Through Illness To Healing

THROUGH ILLNESS TO HEALING

We have traveled a long way in our thinking to show that illness is deeply rooted in mankind's metaphysical provenance. In the light of this all the efforts to promote health, on the part of both orthodox doctors and advocates of nature-cure and such methods, appear alarmingly ineffective. Illness cannot be cured by inoculation any more than by positive thinking, autosuggestion or a healthy diet.

A lot of quarreling goes on as to what is the best means of protection against illness, but no one questions the legitimacy of his or her own system. Hence one finds all kinds of people – positive thinkers as well as nature-cure apostles – wanting to place themselves under the esoteric banner.

But the road to healing is not that simple. Healing cannot be achieved by eating raw vegetables or whole-wheat bread, nor by going to bed early, nor by autosuggestion. All of these health fanatics are attempting to counteract, by functional measures, a development whose direction was already determined in Paradise. It is not a question of facing a choice between illness and health. On the contrary, the way to health is through illness.

Some people hold up the example of the healthy, natural life of the animals, but this misses the point of man's special tasks. Certainly it is possible to cultivate the sound and natural life-style of a healthy animal. But man's path is a different one: he must pass through suffering to knowledge, through sickness to health.

To avoid misunderstandings let me emphasize that I am not talking about leading an “unhealthy” life. It is not a question of what one does as such but of the attitude with which one does it. The body is the temple of the spirit, and it is part of esoteric development to purify it and keep it pure. But that has nothing to do with protection against illness. One must make a distinction between health and obedience to law. Health as a concept exists only in relation to illness. For a sick person it may be necessary to follow a certain diet for a time, and thus one could say that in this case the diet is healthy. But this does not mean that someone who is not ill should follow such a diet in order to “remain healthy”. There are other ways of adjusting one's physical life-style so as to conform better to cosmic law.

Let us take, for example, the subject of vegetarian food. It is fairly unimportant whether this is healthier or less healthy than a meat diet, but it is very interesting to consider the rights and wrongs of meat-eating. We should bear in mind that all carnivorous animals feed exclusively on the flesh of vegetarian animals. Experience shows that aversion to the eating of meat increases in proportion to consciousness. It is a good exercise to ask yourself, every time you have a meal, whether you could prepare the food in all its stages with your own hands and still be able to eat with a good appetite. Many people would do without their succulent piece of veal if they first had to slaughter and cut up the unfortunate calf themselves. By contrast it hardly spoils one's appetite if one imagines harvesting vegetables, fruit and corn.

Another yardstick for judging the purity of food is according to how long it remains preserved. The purer a product, the longer it will keep. Compare, for example, the preservability of wheat with that of offal or shell-fish. Through such considerations as these, the individual will arrive, in the course of time, at a stage of consciousness that will of itself, and without any compulsion, lead him to adopt a diet that is in greater harmony with cosmic law. But we must always guard against extremes. Anyone who believes that he will lose his wholeness of soul by eating a little bit of meat probably does not yet possess that which he fears losing.

In all of these matters it is much less a question of outward things themselves than of the mode of consciousness that they express. Anyone who can swat a fly shows unmistakeably that he has not yet comprehended what “life” really is.

He is therefore more deserving of sympathy than the fly. A life that is in harmony with universal law arises from recognition, whereas the efforts of the health fanatics arise from fear. Fear, however, is always lack of knowledge.

We said earlier on that healing is exclusively a matter of religion and can never take place within the framework of functional medicine. When we speak of religion we mean religio in the original sense, that is the re-connecting of man with his original source. I am not referring to any particular sectarian form of religion.

If I have quoted the Bible extensively it is because the store of ideas in it is closest to our own cultural heritage and upbringing. But in the last analysis all religions teach the same thing: the one single truth. Anyone who thinks that the world's religions are different is only looking at the packaging. If one takes the trouble to unpack the contents one will see that they are the same. While this is true of religions it is not true of churches, which are the work of men and, like everything human, are imperfect and prone to errors.

Esotericism has room for all faiths and tendencies of belief, for esotericism points out the truth and the laws that stand behind the different symbols and metaphors. The churches, on the other hand, have no place for esotericism, since they cling to the concrete. The greater always has room for the lesser, but never vice versa. The justification for the churches lies in the fact that they bring the primal truths nearer to the exoteric circle of humanity by presenting them in an accessible packaging.

