(42) In the middle region of the Table appears the all-form-containing personified Spiritual Essence--the source and substance of all things. From this proceed the lower worlds as nine emanations in groups of three (the Ophionic, Ibimorphous, and Nephtæan Triads). Consider in this connection the analogy of the Qabbalistic Sephiroth, or the nine spheres issuing from Kether, the Crown. The twelve Governors of the Universe (the Mendesian, Ammonian, Momphtæan, and Omphtæan Triads)--vehicles for the distribution of the creative influences, and shown in the upper region of the Table-are directed in their activities by the Divine Mind patterns existing in the archetypal sphere, The archetypes are abstract patterns formulated in the Divine Mind and by them all the inferior activities are controlled.

(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 of 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 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?

(83) Then, as if paraphrasing the expression, "Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool," he adds: "But in great heaven, He is seated firm Upon a throne of gold, and neath His feet The earth. His right hand round the ocean's bound He stretches; and the hills' foundations shake To the centre at His wrath, nor can endure His mighty strength. He all celestial is, And all things finishes upon the earth. He the Beginning, Middle is, and End.

(5) "And he who hath received mysteries of the first Thrice-spiritual, which ruleth over the four-and-twenty mysteries all together which rule over the space of the First Mystery, of whose region at the expansion of the universe I will tell you--he, therefore, who shall receive the mystery of that Thrice-spiritual, hath the power to go down into all orders which are below him; but he hath not the power to go into the height into the orders which are above him, that is into all the orders of the space of the Ineffable. "And he who hath received the mystery of the second Thrice-spiritual, hath the power to go into all the orders of the first Thrice-spiritual and to pass through them all and all their orders which are in them; but he hath not the power to go into the higher orders of the third Thrice-spiritual. "And he who hath received the mystery of the third Thrice-spiritual, which ruleth over the three Thrice-spirituals and the three spaces of the First Mystery all together, [hath the power to go into all the orders which are below him]; but he hath not the power to go into the height into the orders which are above. him, that is into the orders of the space of the Ineffable.

(7) Here I must lay hold on the whole divine body in the midst or centre at the heart, and explain the whole body, how nature is or existeth, and there you will see the highest ground, how all the seven spirits of God continually generate one another, and how the Deity has neither beginning nor end.

(3) "Now, therefore, blessed is he who hath found the [words of the] mysteries [of the first space] which is from without; and he is a god who hath found these words of the mysteries of the second space, which is in the midst; and he is a saviour and an uncontainable who hath found the words of the mysteries of the third space, which is within, and he is more excellent than the universe and like unto those who are in that third space. Because he hath found the mystery in which they are and in which they stand,-- for this cause, therefore, is he like unto them. He on the other hand who hath found the words of the mysteries which I have described unto you according to a likeness, that they are the Limbs of the Ineffable,--amēn, I say unto you: That man who hath found the words of these mysteries in divine truth, is the first in truth and like unto him [ sc. the First, i.e. the Ineffable], for through those words and mysteries . . . and the universe itself standeth through that First. For this cause he who hath found the words of those mysteries, is like unto the First. For it is the gnosis of the gnosis of the Ineffable concerning which I have discoursed with you this day."

(4) And now if we look round about us every where, upon Heaven and Earth, the Stars and Elements, yet we can see and know no Way [or Passage] where we may go to our Rest; we see no other than the Way of the Entrance in of our Life, and then of the End of our Life, where our Body goes into the Earth, and all our Labour (also our Arts and Glory) is inherited by another, who also vexes himself therewith for a While, and then follows after us; and that continues so from the Beginning of the World to its End.

[For this reason] he said, “I have come to make [the lower] like the [upper and the] outer like the [inner, and to unite] them in that place.” [He spoke] here in symbols [and images]. Those who say [there is a heavenly person and] one that is higher are wrong, for they call the visible heavenly person “lower” and the one to whom the hidden realm belongs “higher.” It would be better for them to speak of the inner, the outer, and the outermost. For the master called corruption “the outermost darkness,” and there is nothing outside it. He said, “My father who is in secret.” He said, “Go into your room, shut the door behind you, and pray to your father who is in secret”—that is, the one who is innermost. What is innermost is the fullness, and there is nothing further within. And this is what they call uppermost.

