small- er stars than him. Out of respect to Whom, or out of fear of Whom, my son [doth he do this] ? Nor like nor equal is the course each of these stars describes in heaven. Who then is He who marketh out the manner of their course and its extent? But if thou wouldst "see" Him, bethink thee of the sun, bethink thee of moon's course, bethink thee of the order of the stars. Who is the One who watcheth o'er that order? For every order hath its boundaries marked out by place and number. For the one who has not as yet reached that supreme height of mentality, where God's Image can be directly seen, but who must reason out the problem, and in that way attain an Intuition of God, the order of nature presents an ideal field of investigation. One is advised to consider the 27 28 PHILOSOPHIA HERMETICA course and circuit of the sun, with its relation to the heavens in general and to our solar system in particular. Let him also think of the course of the moon, and of the order of the stars, in other words, let him consider the science of Astronomy. If he makes the proper study of the heavens he will see that it is all arranged Mathematically, and that every body in the heavens has itself con- fined to some definite locality, though every one of them moves in its course, it can never deviate from that course, its boundaries are limited by a force that it can never overcome. As the uni- verse is ruled by numbers, it follows that all num- bers are in reality rhythmic groupings of forces, that are governed by strict mathematical law. The study of Astronomy therefore, clearly demon- strates that the heavenly bodies are not indi- vidually self- sufficient, but that they are each and all governed by some rhythmical arrangement of force, by a symphony of force in fact, and that that symphony of force is something exterior and also anterior to the heavenly bodies themselves. This harmony of force existed before there were any heavenly bodies in existence, otherwise it could not have obtained such perfect control of them. There would have been some discrepancy in the arrangement somewhere, if it had obtained control after they were created. It was that very harmony of force that engendered the heavenly bodies, and therefore, this arrangement could never have been fortuitous in its origin. Also, Mechanical Uniformitarianism cannot be true, for the simple reason that these movements are not uniform, it is a system of unity in diversity and diversity in unity that is presented to our un- derstanding. Everywhere we see perfect order, and as this order is intelligent, that is, it is just such an order as a perfect intelligence would have produced, which indicates that the force produc- ing this order operates intelligently, hence it is PHILOSOPHIA HERMETICA 29 the effect of an active intelligence. What then is that guiding intelligence I The sun's the greatest god of gods in heaven, to whom all the heavenly gods give place as unto king and master. And he, this so-great one, he greater than the earth and sea, endures to have above him circling small- er stars than he. Out of respect to Whom, or out of fear of Whom, my son [doth he do this] ? In this paragraph, we have the argument of the preceding one elaborated still further. The gods here spoken of are the heavenly bodies. Called gods, for the reason that Hermes was wiser than the later philosophers, in that he knew that all the heavenly bodies were living beings, self-conscious, having each a will of its own, each endowed with its own intelligence. He knew that they were not mechanical in their nature, but al- together different. This argument is in reality an anticipation of the Newtonian Theory of Uni- versal Gravitation, and a refutation of that ab- surd theory, for it shows that in accordance with the Newtonian Theory, the sun would be greater in its gravitative force than all the rest of the Universe combined for the reason that the great distance of the stars would so minimize their gravitative force that the sun would exercise such a gravitative force on the solar system as to make it independent of all the rest of the uni- verse. The question then is, why does not the Theory of Universal Gravitation make good in this instance! What is it that prevents the sun from doing exactly what it would do if Univer- sal Gravitation were true? There is then some other force that is superior to Gravitation, and that dispenses with the workings of Gravitation, 30 PHILOSOPHIA HEBMETICA whenever it suits that force to do so, which would mean that Gravitation is merely an effect pro- duced by some great cause, that ever keeps it under control. Hence Gravitation is not the ab- solute power that science has assumed it to be, but is in fact an effect produced by some other cause, and it must be an intelligent cause to be able to realize such perfect results at all times. The question is what is the nature of that cause? Nor like nor equal is the course each of these stars describes in heaven. Who then is He who marketh out the manner of their course and its extent? Here we have our attention called to the great dissimilarity between the courses of all of the diverse stars, and yet we are reminded of the fact that each follows its own course, and yet, while each is absolutely individual in its move- ments, there is harmony preserved among all these movements. In this way is our attention again called to the utter fallacy of the Theory of Universal Gravitation as an explanation of Physical and Mathematical Astronomy. If every body in the heavens acted upon every other body, the result would be an averaging up of all the Grayitative forces, so that a uniformity of move- ment would be the result, but the facts are that in all the heavens there are not two bodies the course of which is either equal or similar. This means that the force which directs them in their movements, must act upon each star individual- ly and entirely independently of its action upon every other body in the heavens. This of course will mean that that force is directed in all of its operations by a discriminating intelligence, to which it responds at all times. It will also indi- cate that this Intelligence is Imminent in all the operations of this force. The question then is, PHILOSOPHIA HERMETIC A 31 what is the nature of this force and of this guid- ing Intelligence! What is it that controls the universe? What is the Mind and Will back of, and expressing itself through every movement of the Universe? The argument from design is frightfully weak in comparison with this. We see here the clear demonstration of the perpetual operation of an immanent, intelligent, conscious, directing Will, expressing in action a very com- plicated, synthetic mentality, to which every por- tion of the universe, is individually and inces- santly responsive, and to which in spite of this individuality of its operations, the Universe as a whole, is at all times synthetically responsive. In other words, there is the perpetual activity of an intelligence capable at all times of guiding the universe as a whole and at the same time in each of its constituent parts, without ever a hitch occuring in its operations. Where can one look for such an Intelligence? It is undoubtedly not in the Material World, for it rules every portion of the material world, and the whole of it as well, hence it must be something of an Immaterial na- ture. Would not such an Intelligence and Will be quite Divine? and would it not in fact be the Manifest God? In this way does he prove the existence of the Manifest God without asserting it. He merely shows that without such a princi- ple, the Universe could not possibly be as it is, and thus there is left the mysterious X as its guiding principle. 4. The Bear up there that turneth round himself, and carries round the whole cosmos with it— Who is the owner of this instru- ment? Who He who hath set round the sea its bounds? Who He who hath set on its seat the earth? For, Tat, there is someone who is the Maker 32 PHILOSOPHIA HEBMETICA and the Lord of all these things. It could not be that number, place and measure could be kept without some one to measure them. No order whatsoever could be made by that which lacketh place and lacketh measure ; nay, even this is not without a Lord, my son. For if the orderless lacks something, in that it is not lord of order's path, it also is beneath a lord — the one who hath not yet ordained it order. The Bear up there that turneth round itself, and carries round the whole cosmos with it — Who is the owner of this instrument? Who He who hath set round the sea its bounds? Who He who hath set on its seat the earth ? The prevalent Astronomical Theory is that each of the stars revolves around some other star, which draws it through gravitation, but this is not true of the Constellation of the Great Bear for instance. It turns round itself, that is, it revolves around its own center of gravity. Now there is no theory of Gravitation that will account for this. If we assume that the gravitative force of the other stars controls this, we have to at- tribute to them an alterative gravitation, for if their gravitative force was continuous they would hold the Bear perfectly stationary; but if their force of Gravity is alterative, then it is not the Gravitation of Science, but merely a gravitative effect, produced by some anterior cause, which is something altogether different. 