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Nº. XLI
CONCERNING THE TRUE EGO (1)
[This illumination followed upon a meditation on the following passage from G.H. Lewes: “The evolution of organisms, like the evolution of crystals, or of islands and continents, is determined, first, by laws inherent in the substance evolved; secondly, by relations to the medium in which the evolution takes place.”]
THERE is a law inherent in the primordial
substance of all matter which obliges all things to evolve after the same mode
and manner. The worlds in the infinite abyss of heaven are in all respects
similar to the cells in vegetable or animal
tissue. Their evolution is similar, their
distribution similar, and their mutual relations are similar. Wherefore, by the
study of the natural sciences, the truth may be learnt, not only in regard to
these, but in regard also to the occult sciences; for the facts of the first are
as a mirror to the facts of the last. And just what the spiritual Ego is to the
physical man, is God to the manifest universe, – its spirit, dwelling in and
pervading it; no more, no less.
And as for the souls of the planets,
let us enquire awhile what, as an individual, thou art. Thy soul is constituted
of the agglomerate essences of all the individual consciousnesses composing thy
system. It has, then, grown, – evolving gradually from
rudimentary entities, themselves evolved by polarisation from mineral and
gaseous matter. And these entities combine and coalesce to form higher entities,
the combined forces of their manifold consciousnesses polarising and
centralising so as to form the human soul. In the same way, the souls of the
planets are formed by the agglomeration and combination of the myriad souls
composing them, these souls ranging from the mineral to the human group, and
thus composing the four principles of each planet’s kingdom. Each planetary God
is, therefore, not a supernatural, extraneous personage, but is the sum total of
the souls composing the planet. His physical body is the visible planet and its
phenomena. His astral body and mind are the plant and animal intelligences. His
soul is man’s superior reason; and his spirit is divine, being the Nous of the man. And as when
we speak of the planet-god, we specially mean that Nous, it is said with truth that our divine part is no
other than the planet-god, in our case Dio-Nysos, the
god of the emerald.
And again, such as are all creatures
composing the planet to the planet, such also are the planets to the universe,
and, in consequence, such are the Gods to GOD.
The primordial God is the sum total
of all the Gods. The Spirit of God is the agglomerate essences of all the
deities. To pray to God is to address all the Celestial Host, and, by inclusion,
all the spirits of just men.
But the Gods are not limited in
number. For human convenience they are called seven, or twelve, or twenty-four,
or seventy; but these are names of orders only. Beyond number are the orbs in
infinite space, and each of these is a God. Phoibos is legion, so also is Hermes, so also Aphrodite, so
also Dionysos, so also Ares, Zeus, Hera, Kronos, and the rest. Phoibos is the
spirit of all the suns; Poseidon, of all
the seas; and each divinity has his quality, corresponding to the
conditions of the elements which compose his kingdom.
To every planet belongs a different spectrum, and the physical is the measure of
the spiritual. And every physical world of causes has its spiritual world of
effects.
Now, the world of causes is the
material and the astral, and the world of effects is the psychic. Therefore it
may be said that the soul is the effect of the body, for organism is
before function, and the mineral before man. And yet it is true that organism is
the effect of idea, and that mind is the cause of evolution. So that spirit is
before matter in its abstract, but not in its concrete conception. All things
are begotten by fission or section in a universal blastoderm
or protoplast, and the power which causes this generation is centrifugal.
Footnotes
(99:1)
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