Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov

The Symbolic Language

of Geometrical Figures

Izvor Collection – No. 218

PROSVETA

Readers are asked to note that Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov’s teaching was exclusively oral. This volume includes passages from several different lectures all dealing with the same theme.

Translated from the French

Original title: « LE LANGAGE

DES FIGURES GÉOMÉTRIQUES »

Original edition:

© 1984, Éditions Prosveta S.A., ISBN 2-85566-297-4

© 1986, Éditions Prosveta S.A., ISBN 2-85566-366-0

© Copyright Prosveta S.A. 2008. All rights reserved for all countries. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, adapted, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, whether privately or otherwise, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, audio-visual or otherwise, without the prior permission of author and publishers (Law of March 1957 revised).

Prosveta S.A – B.P.12 – 83601 Fréjus CEDEX (France)

ISSN 0763-2738

ISBN 978-2-85566-366-1

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter One: Geometrical Symbolism

Chapter Two: The Circle - I

The Circle - II

Chapter Three: The Triangle - I

The Triangle - II

The Triangle - III

Chapter Four: The Pentagram - I

The Pentagram - II

Chapter Five: The Pyramid

Chapter Six: The Cross - I

The Cross - II

The Cross - III

Chapter Seven: The Quadrature of the Circle

Chapter One: Geometrical Symbolism

From the earliest days of history, men have sought a language which would be both universal and synthetic, a language capable of expressing the richest and most complex realities while, at the same time, reducing them to the barest essentials. It is this research that led to the discovery of figures and symbols.

Everyone can make this discovery for himself if he meditates for long enough. If you meditate for a very long time on any given subject, you will find that a symbolic image will begin to take shape in your subconscious or your higher consciousness, the image of an object or a geometrical figure which corresponds in every respect to the idea, thought or truth that you have been concentrating on. And this, incidentally, also explains our dreams.

A part of every man’s being is in constant touch with the whole cosmos: we all live and vibrate in unison with the Cosmic Soul, the Universal Soul. We are all, therefore, in contact with the world of archetypes, principles and laws, and if we meditate on certain truths that exist on a far higher plane, on the causal plane, something in the depths of our being stirs into life and a symbolic image appears in our mind’s eye. The answer to a question that has been worrying you can also appear in the form of a symbol which you will need to interpret.1

In order to understand how this can occur one must remember that human beings are built in such a way as to reflect the whole universe. Everything that exists in Heaven, in Hell or on this earth is reflected in man. Therefore, when an Initiate begins to meditate on a given subject, a process of distillation and crystallization along certain lines of force is set in motion within him, producing on the screen of his subconscious or superconscious mind the image of a symbol which is a condensation, an abstract of his meditation. It is Nature that provides him with the answer. If it were left to him to find the exact correspondence he would not be able to do so, for reality is far too vast and too diverse! Only Nature can provide the answer: for Her it is automatic, a mathematical evidence.

Yes, it is Nature, herself, who sorts, distils and condenses your meditation and then shows you the essence of it in the form of a symbol, as though to say: ‘Here is the subject of your meditation, your thought, feeling or inspiration. It is all summed up and expressed in this image.’

Personally, for many years, in all my meditations and contemplations, I sought to rise so far above the world that I could embrace it all in one glance, that I might discover a synthetic view of the world and see it in its wholeness. And the image that presented itself was that of the cone which, when seen in geometrical projection, becomes a circle with a dot in the centre. This is why I have always considered this figure to be a symbol of the universe. The central point is identical with the summit, the apex: it is the cohesive centre which holds all things together and the vantage point from which the oneness of life can be perceived in the multiplicity of its manifestations.2

It is important for us to study this question of symbols, because symbols are the language of Nature and most people are totally incapable of deciphering this language. You will perhaps tell me that you have already read books about the interpretation of dreams... All right, but personally I don’t put much faith in those books, because the interpretations they give don’t always correspond to reality, in fact they are often pure invention! Just because somebody dreamed of a snake or a precipice, or of being chased by a bull, and then met with an accident, does not justify one in generalizing the significance of those images. For others, the same dreams may not have at all the same meaning.

It is the same with medicines: if a certain medicine has cured one person it is then prescribed for everybody else... but it won’t cure everybody else! This does not mean, though, that there is no absolute correspondence: there is a general, absolute correspondence but there is also a relative, individual correspondence, so one should know the general correspondence and, at the same time, take into account the individual shades of interpretation, and it is at this point that certain differences can be seen.

The images seen in dreams, therefore, are a language, but the language of images is still not the absolute language of symbols. The absolute language of symbols is the language of geometrical figures. Geometrical figures are, as it were, the framework or skeleton of reality whereas images still have a little spare flesh on them, a little skin and muscle. The forms seen in dreams still have some clothes on them. We have to learn to see the ‘bare bones’ of pure symbols, and to do this we have to look much further and much higher, to where they are stripped of everything extraneous, to where they have been reduced to pure abstractions: geometrical figures.

A symbol is like a human being: it is a skeleton, a framework, to which flesh, nerves, veins and arteries, fat and skin have been added. But when a man dies all this begins to disintegrate and disappear until he is, once again, reduced to the essential: the skeleton.

In the old days, when the Initiates drew a vertical or horizontal line, a circle or a dot, and then combined them to form a cross, a triangle, a square, a pentagram, a hexagram or a serpent with its tail in its mouth, they were expressing an eternal science through each one of these figures. The language of symbols, which is the universal language, represents the quintessence, the supreme distillation of wisdom. Images are still on the astral plane whereas geometrical symbols belong to the causal plane. This is why crystals are considered to be symbols of the causal plane: because they are an expression of pure geometry.

You will, perhaps, say, ‘But crystals are minerals and surely the mineral reign is the lowest reign in nature since it is the most densely material?’ That is true, but that which is below is like that which is above, and crystals are a reflection of the causal plane. That which is on the lowest level therefore, crystals, metals and rocks, reflect the highest level, the supernal world above. As I’ve already said, so often: that which is below is like that which is above, but reversed.

Now, let us go one step further: when you concentrate or meditate in order to find the answer to a particular problem, you may receive the answer in the form of an image or a geometrical figure in your mind. But the reverse is also true, and I have often shown you how, if you take a symbol as a starting point, you can work back to the ideas and truths of which it is the concrete expression. This explains why he who is able to rise to the contemplation of a symbol in the world of archetypes can actually feel a multitude of movements and vibrations taking place in his soul and bringing into his consciousness the world of ideas and images which spring naturally from this symbol. The symbol, therefore, can be the starting point from which to rediscover the world it epitomizes. This is why you find so many figures and pantacles* in esoteric science. For the Initiates they are a means by which they can return to the regions epitomized by the symbols, renew their contact with them and taste, once again, the full flavour of their existence.

Just as the divine world of thought, therefore, can be crystallized in symbols, so by diluting these symbols, in other words, by resuscitating them and giving them new life in one’s soul, one can explore and draw on the wealth contained in them. It is said that when Pythagoras wished to test those who asked to become his disciples, he put them in a small room with a little pitcher of water and a crust of bread and gave them a symbol to decipher: a triangle or a circle, for example. He knew that if one knows how, one can rise to a very high level and see what a symbol corresponds to in the world of ideas.

I have so often spoken to you about a seed! You have a tiny seed, you plant it in the ground and, one day, it grows into a huge tree. The Sages and Initiates of the past recognized that everywhere in nature, even in the souls and the minds of men, could be seen the same process of growth and development, and so they, too, condensed a whole tree into one little seed. And where can we find these seeds? In symbols: a symbol is a seed. An Initiate plants this seed in his mind, waters it regularly, and the seed grows and grows until the Initiate can work and rejoice in the shade of its branches, gather its fruits and collect and plant its seeds... and the whole cycle begins all over again. The world of symbols is the world of life. Life works with symbols and manifests itself by way of symbols: every object is a symbol which contains life. To enter fully into life one has to work with symbols and, inversely, in order to discover symbols and understand what they contain, one has to live the true life.

Perhaps you are wondering what use a symbol can be. To that I can only say, ‘What use is a seed?’ It is not possible to carry a whole forest or even one tree about with you, but you can carry some seeds. Symbols are seeds that you can plant, which means that you can work with just ten symbols and you will be in possession of all the sciences... Nor can you carry all the books and libraries of the world everywhere you go, but with only a few symbols in your head this becomes possible, because all the books of the world are summed up in a few symbols.

Thought, like nature, is governed by two opposite processes: condensation and dilution. You can condense a philosophical problem until you reduce it to a few words: a seed. You can also do the opposite and expand those few words, that seed, until it reaches to the confines of the universe: and there you have the tree again!

Now, it is essential that you practice these two modes of action: condense and then dilute, crystallize and synthesize, and then reintroduce life making it grow and become active. This is the twin process of ‘solve et coagula’: dilute and condense. If you want to see things in all their glory, to see the full extent and refinement of their matter, you can dilute them infinitely until you can see them no longer, until they disappear into eternity: this is solve. And then, if you want to see them again, to make them reappear, you condense them, and that is coagula.