Esotericism is for those who are ready to assimilate the primal wisdom for themselves. To be a priest is, in the final analysis, not a matter of career but of initiation into the mystery of being human. Only thus can a person become a pontifex, a bridge-builder, who can prepare the way for man to return to his primal source. Healing is reconciliation with God. Thus Jesus healed with the words: “Thy sins are forgiven thee.”

Illness And Original Sinfulness

ILLNESS AND ORIGINAL SINFULNESS

Illness is merely the accomplishment of the Fall on a microcosmic level. Man and the whole of material creation are sick. There is no such thing as a healthy person – this is a medical fiction. Hans Blüher writes: “The healthy, ideal man, hygienic and free from original sin, is a hypothesis contrived by medicine, merely for the purpose of demonstration.” Hence the failure of all medical systems, whose highest goal is the prevention of illness.

People still believe that illness is an avoidable misfortune. They do not comprehend that illness is the most precious gift to mankind. Indeed one can say that it is precisely what makes us human, since only the sick person can be healed. Illness makes man able to be healed, but for this he must pass through it, not circumvent it. Just as illness is a microcosmic version of the Fall, so healing must always be a microcosmic version of redemption. The sick person is guilty – in both the concrete and the metaphysical sense – and must be confronted with this guilt, if his or her illness is to be transmuted into health.

In connection with homeopathy we said that the primal principles become dense and may fall into matter and thus poison the organism. Through homeopathic and alchemical methods of preparing remedies nature is released from its materiality and can help the sick person to “transpolarise” his sickness into a state of wholeness. Curing of an illness should always go hand in hand with an increase in maturity and development. Parents know how a child is strengthened every time a childhood illness is overcome – although, of course, one can avoid this by inoculating in advance.

C. A. Meier and Herbert Fritsche have linked the motif of the tree encircled by the snake in Paradise with the staff of Aesculapius. It was on account of the snake that man fell and became ill – therefore it is likewise the snake which must be raised up again through the art of healing – as on the staff of Aesculapius. Just as the poison becomes the remedy, so redemption arises from confrontation with guilt, and so the poisonous snake becomes the healing snake. Whereas on the tree of Paradise it is pointing downwards, on the staff of Aesculapius it is turned round and is pointing upwards. Suffering must be outgrown by man, not circumvented. So let us repeat here the passage from Herbert Fritsche which we quoted at the beginning of the chapter: “The avoidance of suffering, however and wherever it may manifest itself, always indicates that he who practices it is fundamentally of the un-initiated.”

Jesus became the Saviour because he did not avoid suffering. He did not demonstrate his power by accepting the challenge: “Step down from the cross if you are the Son of God”. Rather he took suffering – the sins of this world – upon himself. He became the doctor of this world. Indeed when God made himself like man (though not equal to him) he himself became the world's medicine. Since then the sick body and the spilled blood of Christ have been given to human beings as a healing remedy in high homeopathic potencies, using material bread and wine as carriers.

The Expulsion From Paradise

THE EXPULSION FROM PARADISE

I have already mentioned that consciousness is bound up with polarity. That is why in Paradise man was forbidden to eat from the tree of knowledge, on pain of becoming mortal. In Paradise man possessed cosmic consciousness but no individual consciousness. The snake crept from the tree and persuaded man to go the way of knowledge. Through eating the forbidden fruit of knowledge man became aware of good and evil. He plunged from oneness into polarity of consciousness, separating himself from oneness and thereby becoming sinful. Sin is separation from the primal oneness. Consequently every human being is sinful, for polarity and sin are the same thing. This state of affairs is what the Church calls original sin. Sin is the pride we pay for knowledge. All too often we overlook this inseparable connection between knowledge and sin.

The expulsion of man from Paradise or from cosmic consciousness is the fall into polarity and, at the same time, into matter. Only material man is mortal, only the material world sinful. This is what we meant when, in talking about the preparation of homeopathic remedies, we spoke of the poisonous nature of the whole of creation. The entire material world is sinful, has fallen from unity and longs to return. The coarsest matter represents the farthest departure from the source, from the primal light. Matter symbolizes darkness. The Qabalists define evil as “lack of light”. Therefore matter has always been associated with evil, dark and satanic attributes. Thus Satan, as the polar opposite of light, has rightly been called “Lord of this world”. Light falling into material darkness is an involution, a downward movement which reaches a nadir and is then changed into an upward movement, an evolution, just as a pendulum, when it reaches a certain point, begins to swing in the opposite direction. Thus in all living beings there is an innate longing which constantly causes them to seek their true home. Mankind calls this the longing for happiness, but happiness is synonymous with the overcoming of polarity and the rediscovery of unity.