(6) "And he who hath received the master-mystery of the First Mystery of the Ineffable, that is the twelve mysteries of the First Mystery all together, which rule over all the spaces of the First Mystery, he, therefore, who shall receive that mystery, hath the power to pass through all the orders of the spaces of the three Thrice-spirituals and the three spaces of the First Mystery and all their orders, and hath the power to pass through all the orders of the inheritances of the Light, to pass through them from without within and from within without and from above below and from below above and from the height to the depth and from the depth to the height and from the length to the breadth and from the breadth to the length; in a word, he hath the power to pass through all the regions of the inheritances of the Light, and he hath the power to bide in the region where he pleaseth, in the Inheritance of the Light-kingdom. "And amēn, I say unto you: That man will at the dissolution of the world be king over all the orders of the Inheritance of the Light. And he who shall receive that mystery of the Ineffable which I am,

(4) "Those on the other hand who receive the mysteries of the third space, that is of the first space from without, those again will abide behind the second king, expanded in the light of my kingdom, according to the glory of every one of them, every one abiding in the region up to which he hath received mysteries, so that those who receive the higher mysteries, will abide in the higher regions, and those who receive the lower mysteries, will abide in the lower regions. "These are the three allotments of the Light-kingdom. "The mysteries of these three allotments of the Light are exceedingly numerous. Ye shall find them in the two great Books of Yew. But I will give you and tell you the great mysteries of every allotment, those which are higher than every region, that is the heads according to every region and according to every order which will lead the whole race of men into the higher regions, according to the space of the Inheritance.

(3) The planets of this chain of worlds are not identical in composition and nature with the earth; on the contrary there is a wide difference between the several planets in this respect. The earth is not the highest in development in this chain, but on the contrary is far down on the scale, although there are others still lower. The progress of the souls around this chain of worlds, however, is not merely like a circle in which the soul travels from the lowest to the highest, but is rather according to the plan of the spiral, in which the journey always returns to the starting point, but on a higher plane of activity.

(23) Each of these worlds has ten powers, or spheres--a parent globe and nine others which conic out of it as emanations, each globe born out of the one preceding. On the plane of Atziluth (A 1 to A 10), the highest and most divine of all the created worlds, the unmanifested AIN SOPH established His first point or dot in the Divine Sea--the three spheres of X. This dot--A 1--contains all creation within it, but in this first divine and uncontaminated state the dot, or first manifested. God, was not considered as a personality by the Qabbalists but rather as a divine establishment or foundation. It was called the First Crown and from it issued the other circles of the Atziluthic World: A 2, A 3, A 4, A 5, A 6, A 7, A 8, A 9, and A 10. In the three lower worlds these circles are intelligences, planers, and elements, but in this first divine world they are called the Rings of the Sacred Names.

(15) But there is another Being, the Highest, called the Supreme Self, who, as the Immutable, pervades and sustains the three worlds.

(2) So down [to Earth] He sent the Cosmos of this Frame Divine - man, a life that cannot die, and yet a life that dies. And o'er [all other] lives and over Cosmos [too], did man excel by reason of the Reason (Logos) and the Mind. For contemplator of God's works did man become; he marvelled and did strive to know their Author.

(4) "And Yew and the guard of the veil of the Great Light, and the receiver of Light and the two great guides and the great Sabaōth, the Good, will be kings in the first saviour of the first Voice of the Treasury of the Light, [the saviour] who will be in the region of those who have received the first mystery of the First Mystery. For in sooth Yew and the guard of the region of those of the Right and Melchisedec, the great receiver of the Light, and the two great guides have come forth out of the purified and utterly pure light of the first Tree up to the fifth. "Yew in sooth is the overseer of the Light, who hath come forth first out of the pure light of the first Tree; on the other hand the guard of the veil of those of the Right hath come forth out of the second Tree; and the two guides again have come forth out of the pure and utterly purified light of the third and fourth Trees of the Treasury of the Light; Melchisedec again hath come forth out of the fifth Tree; on the other hand Sabaōth, the Good, whom I have called my father, hath come forth out of Yew, the overseer of the Light. "These six then by command of the First Mystery the last Helper hath caused to be in the region of those of the Right, for the economy of the ingathering of the upper light out of the æons of the rulers and out of the worlds and all races in them,--of every one of whom I will tell you the employment over which he hath been set in the expansion of the universe. Because, therefore, of the importance of the employment over which they have been set, they will be fellow-kings in the first [saviour] of the first Voice of the Treasury of the Light, who will be in the region of the souls of those who have received the first mystery of the First Mystery.