It is important to acquire a deeper knowledge of the language of symbols, for as it reveals the connections and correspondences between different things, it reveals also the underlying unity of life. For life has this very special characteristic: everything in it is ordered and put together to perfection, each part is in its own special place and functioning in coordination with all the other parts. When the binding link is broken death results. And it is from this that I draw the conclusion that when a man exerts himself to discover the affinities and correspondences between things, when he arrives at the discovery that the cohesion of the entire universe reposes, precisely, on these correspondences, he comes alive.

‘But’, you will say, ‘He was already alive...’ No, you are confusing true life with vitality, biological life. Yes, of course, he eats and drinks and gesticulates, but life has many degrees and man does not yet know the higher degrees of life. It is when he begins to understand the remote, imperceptible, subtle and etheric correspondences between all things and all creatures of the universe that man begins to know what true life is and can begin to live it.

Notes

1. See ‘Et il me montra un fleuve d’eau de la vie’, Synopsis Coll., Part VI: ‘Les niveaux de la conscience’.

2. See ‘In Spirit and in Truth’, Izvor Coll. n° 235, chap. 3: ‘The Link with the Centre’, chap. 4: ‘Reaching for the Top’, chap. 5: ‘From Multiplicity to Unity’.

* The word pantacle (from the Greek ‘pan’: all) refers to any form of talisman and must not be confused with the word pentacle (from the Greek ‘pente’: five) which is synonymous with pentagram.

Chapter Two: The Circle - I

At some time or another in your life you must certainly have dropped a pebble into water and seen the ripples forming ever expanding circles around the point where the stone dropped. Everybody has seen this phenomenon, but how many have ever stopped to interpret it? Those who know how to decipher the great Book of Nature recognize in the circular movement of the ripples flowing out from one central point, the expression of a prodigious process: the geometric expression of the creation of the world.

A far-reaching science and a vast body of philosophy is contained in this figure L. The circle symbolizes the universe and the dot in its centre represents the Supreme Being who sustains and animates it. Look at it and you will see that the central point is at exactly the same distance from every point on the circumference; and it is this that enables it to maintain the circle in perfect equilibrium. A ceaseless ebb and flow of exchange exists between the centre and the periphery, communicating life to the whole area enclosed by the circle. The fullness of life is there: vibrating, palpitating, digesting and eliminating, breathing and thinking...

Now take the image of a wheel. Perhaps you will say that you have seen a lot of different wheels in your life, and I’m sure that’s true, but none of them is more than a pale reflection of the first wheel that set the world in motion and that the Kabbalah calls Chokmah, the Heavenly Wheel. In Chokmah, the angelic hierarchy of the Auphanim, the Cherubim, are present to keep the wheel spinning; and Binah, modelling itself on Chokmah, also spins a wheel, the wheel that determines the fate of every single creature.1 And the tenth card of the Tarot is the Wheel of Fortune.

Also, if one interprets the significance of the number 10, one sees that the 0 is the circle and the 1 is the dot in the centre. Yes, the 1 becomes a dot, for the horizontal projection of a vertical line is a dot, a point without dimension. So the 1, the central point, represents the masculine principle and the 0, the circle, represents the feminine principle. And when the 1 and the 0 are united, they represent fulfilment, plenitude. Without the 1, which represents the masculine principle or the spirit, matter, represented by the 0, is not organized. It possesses every potential wealth but it can be organized only by the 1, and this is why the 0 should never remain alone, otherwise it will be for all time chaotic, unorganized matter.

The Book of Genesis says, ‘And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters’. The Spirit of God is the masculine principle which overshadows matter, ‘the waters’, to give it life and form. ‘The waters’ are represented by the 0, the circle, and the Spirit of God is represented by the 1, the central dot. Unless it be animated by the spirit, matter remains formless; it is the ‘tohu va bohu’, the formless void spoken of in Genesis. But when it is brushed by the wings of the spirit, when the spirit gives it life and form, then all those potential riches it contains begin to manifest themselves and it becomes an organized world, a universe peopled with innumerable suns and constellations. So it is the universe that is the 0, the circle that has already been fashioned, vivified and organized by the spirit, the 1. But without the 1, the 0 remains inert and stagnant.

We can see the application of this law in our own inner life. The worst thing that can ever happen to a human being is to be separated from the 1, to lose touch with the spirit and be no more than a 0. For when this happens man becomes a desert, a land as barren as a woman who has never been fertilized. To be fertile you have to maintain the contact with the 1. You will, of course, never be anything else but 0, but in the same way as the entire universe is 0: a 0 that the spirit, the 1, never ceases to vivify.2

The centre of a circle is always just one dot, a fixed point, whereas the circumference of the circle can be expanded infinitely. Yes, because matter absorbs and engulfs everything in order to transform and fashion it. And isn’t this what woman does? She gathers together certain materials and brings a child into the world. Or she gathers together other kinds of materials and produces a tasty meal! Matter is a terrible thing: it attracts and engulfs everything. And those who cannot resist the attractive force of matter are swallowed up and then, in some other region, served up as a dainty dish! If you don’t want this to happen to you, you must maintain your bond with the spirit.

In contrast to matter, the spirit radiates and projects in an outward movement. Instead of collecting and storing things up, it gives. And this is why it is represented by a minute dot, while the circle is enormous because it takes whatever the spirit gives. If matter is rich it is because it has taken possession of the wealth of the spirit. Everything the spirit possesses passes through the hands of matter, transforming and spiritualizing it. ‘Oh,’ you will exclaim; ‘But then the spirit loses everything!’ No, the spirit loses nothing for it lives in the matter which contains all its wealth. And, here again, this law can be applied to all those who really know how to give. It is he who gives who benefits, for he will live henceforth in all those who have received his gifts: his spirit dwells in them. And this explains why those who think they are richer because they have taken advantage of another are, in fact, inhabited by he who has given them his wealth; it is he who manifests himself through them.

The central point radiates with a rectilinear movement, the movement of electricity, of the masculine principle (the intellect and the spirit), whereas the movement of magnetism, of the feminine principle (the heart and the soul), is circular. So rays push outward and give, whereas the circle draws to itself and takes.

Perfect equilibrium requires the presence of both principles and this means that we must all be circles with a central dot. The soul and the heart are represented by the circle; the spirit and the intellect by the central dot. The dot and the circle, therefore, also represent love and wisdom. He who possesses only love is a circle that has not yet found its centre: he is scattered and dispersed, lacking cohesion. And he who knows only wisdom is a central point with no circle around it: he is proud, a ‘loner’, like a general with no soldiers, no army to command.

Astrologers have always used the circle with a dot in the centre to represent the sun, and this figure L can be seen in every sphere of nature from the solar system to the atom.

Now, let’s study the structure of a cell: it consists of a central core or nucleus, a substance known as cytoplasm which surrounds the nucleus, and a peripheral membrane. By analogy one can say that the nucleus is the spirit; the cytoplasm, the space in which currents and energies circulate, is the soul, and the membrane is the physical body, the bark. And now, if you look at the structure of an eye, a fruit or a tree, you will recognize this same pattern, these same three divisions: the spirit, the soul and the body.

Lying between the nucleus in the centre and the outer edge of the circle is a space, and in this circumscribed space, life circulates. The fact that this space is limited is very important. It is said that before creating the world, the Eternal Lord set out its limits.3 And the reason why He did this was to contain and concentrate the creative forces within certain boundaries so that they should not scatter and be lost. And then God began to create within the limits that He Himself had set. The universe is not infinite, there are frontiers beyond which it cannot go. Only the Absolute is limitless and no one can know what the Absolute is. But the universe is limited, and since God manifests Himself through the medium of Creation, this means that He has limited Himself, and the universe that He has created is restricted in both time and space. Even if there are several universes, each one is enclosed within certain limits and it is within the compass of these limits that life manifests itself. A universe which ceased to be enclosed within limits would return to its Maker and disappear.

Limits, therefore, are necessary so that materials and energies shall not be lost and may enter into the construction and organization of a living being. Look at an egg: if it were not contained within a shell the life would be lost and there would never be a chicken. Some kind of protection, therefore, is necessary. For an egg it is the shell; for a tree it is the bark, and for a man it is the physical body. Our physical body serves to envelop and contain our soul and our spirit. If materialists had the true gift of observation and analogy they would have seen that the whole universe is proof of the existence of the soul and the spirit. But as they have never observed the underlying reality they have seen only the body, and they deny the existence of the soul and the spirit. They see only the bark, the visible outer wrapping, and they think that’s all there is.

But is it possible to see the soul and the spirit? Where are they? Take a man: he is alive, he thinks, writes and speaks, he loves, creates and destroys... And then, one fine day, it is all over: he can do nothing any more. What has happened? All that he possessed in the way of limbs and organs while he was alive are still there, and now he is dead and incapable of stirring a finger. So he must have been animated by something invisible which was the cause, the moving force behind all his gestures, all his thoughts and actions: the centre.