On the material and physical level the search for unity is called sexuality. Polarity, which manifests itself physically as sexual division, is overcome through the sexual act, and the blissful feeling of unity is experienced in the orgasm. In this physical unity people become “god-like” and can do something that they cannot do as polarized beings: namely generate life. However, the joy that goes with physical union is not lasting, which is why we try to regain it again and again by frequent repetition of the sexual act. The physical world is subject to time, which is why all material and physical joy is ephemeral.

If we translate the experience of sexuality onto the mental and spiritual plane it becomes clear that the human longing for eternal happiness can only be stilled by a return to the unity from which we originally came. This ultimate fusion with the great, all-embracing consciousness is the goal common to many different religions and esoteric systems, and a variety of images and terms are used to describe it: the Chemical Wedding of the alchemists, the conjunction of opposites, the unio mystica, and so on.

All these images and terms indicate the same thing: the return to divine unity. This step is, however, inseparably bound up with the task of the ego. As long as a person fortifies this ego-dominance he will further reinforce polarity. As long as there is an “I” there is also something that is “not I”. Every time we say “I will” we raise the wall that divides us from unity. This is why all religions teach us to love our neighbour, for only love is able to overcome the dominance of the ego.

The question arises why creation came into being at all, if the goal is to return to the original unity. Any attempt to answer this question requires a certain degree of boldness as it takes us into issues which are so remote from ordinary human consciousness that our minds are hardly adequate to deal with them. Nevertheless by means of images and metaphor we can at least approach the answer analogically. When creation returns to its origin, it returns richer and more conscious than when it left the state of unity. It is precisely through the progress of becoming separate and individual that the journey of apprenticeship is completed and unity is ultimately enriched. Thus the myth of Lucifer, the light-bringer, states that God was especially fond of him because he broke the law of unity, fell and sinned. One day he will return, voluntarily, purified by experience, and God will rejoice like the father who, when his long-lost son returned, slaughtered a calf and held a feast.

The central meaning of man's part in the story of creation lies precisely in his fall on account of knowledge. Thus it is not a question of labelling the world as a devilish thing and demanding that man escape from all earthly things as quickly as possible to seek his happiness on a plane of pseudo-spirituality. Unfortunately there are groups that take this attitude, believing that it is “esoteric” to flee from the world, even though one cannot solve a problem by skirting around it, only by confronting it directly. Flight from the world has nothing to do with overcoming or redeeming the world.

Jesus taught redemption by descending fully into mankind, a descent described in numerous images in the Bible. Into darkness came light. That is why we celebrate Christmas, the birth of the light at the time of greatest darkness, the winter solstice. Jesus was born into poverty in a stable, he associated with tax gatherers and prostitutes, endured injustice, torture and death, and descended into hell. Not until man has descended fully into darkness is he ready to begin the upward ascent. This law is the stumbling block of all those who use esoteric teachings as an excuse for the fact that they will not or cannot master their earthly life. As long as man possesses a physical body he is bound to polarity. Every breach or infringement of polarity brings inescapable downfall.

The crown of a tree can only spread and develop to the degree that the roots are extended. If it neglects its root growth in favour of the crown it will be toppled by the first gust of wind. The upward thrust must always be anchored in the opposite pole. You cannot escape darkness by not looking at it; you have to transmute it into light if you do not want to drag it behind as your shadow.

If one had to point out a salient difference between Christianity and the oriental religions, it would surely lie in the life-affirming nature of the original Christianity, however much the Church later distorted this into its opposite. Herein lie the strength and the secret of Christianity: to recognize the world and mankind as sinful and yet to affirm them in their sinfulness.

This profound connection between knowledge and sin, fall and redemption is brought out in the Grail legend when it relates that the Grail cup in which Christ's blood was collected had been carved from the gem the dropped out of the crown of Lucifer when he fell. The fall is the descent from unity into polarity. Man per se is sinful only when he exists as a polarized being. This is what is meant by the concept of original sin. Humanity cannot be released from guilt – but it can be redeemed.