(14) Do not make the mistake of supposing that the little world you see around you--the Earth, which is a mere grain of dust in the Universe--is the Universe itself. There are millions upon millions of such worlds, and greater. And there are millions of millions of such Universes in existence within the Infinite Mind of THE ALL. And even in our own little solar system there are regions and planes of life far higher than ours, and beings compared to which we earth-bound mortals are as the slimy life-forms that dwell on the ocean's bed when compared to Man. There are beings with powers and attributes higher than Man has ever dreamed of the gods' possessing. And yet these beings were once as you, and still lower--and you will be even as they, and still higher, in time, for such is the Destiny of Man as reported by the Illumined.

(83) And when I had gone forth below and seen the heaven, and the sun rising in the east, and the moon setting in the west, and a few stars, and the whole earth, and everything as †He had known† it in the beginning, then I blessed the Lord of judgement and extolled Him because He had made the sun to go forth from the windows of the east, †and he ascended and rose on the face of the heaven, and set out and kept traversing the path shown unto him.

(6) "And at the dissolution of the world, that is when the universe will be raised up and when the numbering of the perfect souls will be raised up all together, and when I am king in the midst of the last Helper, being king over all the emanations of the Light and king over the seven Amēns and the five Trees and the three Amēns and the nine guards, and being king over the Child of the Child, that is the Twin-saviours, and being king over the twelve saviours and over the whole numbering of the perfect souls who shall receive the mysteries in the Light,--then will all men who shall receive the mysteries in the Ineffable, be fellow-kings with me and will sit on my right and on my left in my kingdom. "And amēn, I say unto you: Those men are I, and I am they. "On this account have I said unto you aforetime: 'Ye will sit on your thrones on my right and on my left in my kingdom and will rule with me.' "On this account, therefore, I have not hesitated nor have I been ashamed to call you my brethren and my companions, because ye will be fellow-kings with me in my kingdom. This, therefore, I say unto you, knowing that I will give you the mystery of the Ineffable; that is: That mystery is I, and I am that mystery.

(1) Come, then, let us at last, if you please, rest our mental vision from the strain of lofty contemplation, befitting Angels, and descend to the divided and manifold breadth of the many-shaped variety of the Angelic forms, and then return analytically from the same, as from images, to the simplicity of the Heavenly Minds. But let this first be made plain to you, that the explanations of the sacredly depicted likenesses represent the same ranks of the Heavenly Beings as sometimes ruling, and, at other times, as being ruled; and the last, ruling, and the first, being ruled; and the same, as has been said, having first, and middle, and last powers --without introducing anything absurd into the description, according to the following method of explanation. For if indeed we were to say that some are ruled by those above them, and then that they rule the same, and that those above, whilst ruling those below, are ruled by those same who are being ruled, the thing would manifestly be absurd, and mixed with all sorts of confusion. But if we say that the same rule and are ruled, but no longer the self-same, or from the self-same, but that each same is ruled by those before, and rules those below, one might say appropriately that the Divinely pictured presentations in the Oracles may sometimes attribute, properly and truly, the very same, both to first, and middle, and last powers. Now the straining elevation to things above, and their being drawn unswervingly around each other, as being guardians of their own proper powers, and that they participate in the providential faculty to provide for those below them by mutual communication, befit truly all the Heavenly Beings, although some, pre-eminently and wholly, as we have often said, and others partially and subordinately.

(25) TABLE VII., Figure 6. In Figure 6 the letter a marks the center of eternity. The motion of the rays toward b, d, and c was the first divine manifestation and is symbolized by the equilateral triangle, b, d, c. The eternal world within the inner circle became manifest in the water (salt), the light (mercury), and the fire (sulphur) of the archetypal world, represented by the three circles (f, e, g) within the triangle of complete equality (h, i, k), which is in turn surrounded by the circle of the high throne. The circle f is named understanding; e, wisdom; g, reason. In circle i is the word Father; in circle h, Son; in circle k, Spirit. The seven outer circles are the seven spirits before the throne. The lower part of the figure is similar to Figures 53 and 54. The outer circles are the angelic world ending in the cognizable world of the Sons of God. Then comes the circle of the visible constellations and fixed stars; within this is the solar system with the sun as the center (l). Ungrund means the Abyss.