You must meditate often on this symbol of the circle for it contains everything. What is the centre? It is the Spirit, the Spirit of God. And what is the circle? It is space, matter, the Divine Mother. Study the circle and you will understand the mystery of the relationship between the spirit and matter. You have probably all heard this definition of God: ‘A sphere whose centre is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere’. This shows that, in a circle, the only thing that truly exists is the centre: the Lord, who vivifies the circle, the universe.

The Initiates who have understood the potency of this symbol L have only one desire, and that is to introduce the centre, the spirit, into the circle of their own beings. And we are all circles who need to attract the central point, the Holy Spirit, into ourselves. As long as we are a circle without a centre we shall know only emptiness and dissatisfaction in our lives, but the day this central point, the spirit comes to dwell in us, giving us light and life, then we shall know fulfilment.

The kernel, the seed, is the essential part of a fruit. Of course, for you who are eating it, the important part of a fruit is the flesh. But no, even for you, what is important is the seed, because thanks to the seed you can have acres and acres of fruit trees!

For Nature, the essential is the seed; she is concerned only with the seed, the kernel. If she, has wrapped a little flesh around it, it is only with a view to attracting the attention of birds or men so that they shall plant it. As long as we, human beings, are more interested in the flesh, we shall continue to feed on lies and illusions. Reality is in the seed, in the central point.

The seed or kernel of a fruit represents the spirit; the flesh represents the soul, the area in which life circulates, and the skin represents the material wrapping, the physical body. Here you have the whole thing: spirit, soul and body, and the body, you see, protects and contains the soul and the spirit. Man is built on the same pattern as a fruit, and, like the seed in a fruit, the essential role in man is played by the spirit. Unfortunately, most human beings appreciate only the skin of the fruit, that is: the physical body. The physical body is very important, of course, there’s no denying it, but only as a flask to contain a precious perfume and prevent it from evaporating: its task is to contain the soul and the spirit. The true man is not the physical body but that imperceptible point somewhere inside him, that point that thinks, loves and creates. The proof that the physical body is not essential in the eyes of Cosmic Intelligence lies in the fact that it is allowed to die and be buried. The spirit, which is immortal, is snatched up to the heavens while the carcass is left to rot in the grave. There is matter for meditation here for the rest of one’s life if one really wants to get to know the seed, the centre point, the spirit.

The Initiates have always taught the importance of a centre to which man must be connected, for they know that if there is no central axis around which particles, atoms and worlds can revolve, everything falls apart: the result is chaos, universal anarchy. Yes, the essential condition for harmony, balance and life itself, is that there be a centre, a gravitational centre around which everything revolves. See what happens in a family when the head of the household is away, or in a country or an army when the leader is absent: as the saying goes, ‘When the cat’s away the mice will play’! Deep down, man already knows these great truths. Instinctively, he knows that the things of earth must be exactly as they are above, in the divine world.

The solar system has its centre, the sun, and it is the sun that holds the planets in equilibrium as they spin round it in absolute harmony. When a family, a society or a nation is not held together by the presence of a centre, it falls apart. When man’s physical body loses its centre, it too disintegrates, because the central point which ensured his inner order and cohesion is no longer there: his cells have lost their leader, so they fall away from each other, back into the cosmic melting pot from which they will be drawn to form new bodies.

In a family, the centre is the father; in a country, it is the king; in an army, the centre is the commander in chief; in the solar system, it is the sun; in an egg, it is the yoke; in an eye, it is the pupil, and in a human being, it is the spirit. There always has to be a centre, a head: not two or three, just one. Wherever there are several heads anarchy makes its appearance. In the Apocalypse, the Beast is represented as having seven heads; in Greek mythology also, the Hydra of Lerna had seven heads. These multiple heads are the symbol of anarchy. If humanity has always lived in anarchy up to now it is because it is governed by several heads. The situation will never get any better until men submit to one head. Then, as the Gospels say, ‘There shall be one fold and one shepherd’, and when that day comes, when there is one single circle around one central point, then other beneficial forces will manifest themselves.

If order and harmony are to reign there must be one head, one centre, one peak point around which everything revolves, for the forces of unity are all concentrated in the centre, the hub. The supreme Centre of the universe, God Himself, is reflected on every level and in every region and all those who represent God are linked to each other by a central thread.

In a pearl necklace, every pearl, large or small, is connected to all the others by the thread on which they are strung. Similarly, the prime Centre of the Universe: God Himself, who is the Primordial Source, the First Cause, God who is the soul and the spirit of every living being, is reflected in even the most minute of His creatures as the thread which holds them all together, so that the unity amongst them shall be unbroken, so that order and harmony shall reign throughout. Every other centre must be united with this one Centre, for if it is not, it can no longer receive the authentic stream of life and it gradually disintegrates and disappears. If those who represent the centre in some form of human community (the father of a family, the Principal of a school, the Mayor of a village, the President of the Republic, a King, the head of a spiritual community, etc.) are unaware of this link then they are representatives of God in outward appearance only.

Every head, every centre in the world must be conscious of whom he represents and if he fulfils his function as God’s representative in the region and to the extent to which he has authority, then he will truly be united with the Divine Head, who will pour out an abundance of rays, powers and virtues on him which he may then distribute to others. But it all depends on his level of awareness and understanding. Those who fulfil their functions mechanically, automatically (and I’m afraid there are many who do this), can receive nothing, however high their rank or function.

Take the example of a Mayor: because he is the head, the centre, all information, orders and honours are addressed directly to him. But if he is not in his office, if he has gone off to amuse himself and can’t be reached, everything piles up on his desk and, when he comes back, he has no idea where to begin or how to sort it all out... and the problems begin!

And you, who are the centre of the ‘circle’ of your own body, of your whole being, when you are linked to the one Centre above, and when you dwell in the light and the awareness of this bond, the same thing holds true within you in respect to all the other little centres: the cells of your body. Then you can be in touch with the nucleus of each cell thanks to the bonds that unite them to you. They receive your orders and are influenced by your light, and they set to work to restore order in your cells. And this is how the body purifies and heals itself, how it becomes stronger and more luminous thanks to the centre point: the spirit of one who is conscious.

As long as all the cells of our body converge toward the spirit everything will function in perfect harmony. But as soon as some of them take it into their heads to become anarchists, saying, ‘Pooh! I don’t give two pence for the head or its laws!’, then they begin to form tumours and cancers. We have to convince our cells of the necessity of obeying the laws of unity for, in this way, we prolong our own lives. Of course, what I am telling you here, are the principles, the general rules. There will often be circumstances and events in the lives of individuals which will seem to contradict what I have said, but these are details which depend on the evolution of each person. As far as the principles are concerned, it is exactly as I have explained it.

The head of a family, a society or a country, the head of a solar system, the head of a universe... All these heads are representatives of the one Lord, representatives on various levels of the unique Divine Principle. The father of a family, a leader, a Master, all represent this First Principle. And if, in your mind, you break the thread that links any one of these heads to God, you will no longer be able to benefit from associating with him. If you do not consider your Father to be God’s representative in your family, he will be unable to give you anything at all because, for you, he is not linked to the Divine Principle. The only thing that matters is to establish this link between every single thing, between every being and God.

If you have a Master and you do not look on him as an aspect of the Divine Principle, he will be unable to do anything for you, even if he possesses all the powers. He will be able to use his powers for others but not for you: if you lock the door between yourself and your Master, whatever he tries to give you will be repulsed, turned aside, shattered.

When you close the shutters of your house, can the sun shine in? No, it cannot. It is all-powerful; it holds the planets in their orbit around it, but it cannot open the shutters on your windows! And nor can God: He is Almighty God, but He is powerless to open the shutters of your heart. You have to do that yourself. You must at least go half-way to meet Him: open your shutters and then He can come in.

This link with the Divine Principle is also essential where love is concerned. If a man and woman want to manifest true love and experience true happiness and freedom, they must look on each other as representatives of the Heavenly Father and the Divine Mother. Otherwise, when a man embraces his beloved he will be embracing her weaknesses and limitations. He will never attain to anything higher, to anything purer or greater, and their love will not last. So another level of understanding is necessary: a man should look on his beloved as a representative of the Divine Mother, and she should look on him as an aspect of the Heavenly Father, of the Christ. In this way they establish a link between themselves and something far more perfect. Each of them becomes something other, something more than a sweetheart. And when they embrace, each holds in his arms, as also in his heart and soul, some part of Immensity. And from this Immensity flow rays and currents of a subtler kind; Angels and Devas and all the luminous spirits of nature visit them, bringing gifts of strength and joy because these two beings are expressing themselves in the most beautiful language of creation: the language of love, limitless love.