The Biblical Story Of Creation

THE BIBLICAL STORY OF CREATION

In order to understand the story of the creation as told in the Bible, it is important to distinguish between the different worlds. The opening chapter of Genesis, the first book of Moses, describes how the world was created, how God in 7 days – remember the 7 primal principles – created heaven and earth, light and darkness, plants, animals and man. In chapter 1, verses 26 – 27 we read:

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image and likeness to rule the fish in the sea, the birds of heaven, the cattle, all wild animals on earth, and all reptiles that crawl upon the earth.” So God created man in his own image; in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

This accounts of the 7-day creation process refers expressly not to the material world, but to the world of primal ideas. God created the human being as man and woman, the image of the pure human which at this stage is still androgynous. In the second chapter of Genesis we are told of the creation of Adam as a living being with a soul. In chapter 2, verse 7 we read:

… then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. Thus the man became a living creature.

In verse 19 the account continues:

So God formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds of heaven. He brought them to the man.

Finally verse 21 tells of the creation of woman:

The Lord God put the man into a trance, and while he slept, he took one of his ribs and closed the flesh over the place. The Lord God then built up the rib, which he had taken out of the man, into a woman. He brought her to the man, and the man said: “Now this, at last – bone from my bones, flesh from my flesh! - This shall be called woman, for from man was this taken.”

(In the Hebrew isch = man, ischsa = woman). Verse 25 states:

Now they were both naked, the man and his wife, but they had no feeling of shame towards one another.

These detailed quotations should serve to elucidate certain important points which often lead to misunderstandings. Genesis tells of the different steps in the creation process. The 7-day sequence of the first chapter refers to the world of ideas. At this point already “man” was created. It was only a this stage that he was created in God's image. This is the “Adam Kadmon” of the Qabalists, the primal idea of humanity, which cannot have had much in common with physical humanity as known to us and embodied by us. The man whose creation is described in the first chapter is the ideal image which has not yet plunged into a fallen state and become material. The God-like image of man, so often alluded to, cannot be applied to the physical man of our material world, but, at best, represents the goal towards which mankind should be striving. As Jesus said: “Be ye perfect even as your Father in heaven is perfect.”

In the first chapter God created the human being as man-and-woman. Only much later are we given the description of how God formed Adam from dust and subsequently woman from his rib. Man on the first level, the level of the primal principles, is man and woman in one, an androgynous being which has not yet entered the realm of polarity.

The first chapter describes both the creation of man and that of plants and animals. Not until the second chapter, however, do we learn that the creation of these was carried out again in a different way, this time through the moulding of forms out of the earth. In the first chapter the whole creation process is finished by the seventh day, the day of rest. In the second chapter this is repeated on another plane, in another world. While the first creation took place on the plane of primal ideas, the second took place on the plane of forms. Only in the second chapter does God create forms and turn man into a living being with a soul by breathing into him the breath of life. Significantly the Greek word for soul, psyche, also means breath.

Although creation has by this stage been carried onto the plane of form, which the Qabalists call Yetzirah, we are not as yet dealing with our own material plane, but rather with the astral level on which the “souls” of things are formed, the patterns that will later determine the nature of their physical being. On this level man is still androgynous, containing both sexes in himself. This is made clear by the fact that woman was created from man and not from outside him.

The fact that they were not aware of their nakedness shows us that at this stage man was spiritually in a state of complete unity, that in his consciousness he was not yet able to recognize polarity. Thus we are told that he was still in Paradise and could speak with God and the animals, which is merely another way of saying that he was still at one with the All-consciousness, that consciousness was not yet individualized, that his own consciousness was not yet separated from cosmic consciousness. To be in a state of unity means to be one with everything; only with polarity does the I become separate from the not-I. Paradise symbolizes the unity in which man originally existed. He was not yet separated from God, from his source. There was as yet no division of the sexes, no consciousness of individuality.

The Three Steps Of Creation

THE THREE STEPS OF CREATION

Thus the 2 is born as the feminine, passive, reflective number. Division has taken place; the foundation of the polarized world of contrast has been laid. But out of the 2 there now arises inescapably the 3, that third point which neutralizes the tension between the two polar opposites. The 3 is the outcome of the preceding twofold potency and unites the duality that has sprung from the 1, to form a new and higher unity, the trinity.

Eliphas Lévi expresses it in these words: “If God were only One He could never be Creator or Father. If he were Two there would be an antagonism or separation in the infinite, and that would also mean separation or death for all other things. Therefore He is Three, so that he can create the infinite multiplicity of beings and numbers out of himself and in his own image.”

As we have already seen from our analysis of the pattern of numbers, the 3 represents perfect creation which, however, has not yet entered the material realm. All religions attempt to express in their different ways this mystery of the trinity: Father, Son and Holy Ghost; Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva; Isis, Osiris and Horus.

In popular tradition as well the 3 is regarded as the perfect and complete number. We say: “Third time lucky”, “I'll give you three guesses”, and “Everything happens in threes”. In fairy tales the hero often has to accomplish three tasks, is granted three wishes, and so on. The 3 encompasses spatial dimensions of length, breadth and height. Time is divided into past, present and future. There are three primary colours: blue, red and yellow and 3 states of matter: solid, liquid and gaseous. In music we have the tonic triad and in alchemy the 3 essential substances: salt, sulphur and mercury.

These examples could be multiplied indefinitely, but by now it should be apparent that creation on all levels takes place in three steps. All further differentiation is nothing but a repetition of the trinity on a new level. God in the form of the trinity stands nearer to man's experience than the as yet unrevealed God of the 1. God has become the Creator. He has produced creation out of Himself, but creation remains within Him, encompassed by Him, and can never stand in opposition to Him, otherwise God would no longer be the “all-one”.

This image seems paradoxical to man. From the fact that God gave birth to creation out of Himself, we conclude that creation is separate and distinguishable from its Creator. But this notion is false, since nothing exists outside the all-encompassing God.

If we take this idea to its logical conclusion we see that in reality the universe does not exist at all. The universe is finite, changeable, polarized. God, however, is infinite, unlimited Oneness. Therefore nothing can exist outside of Him. But, at the same time, He Himself cannot be identified with the universe.

Certain religious traditions deal with this problem by saying that the whole of creation is only a dream of the Creator, a creation of the mind, for everything is mind. A man can give birth to an idea without that idea leaving him. Yet the idea is not identical with him nor a part of him. Similarly this universe is the mental creation of a dreaming God. “The All, from its limitless mind, creates innumerable universes that last for aeons, yet for the All creation and procreation, the downfall and death of millions of universes is but the blinking of an eye.”

Let us return to the analogy of the number sequence and deal with the number 4, which represents the physical, material plane. Its symbol is the square or cube. If we open out the sides of a hollow cube we get a cross. Thus man is nailed to the cross of matter, crucified by the polarity of time and space. Only at the point of intersection of the cross do time and space come together, yielding freedom from polarity. This is why since time immemorial the cross has been the symbol both of material bondage and of release from matter.

If we have understood the qualitative meaning of the first 4 numbers we need not bother for the time being with the other numbers. There are 9 figures, 3*3. This means that creation manifests itself on three levels, corresponding to the 3 initial worlds of the Qabalah, which, however, is too wide a field for us to enter into here. These 3 worlds are present in the smallest as in the largest cosmos. Remembering our axiom “as above so below” we see that this divine trinity can be translated analogically to all levels of manifestation, from the universe down to man himself. Thus, in esotericism we speak of the mental, astral and physical planes, which, in the human being, correspond to the mental, astral and physical bodies or, in other words, to spirit, soul and body.

The Unity

THE UNITY

If we regard the number sequence as an analogy for the process of creation it is not surprising that since time immemorial the figure 1 has been identified with God the Creator, the one-and-only God. The concept of God is our way of signifying the unity which, although not accessible to man, is an inescapable conclusion from our experience of polarity. If man recognizes himself as a being subject to polarity and with a limited consciousness, it follows from the law of polarity itself that opposed to polarity there must be unity. If man can perceive a duality it follows inescapably that this must have arisen from a unity. If there is no unity there can also be no polarity. Without a creator there is no creation. Without a father there is no child. Just as from a child's existence we can deduce the existence of a father, so from the existence of a polarized world we can, with equal certainty, deduce the existence of an upolarized single creator. This primal, inaccessible entity we call God.

From this definition it follows that every conception that we form of this God must necessarily be false. For every human conception is subject to polarity and can never adequately express something non-polar. Consider the first commandment: thou shalt make unto thyself no graven image. The number 1, per se, can never be conceived except through its extension. Likewise we can only conceive of God through his creation.