When you are contemplating the sun in the morning, remember that you are contemplating the Spirit, the Eye of God. And this means, of course, that you must do so consciously and with love and the will to seek and find the centre, your own centre. Bear in mind that simply by looking at the sun you are approaching the centre of the solar system and that this induces the parallel phenomenon within you: your consciousness comes closer to your own centre, closer to your spirit and to God, and in this way you will find light, peace, freedom and strength.

And here too, I can show you yet another way to interpret this symbol L. The sun is always in the centre of the solar system. If ever it disappeared from its central position all the planets would start wandering aimlessly in space. Sometimes it happens that a planet tries to seduce the sun and get it all to itself. It declares, ‘My dearest sun, I love you so much, come closer to me!’ But the sun replies, ‘No, no. I can’t come any closer; I have to stay in the centre, otherwise the whole solar system would be thrown off balance. I promise not to forget you. I’ll continue to give you a lot of time; I’ll continue to send you my rays, and to fertilize, vivify and illuminate you, but let me stay in the centre’. Planets must learn that the sun has to stay where it is.

Now, you will have understood, of course, that when I talk of the sun and the planets like that, it is symbolic. It could apply to a king and his subjects, to a professor and his students, to a Master and his disciples, or even to God and human beings. Never try to get the central point to leave its position and become your exclusive property. It has to stay in the centre because this is the only position from which it can maintain order, the only way in which it can balance and nourish all creatures. It sends out rays to the farthest perimeter and the power of its rays is so intense that they can even penetrate into the depths, into underground grottos: nothing exists that is not penetrated by its rays.

When at last you become capable of conscious contemplation of the sun, you will see what happens: waves begin to flow back and forth between the sun and yourself, creating forms and colours, creating a new world. When this happens, forces and intelligent beings will be drawn to you to bathe, dancing and rejoicing, in all that beauty, in this dialogue, this conversation between the sun and you. So far, you have still not really established the contact with the sun; it is there, before your eyes, but there is no real exchange between you. You are content to look at it, to notice that it is a little brighter, or a little more hazy than it was yesterday... But that is not the way to establish contact with the sun. To establish a true relationship with the sun you have to spin the threads of a truly living bond between you.4

What do you do when you want to keep a fire going? You tend the flame and keep it supplied with wood or some other kind of fuel so that it won’t go out. You see, this is something you do yourself, every day, but you have never interpreted it. When you feed a fire it proves that you love it. You nourish it so that it shall go on living. If you don’t supply it constantly with fuel it is because you don’t love it and it will go out.

And now, if we draw an analogy between the fire in your fireplace and the sun, we can say that it is the planets who tend the flame of the sun. By accepting the sacrifice of revolving round the sun they give it something of themselves and, in return, the sun gives them its light and warmth, which are nothing less than a transformation of their own sacrifice. And you too, you can contribute something of your own to the fire. You can give it your dead branches to burn, that is: your primitive instincts, your stupid prejudices and fancies... all that useless clutter! Get rid of it. Burn it all up! And you will see: the fire is capable of transforming anything and everything into warmth and light. And it is you who stand to gain from it. After all, all that old litter is of no use to you for anything else, now is it? It can give you neither light nor warmth, because you’re not capable of transforming it. So, into the fire with it! In a spiritual Teaching, the fire is also the Master. Like fire, the Master is capable of transforming all that is old and dingy in his disciples and then returning it to them in the form of light and warmth.

The planets revolve around the sun and it is as though they were saying, ‘Dearest Sun, we have everything, everything we need except light and warmth. We’re drab, ugly and cold. Please transform us...’ And the sun replies by sending them its warmth and its light.

Here again is an example of the relation between the two principles, masculine and feminine. Only the 1 is masculine. All plurals are feminine. And, like the sun in the solar system, the Master in a spiritual Teaching is the only one who is masculine: all the others, all the disciples, both men and women, are feminine, negatively polarized, that is to say, receptive. When this is so there is a constant flow of exchange between the centre and the periphery: the periphery sends love towards the centre and the centre sends light, warmth and life to the periphery. And if the particles at the periphery are unresponsive and avaricious, if they refuse to give, they will also be unable to receive. Things grow, flourish and pulse with life only when there is a relationship of give and take. And it is not necessary for two beings to be physically close in order to have a relationship of give and take. The sun does not try to get close to the planets in order to embrace them: it illumines and fertilizes them from afar. Don’t misunderstand me, what I am explaining here is a principle, a law of the spiritual world.

It makes no difference whether you apply it to God, to the spirit, or to love, the principle is always the same. Fire is God’s love. Love is a fire, a divine fire. If you wish to feed the flame of your fire, therefore, if you wish to feed your spirit and soul, your physical body is going to have to make some sacrifices.

You must try to become conscious of this ceaseless to-and-fro of communication between the periphery and the centre; it is the law of the echo: you send a certain sum of money or, if you prefer, a dead branch, a log of wood, to the central bank, the universal fire, and in return it sends you a receipt. And the interest you receive on your initial investment increases with the years. All those who claim to be ‘reasonable and prudent’ and refuse to let go of their hearts and souls, will never grow rich. They don’t want to invest their love in the centre, they won’t even look at it, with the result that they never receive anything from it.

So, from now on, think of feeding the central fire. Throw a few of your dead branches on it every day and you will see: the more you feed its flames the more light and warmth you will receive.5

Notes

1. See Angels and other Mysteries of The Tree of Life, Izvor Coll. n° 236, chap. 3: ‘The Angelic Hierarchies’.

2. See Cosmic Balance – The Secret of Polarity, Izvor Coll. n° 237, chap. 3: ‘One and Zero’.

3. See Angels and other Mysteries of The Tree of Life, Izvor Coll. n° 236, chap. 6: ‘Ain Soph Aur, Unlimited Light’, and chap. 8: ‘When God Drew a Circle on the Face of the Deep’.

4. See Sunrise meditations, Brochure n° 323.

5 See The Mysteries of Fire and Water, Izvor Coll. n° 232, chap. 14: ‘How to Light and Tend Fire’, chap. 17: ‘Trees of Light’.

The Circle - II

To help me explain how important this symbol of the circle is, I would like to take a very simple, rather comic example: it is that of the ‘butter-dish’ or rotor. Don’t you know what it is? Well, I’ll tell you. Many years ago, in Paris – it was before the war, in 1938, and I had just arrived from Bulgaria – there was an amusement park at the Porte Maillot, called Luna Park. Crowds of people used to go there to dance, try their skill at the rifle range, and amuse themselves on the moving carpets, the swings and roundabouts and so on. There was one attraction, for instance, which consisted of throwing a ball at a precise spot on a wall. If you hit the spot a bed on which a woman was lying tipped up and, to the huge delight of the onlookers, the woman fell out. Then she picked herself up, got back on the bed and the whole thing began all over again!

Then there was also the Fun Palace with its wind tunnels that blew the women’s skirts over their heads, and the swings that stopped in midair, just as the people in them found themselves upside down.

Well, I went to have a look at all that one day; I wanted to see how people amused themselves there, in Paris, and I was really impressed with the inventive genius of the French! Never had I seen anything like that in Bulgaria!

But now, to get back to that famous ‘butter-dish’ I was going to tell you about. It consisted of a large circular platform, big enough for several people to stand on. When there were enough people on it, it started to spin, slowly at first, then faster and faster and it was a very funny sight: all those who had remained on the outer edge of the platform were thrown completely off balance; they all began tumbling against each other and, of course, they were helpless with laughter, while those at the centre remained completely untroubled: they simply stood quietly in place, laughing at the others.

So you see, the centrifugal force was so strong that all those who had remained on the edge of the platform couldn’t resist it, and as they had nothing to cling to, they were thrown outwards. Whereas those who had stayed close to the central axis escaped its effects, kept their balance, and remained firmly in place.

When I saw this it made me think, for I felt that there were some important laws concealed in this phenomenon; it seemed to me that a human being is very like that ‘butter-dish’. Certain regions of his psyche are, as it were, the outer edge, the periphery, of his being, others are the central axis, and his consciousness represents all those people who crowded onto the platform. If your consciousness remains on the outer edge of your being, I warn you that there are formidable forces at large in that area and that you run the risk of being hurled against a wall and having your head broken. All those who look for adventure on the outer fringes of life, whether for business or for pleasure, are putting themselves at risk because they fall prey to forces they are quite incapable of resisting. If you want to live in peace and tranquillity you must find a sheltered spot. And where is that ideal spot? At the centre of the circle, of course. Those who stay on the outer edge are never at peace because it is the region of disturbances and unbridled passions and when they wander into this region they are seized upon and attacked by wild forces and, sooner or later, they will be flung out and broken to bits.

When an Initiate wants to perform a magic ceremony he has to attune himself and vibrate in harmony with all the forces of the cosmos in order to be protected. This is why he draws a circle round himself, a circle in which he represents the centre.1 By this gesture he is, in effect, proclaiming to the whole universe: ‘I am he who understands. I am he who recognizes the supremacy, the dominion and the sovereignty of the one and only God, of the Eternal Principle who rules the universe’. When they hear this, all the spirits of nature come and offer him their services. But if he doesn’t do this the spirits will come flocking to oppose him and he may well be struck down.

The Initiates, who observed the ways of Nature, have given us certain rules and methods, such as meditation, recollection and prayer. These are all ways in which we can make the effort to enter into ourselves, to seek our centre, to seek that invulnerable spot at the peak of our being where all is peace or, if you prefer, that ‘secret refuge’ mentioned in Psalm 91.2 Yes, for in our inner life, the centre is identical with the peak, the summit. As I have already explained, from the geometrical point of view, the centre of a circle can be seen as the projection of the vertex of a cone.

And now let us study the question with the help of colours: each of the colours of the spectrum corresponds to light waves vibrating at a certain frequency and the frequency becomes higher and higher as the colour approaches the violet end of the spectrum. The wave-lengths of the different colours thus form a continous series ranging from the longest (red) to the shortest (violet) and, as light vibrates symmetrically around its line of

propagation, the chain formed by the successive vibrations is in the form of a conical spiral.

The vertex of the cone, which also represents the centre of the circle, corresponds to the shortest wave-lengths, that is the highest frequencies. And it is at this point that spiritual peace is to be found. It is not the peace of immobility and stagnation but a state of extremely intense vibration in which the most sublime activities can be undertaken. It is in this peace that the spirit can manifest itself to the full.

When you are on the highest peak of a mountain you can look in every direction and nothing obstructs your view. In other words, when one looks at things from the highest vantage point one can see every aspect of reality, with greater lucidity, and see what is likely to happen. Also, the vast reaches of space that one discovers fill one with a sense of peace and delight: one can breathe more deeply. And, finally one is free, one can act in accordance with one’s deepest desires, one becomes powerful. So you see that he who makes an effort to draw closer to the centre possesses light, peace and freedom. What a lot of things can be said about the centre of the circle!

In order to draw nearer the centre, nearer to the heavenly regions, we have to synchronize our vibrations with the highest frequencies. In other words, we must increase the intensity of our thoughts and feelings. The more intense, subtle and spiritual a man’s life becomes, the nearer he draws to the summit and the closer he comes to the heavenly regions and to all the inhabitants of those regions, all the way up to the Lord Himself. But when he allows his vibrations to slow down, when he is no longer impelled by the same faith, ardour and enthusiasm, then he sinks downwards into matter, he becomes heavy, clumsy and crude, he loses all his beauty, his thinking congeals and he is no better than a stone. Those who wish to find this centre, the heart of the universe, the Creator, the Supreme Fountainhead, must live more intensely.3

Whatever you do from now on, always ask yourself: ‘What do I want? What am I looking for? Am I moving towards the outer fringe of my being or towards my centre?’ And when you feel some disturbance or restlessness within, it is clear: you have gone too close to the perimeter of your being and have fallen under the influence of chaotic forces and currents. So, hurry up and get away from the edge. It is pointless to try and struggle against these currents, they are far too strong for you and if you stay within their zone of influence, you will be submerged and uprooted: no one has ever managed to vanquish these forces. The only way to free yourself from them is to move towards the centre. Don’t fool yourself into believing that you can survive if you stay at the perimeter: if that is what you believe, I am afraid I must destroy all your illusions on the subject!

I’ve seen it with people far stronger than you: they allowed themselves to be seduced into moving towards the perimeter with the result that they were destroyed. The only way you can survive is to draw closer to the centre... And the centre is God.

Let me illustrate this with a very simple example. Suppose you employ a woman to clean or cook for you, when she arrives you put her in charge of your house. If she is orderly, conscientious and clean she will dust and polish and your house will shine like a new pin. But if she is untidy and dirty or even dishonest, as some are, you will soon find that your house is like a lumber-room and a lot of things seem to have disappeared. Every creature, whether it be human, animal, vegetable or mineral, leaves behind it traces which correspond exactly to its nature or character. If you let a wolf or a fox into your house it will leave some sign of its presence, if only the smell! Every being, whether good or bad, leaves its mark. Similarly, if you bring the central point, God, into your inner life, He will leave His mark within you. If you make contact with the central point, even if only by recognizing its existence, its presence, it will leave something that partakes of its own nature: light, intelligence, goodness, harmony, beauty. All you have to do is let it enter into you. Once it is there it knows what to do. That is why the Initiates say, ‘Think of the Lord; let Him enter into you so that He may fill your life’, for only the divine presence can remedy every problem. Only this can heal, purify, vivify, restore harmony and raise you from the dead.4

Let me give you some other examples. When soldiers are left to themselves in their barracks, their uniforms are stained and dirty and they spend their time smoking and amusing themselves. But when the General comes to inspect the regiment, then they are all out on the parade ground, marching in step or lined up with their uniforms in spotless condition. Or look at children who are left alone in their classroom: they shout and squabble and throw things across the room, but as soon as the teacher appears, they all go back to their desks: there’s no more noise or disturbance. And yet the teacher did not say anything. He didn’t threaten anyone. His presence was enough to make everyone settle down.

In the same way, when you allow that presence that is God into your inner self, everything in you slips back into place and peace and harmony reign once more, for this Centre is the only authority recognized by every creature. If someone else turns up and attempts to usurp its place, nobody pays any attention. But when God, the Lord of the Universe, appears, a mere hint of His presence, only a breath of Him, is enough to make even the devils line up ready to serve Him. Only God is known and acknowledged by the whole of creation. That is why you should call on Him and on no one else. All creatures, good or evil, obey Him. So you see why it is so important to seek the Lord, to beg Him to come to you, for His presence is enough to restore every thing and every living creature to its rightful place. This truth is above all other truths.

Every day, several times a day, you must think about this Centre. Remembering it for only a few minutes from time to time is not enough to get you away from the edge. Practice doing this as often as you like, take all the time you need, but you must find this central point. If you succeed in understanding the value and importance of it, every time you close your eyes and call to mind the divine centre that dwells within you, you will feel peace, joy, wonder and gratitude flooding into you.

Concern yourself only with the centre and you will find out all you need to know about what is at the periphery. You will have a true view of the world. You will not need to read any of the philosophers who have manufactured their own systems based on their perception of the one little corner of the perimeter in which they find themselves. They all see only a few bits and pieces and want to instruct others with these bits and pieces. One says, ‘The world is thus and so’ and, from his standpoint, of course, he is right. Another says, ‘No. I disagree. It’s like this...’, and he too is right. They are all right to a certain extent but none of them has an overall understanding because their understanding is purely intellectual. The intellect is incapable of grasping and understanding everything. That is why the Initiates looked for other ways of knowing, such as intuition or direct clairvoyance. But one can only possess intuition and clairvoyance if one takes up one’s position at the centre, at the peak point. If you stand at the outer perimeter, not only is it impossible to get above the situation, but your line of vision is obscured by the dust from the roads and the mists from the marshes. Whereas on the high mountain tops of the spirit there is neither dust nor fog.

Man’s intellectual faculties cannot, of themselves, go beyond a certain limit. He has to move beyond the mental plane, onto the causal plane. It is there, on the causal plane, that he receives intuition and instant comprehension, that he sees and understands everything at a glance, for he is shown the whole of reality. So do not rely too much on your intellect and its reasoning, its combinations, inductions and deductions; but by meditation, prayer and concentration, keep striving for the summit and, all of a sudden, everything will become clear.5

Whenever someone comes to talk to me and explains what he is thinking and planning, I can tell immediately, simply by the way in which he envisages things, whether he stands at the centre or on the outer rim of the circle. It’s very easy to see: all those who are at the perimeter speak a deformed, a hollow language! Whereas those who are trying to reach that centre, that ‘secret refuge’ on high, the Fountainhead of Life, even if they have not yet reached their goal, they already reflect something of it in their emanations: a perfume or some minute specks of gold speak of the pure truth from which they flow. These beings are bearers of the new life and it is to be hoped that, one day, the earth will be peopled with such creatures so that we may all live and work and rejoice with them!

Initiates and mystics try to maintain an attitude of recollection so as to be constantly in touch with this centre in themselves, their centre of gravity, the be-all and end-all of their lives. Some of them envisage it as being situated in their head or between the eyes, others feel that it is in the heart, the Solar Plexus, or the Hara centre: Svadhisthana.6 In point of fact where you situate it on the physical level is unimportant because it is not on the physical level. All you have to do is think about it and you’ll find the way to it without bothering about where it is. Look at plants: they have no eyes, but they need sunlight and there is some force within them that turns them towards the sun. The phenomenon is known as tropism and it also exists in a man who is seeking his centre, even if he has no idea where to look for it.