The number 1 can neither be multiplied nor altered, for 1*1=1 and 1/1=1. The number 1 contains within itself all possibilities. In it all subsequent numbers are latent. By the same token, the number 1 remains present in all other numbers when these become manifest.

The same is true of God. In Him everything is contained, and at the same time He is contained in all of creation. Nothing can exist outside of Him. Nothing can increase or reduce Him. He is indivisible. God encompasses the universe, but the universe does not encompass Him. If we speak of the one-and-only God He must encompass everything that exist in reality. Nothing can exist outside of Him, otherwise He would not be the one-and-only. He must be infinite in time and space, for that which is finite and limited, that which has a beginning and an end, belongs to the world of polarity. All forms are subservient to the conditions of time and space, are finite and limited. God, however, is pure infinite, living spirit.

But, in this state of unity there is no cognition, for cognition is bound up with subject and object and presupposes polarity. In human terms, one could say that the moment God becomes aware of himself and wishes to know himself a process of creation has begun. The 1 cannot perceive itself as 1 as long as nothing exists that is not 1. The active 1 must create out of itself a counter-pole which serves as its mirror.

Creation And The Fall Of Manifestation

VI

CREATION AND

THE FALL OF MANIFESTATION

The avoidance of suffering, however and wherever it may manifest itself, always indicates that he who practices it is fundamentally of the un-initiated.

• Herbert Fritsche

This you must ken!

From one make ten,

And two let be

Make even three,

Then rich you'll be.

Skip o'er the four!

From five and six,

The Witch's tricks,

Make seven and eight,

'Tis finished straight;

And nine is one,

And ten is none,

That is the witch's one-times-one!

Goethe: Faust, Part I, Scene 6,

translated by George Madison Priest.

GOETHE'S WITCH'S multiplication table is hardly comprehensible any longer to the person of today. It is widely supposed that this is a mere word-play with not much sense behind it – a supposition which surely cannot be taken seriously with a man like Goethe.

We have already spoken of the polarity of time, of its quantitative and qualitative aspects. Just as today we tend to consider only the former aspect of time, so we regard numbers only in terms of quantitative measurement. The number 3 is for us always linked with the conception of quantity – 3 apples, 3 litres, 3 degrees and so on. But numbers too possess the polar aspect of quality.

If one learns to understand the quality of numbers, they reveal themselves as the archetypes and primal symbols of creation. Pythagoras, an initiate of the ancient Egyptian esoteric disciplines, taught that number is the ultimate foundation stone, the root of this world. If he gave to mathematics theorems that are still valid today, he also considered all numbers and mathematical connections in a primarily qualitative way as metaphor for higher reality.

This is exactly the criterion that distinguishes a genius from his followers. When Isaac Newton had discovered the law of gravity he took to translating the Bible and also wrote, among other things, books about the prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalypse of St. John. He used the law of gravity merely as an example and thereby followed the vertical way of thinking. His followers and successors used the law of gravity to satisfy their curiosity and, in doing so, proved their lack of understanding.

Numbers, like language, are not something which humans have invented or created but something that they have discovered. Numbers are primal qualities, belonging to a reality of a higher order. When properly interpreted, numbers reveal the laws and secrets of creation – they illustrate the process of creation.

Let us, therefore, insofar as it is helpful and necessary for our further reflections, consider some of the qualitative characteristics of numbers, without claiming to exhaust the vast territory of number mythology.

When dealing with numbers esotericism uses primarily two methods of calculation: theosophical reduction and theosophical addition. Theosophical reduction consists in taking a number of two or more digits and reducing it by adding the digits of the number and of any resulting number until a single digit is reached. Here are some examples:

10=1+0=1

11=1+1=2

12=1+2=3

13=1+3=4

2311=2+3+1+1=7

666=6+6+6=18=9

From this operation it follows that all numbers without exception are but different representations of the first 9 figures. There are only 9 figures. When we have exhausted these we write that the first cycle (0) is complete: 10. Then the sequence from 1-9 begins again, but on another plane. Thus the numbers 1-9 form the basic pattern of every process of development and creation.