You have probably heard of the special techniques of concentration developed by Indian yogis to help them find the centre. For the time being it would be premature for you to experiment with these techniques. The only thing that matters is that you realize the necessity of seeking this centre which is God. Even if you don’t know where it is to be found, your soul knows and your spirit knows. It is enough for you to decide that you want to find it and to take the first steps: you will begin to feel forces at work within and they will guide you with perfect accuracy. Some Christians who had never heard of the Chakras, who did not know where they were or how to develop them, nevertheless managed to develop them simply because they practiced certain virtues, recited certain prayers and used certain methods used in the Christian religion, and they, too, found the Centre even though they had no special technique to help them. Whatever is pure and disinterested sets in motion the same wheels and leads to the same spiritual discoveries, whatever the religion.

Of course, if one is able to situate things correctly there is no question but that it makes one’s task easier. When you are working in the dark, in a fog, in the unconscious, you can reach your goal but it will take much longer. A Christian who knows nothing about Indian yogis, and relies solely on his love of God can make great progress. If his love is very ardent and very strong it can set him free and lead him to illumination. But if he knew just a little more that would help him to see his way more clearly, it would be even better, because he would be able to use more effective methods and reach his goal more rapidly.

This is why, in our Teaching, you are taught about the power of love, prayer, docility, humility and all the Christian virtues, but we also add some notions drawn from that eternal Science that Initiates have possessed from time immemorial, about the Sephirotic Tree of Life, man’s subtle bodies, the regions of space, the soul and the spirit, etc. And this makes your work easier, for it reduces the risk of error.

To have a full and exact view of things, obviously, a great deal of knowledge is necessary. But quite a little will suffice in order to start working on the practical level. In fact, too much information can be a hindrance: people who are interested in everything, who are always rushing about trying to find new books to read, always wanting to look at and find out about everything, accomplish nothing. They don’t put anything into practice and are content, simply, to swallow a lot of information. Whereas others who are not so busy collecting information, but who concentrate on two or three exercises every day for years on end, get fantastic results.

You will ask, ‘But then what advice do you give us?’ I think the best thing is to have a broad knowledge of life, of creation and of the invisible world, and then to choose, to settle on a few notions, a few essential truths and concentrate on them in order to put them into practice and succeed with them. It is very bad to spend all one’s time studying and never to achieve anything in the practical sphere. On the other hand, before you start practicing the spiritual life you do need some knowledge, some information, otherwise your practice will always fall short of what it should be. Your ignorance will be reflected in your achievements which will be still-born. So, in the spiritual life too, one has to reach a harmonious balance between theory and practice.

In our Teaching we develop the heart and the intellect, but also the will. And this is how the will develops: by practice, by exercise. And practice is the outcome of the activity of the heart and intellect. This is why I consider our Teaching to be complete. For the rest, it all depends on the sincerity of those who enter the Teaching. If they complain that something is lacking, the lack is in them: either they don’t study enough or they are not really interested in perfecting themselves or they are lazy. It is no use blaming the Teaching. The Teaching is very rich, but what counts is the use we make of it.

I have known people who had no more than a little manuscript, a few little phrases they repeated to themselves all their lives, but which they also put into practice, and in this way they made great progress. And what about the first Christians? All they had were the Gospels, and what a state they were in! All torn and dirty, because they were passed from hand to hand to be copied. But they read them ceaselessly, they put them into practice in their lives and they received the Light. Whereas, nowadays, people have all the sacred books of all the religions on their bookshelves: the Upanishads and Vedas, the Zend-Avesta, the Tao-tê-king, the Egyptian and Tibetan Books of the Dead, the Talmud, the Zohar and the Kabbalah, the Bible and more beside... and still they make no progress. So don’t start saying you need to find another Teaching because this one doesn’t give you enough!

Jesus said, ‘Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven’.7 This means that the earth must bring itself into line with heaven. In order to have the same forms, the same beauty, the same splendour, it needs to adapt and adjust itself. Heaven vibrates with such intensity that if the earth wants to conform to heaven it has to intensify its vibrations.

And this brings us back again to the question of the intensity of vibrations at the centre. The central point will remain inaccessible to man until he has learned to vibrate on the same wave-length. Yes, as long as man is incapable of synchronizing his vibrations with those of the central point he will never know what it is, what it is telling him, what it contains, what it can give him. ‘On earth as in heaven...’ The earth is ourselves as we are now, with our present level of awareness. We have to make constant efforts (and it does not matter how long it takes) until that portion of the periphery that we represent manages to adjust itself and synchronize its vibrations with those at the centre of the circle, the central Fountainhead. When this is achieved, currents will be set in motion and begin to flow and to course through us, and we shall know all that the centre knows, we shall feel all that the centre feels, we shall do, throughout the universe, all that the centre does.

Notes

1. See The Book of Divine Magic, Izvor Coll. n° 226, chap. 2: ‘The Magic Circle of the Aura’.

2. See ‘Au commencement était le Verbe’, Complete Works, vol. 9, chap. 8: ‘La haute retraite’.

3. See On the Art of Teaching – from the Initiatic Point of View, Complete Works, vol. 29, chap. 6: ‘On the Reality of the Invisible World’, Life and Work in an Initiatic School, Complete Works, vol. 30, chap. 6: ‘Matter and Light’, Part III.

4. See Life Force, Complete Works, vol. 5, chap. 5: ‘Presence and Absence’.

5. See ‘Et il me montra un fleuve d’eau de la vie’, Synopsis Coll., Part VII, chap. 2: ‘L’intuition, faculté du corps causal’.

6. See Man’s Subtle Bodies and Centres – the Aura, the Solar Plexus, the Chakras…, Izvor Coll. n° 219, chap. 3: ‘The Solar Plexus’, chap. 4: ‘The Hara Centre’, chap. 6: ‘The Chakras’.

7. See ‘Notre Père’, Brochure n° 313.

Chapter Three: The Triangle - I

Geometrical figures are the concrete expression of numbers. Numbers belong to the world of principles and it is when they are brought down into the physical plane that they become geometrical figures. The number Four, for example, is the square; Five is the pentagram; Three is the triangle; Two is the angle, and One is the centre point or the line, and so on. And if you contemplate a geometrical figure, a particular thought or state of mind begins to take shape in your inner consciousness in accordance with the figure you are looking at. Suppose I draw a triangle, for instance, and show it to you. Naturally, if you have not the slightest notion of Initiatic Science, it will not mean anything to you, but if you are already familiar with the world of symbols, my triangle will immediately bring to your mind certain concepts that you associate with this figure.

The triangle can be said to represent the union of the masculine and feminine principles which give birth to a third principle. In a family, the triangle is the father, mother and child; in chemistry it is an acid, a base and a salt; in man it is the intellect, the heart and the will (or thought, feeling and action), and in the domain of divine virtues it represents wisdom, love and truth. Just as a child is produced by the union of a father and a mother, a salt is produced by the combination of an acid and a base, action is the result of combining thought and feeling, and truth is the offspring of love and wisdom.1

Now I want you to take a look at these three triangles :

Although each of these figures can be called a triangle they do not all suggest the same idea to you. Only the equilateral triangle conveys an impression of perfect harmony because it expresses a just proportion between the three principles: no one of them has developed to the detriment of the others. If the equilateral triangle is the symbol of a perfectly balanced human being, it is for this reason: that it expresses this harmony between the three principles of the intellect, the heart and the will. Of course, this cannot be said to be true of the majority of human beings, whose behaviour is evidence of a certain imbalance between these three factors. Either their intellect is very developed to the detriment of the heart and the will, or else they have a strong will which causes them to commit all kinds of blunders because neither the heart nor the head are given any say in the matter... and so on and so forth: you can see for yourself all the different possibilities that exist.

Man manifests himself, therefore, as a being who thinks, feels and acts. He thinks with his intellect, he feels with his heart and he acts with his will. The intellect has an ideal: wisdom; the ideal of the heart is love, and that of the will, power. Power, love and wisdom are the three attributes by which we define the Deity. Power, love and wisdom: this is the veritable trinity. When the Christian religion says that the Holy Trinity is the mystery of God in three persons (Father, Son and Holy Spirit), in point of fact these three persons are the three forms or aspects of God’s manifestation: the Father is the manifestation of power (life), the Son is the manifestation of wisdom (light), and the Holy Spirit manifests love (heat). Now why does this family of the Trinity have a son but no mother? And what is the role of the Holy Spirit? It would be too long to explain it all to you here,2 but just remember that the equilateral triangle, which is the symbol of the well-balanced, harmoniously developed man, is also the symbol of the Deity.

And don’t be too astonished if I tell you that you can also consider the triangle as a symbol of the sun. Of course the best-known symbol of the sun is the circle with the dot at the centre which emphasizes the relationship between the centre and the perimeter. But since the sun, too, is life, heat and light, it can also be symbolized by the triangle. And this is why the sun is the most perfect symbol of the blessed Trinity.3 Where could we find a more eloquent image of the power, love and wisdom of God than in the life, warmth and light that the sun pours out every day into the universe? Wherever there is life, there is God manifesting Himself. And as all life on earth comes from the sun we have to recognize that the sun is the manifestation of God most clearly perceptible to our senses.

In reality, the Blessed Trinity is not present in the light, nor in the heat nor life of the sun. It is infinitely beyond that level, and yet, through the medium of the sun’s light, warmth and life, we can reach out to the Trinity, be in communion with It, love and call on It to penetrate our being. For, by reason of our intellect, heart and will, we too are a trinity. Of course, for the moment, our little trinity is still obscure, unyielding and as cold as ice, but it can be reanimated and find light and warmth in the sun.

Every day, as we look at the sun, we see the most sublime, most perfect image of the Blessed Trinity, and if we learn to work with the sun as our model, our own little trinity will become luminous, warm and vivifying like the sun. In this way it will come to resemble more and more the great Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit and one day, it too, will be blessed.

Notes

1. See The Philosopher’s Stone – in the Gospels and in Alchemy, Izvor Coll. n° 241, chap. 7: ‘The Alchemists’ Salt’, chap. 9: ‘The Work of the Alchemist: 3 over 4’.

2. See Langage symbolique, langage de la nature, Complete Works, vol. 8, chap. 11: ‘Le Saint-Esprit’.

3 See Toward a Solar Civilisation, Izvor Coll. n° 201, chap. 9: ‘The True Solar Religion’.

The Triangle - II

You are all familiar with the hexagram, the six-pointed star known as Solomon’s Seal, which is considered to be the symbol of Judaism.

This figure is composed of two interlaced triangles: the one pointing downwards representing the masculine principle , and the one pointing upwards representing the feminine principle . Why this symbolism attached to the two triangles? Because the feminine principle, matter, is turned towards heaven, towards the spirit. It waits for the spirit to come and fertilize it and give it life. It needs the spirit to look after it and fashion it, like the dough waiting to be kneaded and fashioned into bread by the baker, or the sod waiting for the thrust of the plough-share.

Whereas the masculine principle, the spirit, points downwards: it descends into matter in order to share with it all that it possesses.* Throughout nature you will find reminders of this symbol, even in the normal position of a man and woman during the conception of their child: the woman faces upwards and the man downwards. Their union is represented, symbolically, in the two interlaced triangles. In every area of life, you see, the intelligence of Nature offers human beings lessons that reveal her secrets and her way of thinking. But instead of deciphering, understanding and marvelling at her secrets, men go on behaving unconsciously.

And now, let us go a step further: as far as men and women are concerned, it is their exterior appearance that defines their sex. On the inside, every man is also a woman, and every woman is also a man. Human beings are men or women according to whether the masculine or the feminine principle predominates in their make-up, but the opposite principle is always there, dormant within, and sometimes it even manifests itself suddenly, and with such force that some men and women feel the need to change their sex. This is sure proof that a man possesses also the feminine principle and a woman the masculine principle.1

And here I would like to pause for a while to look more closely at the notion that human beings all have both principles within them. Men are active, energetic and determined; they feel the need to fight, to dominate and subject others to their will; they represent a principle of power and emissivity. The feminine principle, on the other hand, manifests itself in a gentleness, tenderness, charm and sensitivity, in purity and receptiveness. Of course, when I say this I am speaking in general, so don’t start objecting that you know men who are so tender-hearted they’re positively mawkish, and women who smoke and swear and dress like men. I’m sure you do, but I’m not interested in the exceptions: I am talking about the general rule.

And now, can you tell me why a warrior, a conqueror becomes gentle and submissive in the presence of a woman? Outwardly he may be terrifying, but when he finds himself in front of a woman he lays down his arms and kneels at her feet. Why? It is because he senses that the qualities of a woman are lacking in him and that her presence can make up for this lack. And why do women who lack strength, endurance and tenacity feel drawn to warriors? Isn’t it thus that Mars and Venus are commonly represented: a warrior accompanied by a woman?

So the ideal for a man is to be strong and powerful but to be capable, in certain circumstances, of showing as much gentleness, kindness and compassion as a woman. And women, for their part, instead of always being feeble, vulnerable and dependent, should also be capable, when necessary, of showing strength and endurance. In other words, you have to learn to be polarized: this is what I want to teach you for your own inner development and enrichment.

Solomon’s Seal is the symbol of those who have developed to the full the two principles: masculine and feminine, emissive and receptive, in their own being. They have both strength and gentleness; they are androgynous; they have attained perfection. Those who still represent only one of the triangles, masculine or feminine, are still weak, still mutilated: half of them is missing. And that is why men and women continually seek their other half, the other triangle, with which to unite so as to form the perfect figure of Solomon’s Seal! Yes, every man seeks out a woman; every woman looks for a man, because without realizing it they all want to become the six-pointed star: Solomon’s Seal. The trouble is that they don’t know how to go about it.

When a woman has developed only feminine qualities she is appreciated as ‘a true woman’. Yes, but the masculine principle is lacking in her, and that is why she remains dependent, weak and vulnerable. And she suffers from her lack of the other principle. Even though she may possess all the feminine qualities she still needs to be united to the masculine principle in order to be whole. But if, instead of always seeking that masculine principle outside herself (even when she finds it, it doesn’t necessarily solve all her problems!), she strove to possess it within her, then she would be a whole being.

And a man has the same problem: unless and until he possesses the feminine principle within, even if he has all the women on earth he will always feel that something is missing. As long as one still feels the need for a partner of the opposite sex it is a sign that one has not yet developed the masculine and feminine qualities within oneself, for they alone can fill this need.

Man needs woman. Genesis tells us that when the Lord God had created Adam, He said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an helpmate for him.’ But what people have never understood is that God’s words did not refer only to the physical level but also to the spiritual, divine level of man’s being. It’s like the precept ‘Increase and multiply...’ Human beings do not bring only physical children into the world. Their hearts and minds, their souls and spirits also give birth to quantities of children!2

But let us go further still and see what else the two interlaced triangles can teach us. Man, the triangle pointing downwards, is armed against the infernal regions of the world for he is in a position to defend himself: the apex of his triangle is like the point of a sword with which he may pursue the spirits of evil. When a White Magician, for example, wishes to purify a place of all the evil fluids that have condensed there or of diabolical entities that Black Magicians have already almost materialized, he can shatter them with the point of a sword. Faced with the threat of his sword, the entities abandon the place, for they fear that point. This is the role of the lower point of the hexagram. But a woman, whose triangle points upwards is not protected from below and the subterranean forces can more easily slip into her.

Moses knew this, but he didn’t explain it by means of a geometrical figure, but by means of a legend. He told of how a man and a woman dwelt together in Paradise and how the serpent persuaded the woman, Eve, to taste the fruit of a certain tree. Well I am telling you the same story, but geometrically. Both the man and the woman succumbed because neither of them had become a Seal of Solomon within; but the evil influences symbolized by the serpent began by worming their way into Eve.

I know the language of geometry and I could translate the whole Bible into geometrical symbols for you! The Bible is nothing but symbols, but its symbols are clothed in flesh and take the form of men and women: Adam and Eve, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, etc. In reality these people are geometrical figures, numbers, pantacles. At first sight one does not understand why the tempter first succeeded with Eve rather than with Adam, but now you can understand: Eve was not protected from below; the triangle of woman is not protected from below.3

Woman represents matter, and matter is nearest to the subterranean regions. Whereas man, who is more in the abstract and mental regions, is farther away and therefore more difficult to reach. This does not mean that men are strong and women weak: not at all. But the nature of man and woman is such that subterranean entities can slip into a woman more easily than into a man and it is under the instigation of woman that man also succumbs and eats of the forbidden fruit. I am not saying that he is morally stronger, no. Man and woman are practically equal in this respect. It is only that their functions differ. Man is just as weak as woman but when he takes the bait it is always through the intervention of a woman. Historians and psychologists are very well aware of this. Do they know of a man of considerable achievement in history? Somewhere in the background there was a woman who influenced him...

Why do women always want to get married? Because they need the protection of the other triangle. They don’t know where their instinctive need for protection comes from, of course... Well, it comes from the fact that they represent a triangle which is not protected. Whereas with a husband, even a little whipper-snapper or a drunken husband, they feel safer! Perhaps you think that it is society that makes women feel this urge to get married. Not at all: it comes from a very long way back; it is instinctive. Woman needs someone to protect her because she feels herself to be at the mercy of the aggression, criticism and evil intentions of others. And once married, she feels invulnerable because at the first sign of criticism her husband will grab his machine-gun and mow down all her enemies! The trouble is, though, that even when she is married a woman is not protected on the spiritual level. And this is why, married or single, women must cleave to the masculine principle that dwells within them, for it will protect them far more effectively than their husbands who are often only make-believe protectors. Women must attract the masculine principle to themselves so as to become, in their own persons, the symbol of the six-pointed star.