Theosophical addition consists in counting up to the number in question, adding up the digits as you go. Again, some examples:

The theosophical value of the number 3 is 1+2+3=6

The theosophical value of the number 4 is 1+2+3+4=10

The theosophical value of the number 7 is 1+2+3+4+5+6+7=28

28 reduced to 2+8=10=1+0=1

Therefore: 4=10=1

7=10=1

4=7

If we apply these two operations systematically we find that an inner structure reveals itself in the building up of numbers. We see that the numbers, 1, 4, 7, 10 are all equal to 1, for these numbers are built up as follows.

1=1

4=1+2+3+4=10=1

7=1+2+3+4+5+6+7=28=1

10=1

Thus it can be seen that the building up of numbers can be reduced to steps of three, for the number 4 represents 1 on a higher plane. We therefore arrive at the following table:

1 2 3

4 5 6

7 8 9

10 11 12

13 14 15 and so on.

We see that all numbers in the first vertical row (1, 4, 7, 10, 13, 16, 19 etc.) are only extensions of the number 1. To recapitulate:

1=1

4=1+2+3+4=10=1

7=1+2+3+4+5+6+7=28=10=1

10=1+0=1

13=1+3=4=1

16=1+6=7=1

10=1+9=10=1 and so on.

Every process of creation and development consists of three steps with the fourth step leading to a repetition of the previous three on a new level. In esoteric circles this knowledge is very ancient and has been handed down in various formulations: for example in the doctrine of the four elements, in the Pythagorean Tetractys, in the Qabalistic Tetragrammaton “Jod He Vau He,” and so on. These first 4 numbers are allocated to the following primal ideas:

Number 1 represents the original, impulse-giving unity. It is therefore the active, creative, masculine principle.

Number 2 is the feminine, receptive, passive principle, which is able to absorb the creative impulse of 1. With 2 comes opposition and antagonism.

Number 3 is the result of the relationship between 1 and 2 and is neutral.

Number 4 in itself is nothing new. It is bi-polar since, on the one hand, it is the passive sum of the first 3 numbers (4 is even and therefore feminine and negative) while, on the other hand, it is the active beginning of a new level (4, by theosophical addition, equals 1, which is masculine and positive).

In our own times we find this primal law in the dialectic: thesis – antithesis – synthesis. But the classical theory of the elements expresses the same law. Fire is the active, creative principle. It is followed, as its opposite pole, by the passive, receptive, adaptive water. The air element is a neutral mediator which creates equilibrium between the first two elements. Fire, water and air are the three primal principles, which are followed by the fourth element, earth. Earth, however, is not a pure principle but a mixture of the first three, which is both the sum of all other principles and a new beginning on another level. Thus the classical elements are primal principles which should not be confused with their concrete forms as fire, water, air and earth, although these forms are also representatives of the respective elements.

In order to help us recognize this fourfold primal principle in the manifold systems and symbols that exist the following matrix shows the various symbolic analogies of the four primal principles, set out vertically.

This table (page *) will serve to show how, in the last analysis, all systems, cultures and religions represent the same universal correspondences and are differentiated only in their choice of language and symbol.

Number 1 2 3 4

principles active passive balance result

poles + - + -

elements fire water air earth

Indian terms tejas apas vaju prithivi

elemental beings salamanders undines sylphs gnomes

magical principles to will to dare to know to keep silent

signs of the zodiac Leo Scorpion Aquarius Taurus

animals of the

Apocalypse lion eagle angel bull

evangelists Mark John Matthew Luke

forms of sphinx cat-pawed eagle-winged human-headed bull-bodied

letters of the

Hebrew name

of God Yod He Vau He

Qabalistic worlds Aziluth Briah Yetzirah Assiah

Tarot suits wands cups swords pentacles (coins)

ordinary

playing

card suits clubs hearts spades diamonds

compass points east west south north

By analyzing how numbers are structured, I have tried to show that creation is always accomplished in three steps; beyond these three steps nothing fundamentally new emerges – there is merely a repetition of the initial triad. The same process, however, can be shown geometrically. The geometric equivalent of the number three is the triangle. All further geometric shapes corresponding to the numbers beyond 3 are built up exclusively from triangles, demonstrating again that the triad is the basic ingredient of creation and that from the number 4 onwards everything is repetition.

3=triangle *

4=square * made up of 2 triangles

5=pentagram * made up of 3 triangles

6=hexagram * made up of 2 triangles

7=heptagram * made up of 4 triangles

8=octogram * made up of 4 triangles

9=enneagram * made up of 5 triangles

10=decagram * made up of 6 triangles