Notes

1. See Cosmic Balance – The Secret of Polarity, Izvor Coll. n° 237, chap. 17: ‘The Androgynes of Myth’.

2. See Le grain de sénevé, Complete Works, vol. 4, chap. 12: ‘Croissez et multipliez’.

3. See ‘Et il me montra un fleuve d’eau de la vie’, Synopsis Coll., Part V, chap. 5: ‘Le mythe d’Adam et Ève: la rupture de l’équilibre cosmique’.

* Traditionally, the triangle pointing up represents fire, the masculine principle, the spirit; whereas the triangle pointing down represents water, the feminine principle, matter (see Complete Works, vol. I, chap. I). By their very nature, the spirit is symbolically more closely associated with the heights and matter with the depths. However, this symbolism is reversed when it is a question of expressing the principles in action, for the spirit descends from above toward matter in order to fashion it and give it life, whereas matter looks upward, laying itself open to elaboration by the spirit.

The Triangle - III

Matter is, of itself, inert and formless. Only when the spirit descends into matter does it receive form. And this is a phenomenon that can be observed everywhere in nature under a multitude of different aspects.

The spirit descends into matter in order to quicken it, to give it life: this is involution. And matter, animated by the spirit, starts its upward journey... And this is evolution. Science, with Darwin and many others, has been interested only in evolution, but in reality there could be no evolution if there had not, first, been a process of involution; otherwise where would all those forces and energies come from that allow forms to develop and perfect themselves?

The evolution of material forms, whether of minerals, plants, animals or men, is made possible only by the descent of the spirit. So you see, here again we have an illustration of the symbolism of the two triangles. The triangle pointing down represents the spirit descending into matter in order to animate and vitalize it, and the triangle pointing upwards represents matter which seeks to evolve until it attains union with the spirit. The fusion of the two triangles symbolizes the perfect union of spirit and matter and it is this that endows the Seal of Solomon with such tremendous magical power: the encounter and interpenetration of the two triangles, the two principles.

No progress, no improvement can ever be achieved without sacrifice, and involution is the sacrifice the spirit makes so that matter may evolve and be enriched. These two processes of involution and evolution can be seen all around us, but as human beings are not particularly interested in the philosophical aspect of things, they are blind to the laws and principles at work behind every single event or phenomenon in life.

Nothing can exist unless something else has previously been sacrificed in order to make its existence possible. Yes! And if evolution is possible it is only because there has previously been involution. There! That is something we need to know if humanity is to pursue its upward path. Everything in life degenerates if it is not based on an awareness of sacrifice, abnegation and love. See how this law is manifested in a family: the parents spend all their energy and make enormous sacrifices so that their children may grow and develop, and sometimes one even sees parents who have shrunk and withered away, while their children flourish, becoming healthy and vigorous without always realizing that they have developed at their parents’ expense.

A Master, or even a professor or school teacher, represents the triangle of the spirit. They instruct their disciples or students; they ‘involute’, whereas those who listen to them and learn from them are evolving. So, here again is a manifestation of the two triangles. But this situation cannot last for ever, either for the masters or for the pupils: one day the pupils and disciples are going to have to hand on to others what they have received. Exactly like a child: he will not be a child for ever. One day he is going to have to work and earn his own living, marry and have children of his own to feed and educate.

In every single area of activity in our daily lives we come across this symbolism of the two triangles: you pour out a glass of water: the water level rises in the glass and sinks in the bottle. Then you drink, and it is the turn of the glass to be emptied while your stomach is filled. Whenever we eat or drink, our food and drink represent the triangle of the spirit which has to sacrifice itself in order to give us strength. Or, for instance, you go into a shop to buy various items: if you have nothing to give in exchange for those items, you will leave the shop empty-handed! Your purse has to ‘involute’ so that there may be an ‘evolution’ of goods in your direction! All these things we do in our everyday lives should help us to understand that the same process exists on the level of the cosmos and that if there had been no involution by the spirit, matter would not now be capable of evolution.

The symbolism of the two triangles, therefore, is extremely far-reaching. In fact, it contains, in brief, the whole of the science of life. Take only the example, in our bodies, of the solar plexus and the brain. Cosmic Intelligence has built them both in exactly the same way, with grey matter and white matter. The only difference is that in the brain the grey matter is on the outside and the white matter on the inside, whereas in the solar plexus it is just the reverse. This contrast is reflected also in their manifestations: the solar plexus is invisible, hidden; it works so discreetly that it almost seems as though it were doing nothing. Whereas the brain swaggers about, pontificating and firing anathemas in all directions. But if the brain is able to manifest itself so brilliantly and to reason, explain and command, it is because there is something else in the background that has accepted to sacrifice itself and put itself out in order to subsidize it with a constant flow of energy, otherwise the brain would simply cease functioning. And this invisible friend is the solar plexus: it is the solar plexus that nourishes and supports the brain. So the solar plexus which gives, corresponds to the triangle of involution, and the brain which receives, to that of evolution. The solar plexus has a more spiritual role than that of the brain since it sacrifices itself so that the brain may continue to function, and not only the brain, but all the other organs as well.1

Now, the essential thing to remember in all this is that man cannot always remain petrified into the same attitude. As soon as the glass is filled it empties itself again. This is true in the life of every individual: once he has ceased to be a child who takes and monopolizes everything for himself, he becomes an adult who has learned to give.2 And the principle applies, too, on the level of all mankind: for a very long period of time humanity was in its childhood and bent only on monopolizing everything for itself: an attitude which was at the root of ceaseless wars and devastation. But now humanity must learn to give. And this is why I must also tell you that the religions that teach human beings to seek eternal beatitude and save their own souls are an anachronism. The time has come now, for us to give something to the whole world so that it may be comely and fair and vibrate in harmony with Heaven.

In the past, religions like Buddhism and even Christianity urged human beings to abandon the physical world and to seek God and cleave to Him alone. The earth was said to be a ‘Vale of Tears’ and life an illusion from which men were encouraged to detach themselves as rapidly as possible in order to return to Heaven, or Nirvana. And the result, of course, was that everyone was interested only in saving his own soul in order to enjoy the beatitude of Heaven. Now that outlook is not bad, but it is not perfect either; and in any event, it is not an attitude that will ever bring about the Kingdom of God and His Justice on earth. The tiny minority that manages to save itself will leave all the rest of humanity in their disorder and misery, because this philosophy of escape is incapable of changing the world.

A new philosophy is needed now, and that new philosophy is coming in with the Age of Aquarius: water pouring down on mankind, life flowing from the heavenly regions to transform the earth and give growth to the seeds of the Kingdom of God here below. It is quite true that Heaven is the world of perfection, of all blessings and glory where all will know freedom and happiness. Yes, but if everybody abandons the earth and goes off to Heaven, the earth will remain a desert.3

In the Lord’s Prayer Jesus said: ‘Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven’, but men have never fully understood that Jesus’ aim was to transform, beautify and purify the earth so that it should be like Heaven. They all run away, because they think that’s the best way to save their own little souls. But we should not be thinking of saving our souls any more: we should be committing ourselves to that glorious task of bringing Heaven down to earth.

When one adopts the philosophy of the triangle that points upwards one is led to abandon matter and all the activities and duties attendant on it, and this leads to certain anomalies. So we must now work with the triangle of the spirit, which is the triangle of realization and of manifestation here, in the world. A spiritual person has to seek Heaven, that is true, but once he has found it he must strive to bring down all the blessings of Heaven onto the earth. It is in this way that he unites in himself spirit and matter and realizes to the full all that is symbolized by the Seal of Solomon.

If, in the past, everyone cared only for his own personal salvation it was quite normal: Cosmic Intelligence itself had decreed this because it was a necessary phase. Just as a child must begin by growing and becoming strong, humanity, which was still in its infancy, needed to concentrate on its own growth and development, while the ‘Elder Brothers’, the spirits and souls who were already very advanced, came to help the others. But now that humanity has reached adulthood... You will say, ‘But what does that mean, that humanity has reached adulthood?’ Well, look at a child: the first aspect that develops in a child is the physical life; he eats, drinks, moves his limbs, etc. Later, the spirit that has started to descend, awakens his astral body, and still later, his mental body, and by the time he is about twenty-eight years old one can say that in all essentials a man is fully developed: physically, emotionally and intellectually his growth is complete and he is now capable of thinking of others.

This same process of the gradual descent of the spirit holds true, also, for humanity as a whole, so that now we can say that humanity – or at least part of humanity – has reached adulthood. The spirit has taken possession of the astral and mental bodies of man, and man has an extraordinary potential in the area of feelings and thought that he can put at the service of the human community by becoming, himself, a triangle of the spirit.

You too, therefore: make up your minds to become triangles of the spirit and to do something for others, at last, instead of remaining miserable little nobodies, narrow and egotistical and thinking only of yourselves. All those who think only of themselves arrest their own development, whereas when one works for others one becomes healthier and more vigorous. When one is interested in helping and encouraging others it may seem that one is losing something, and it is quite true that there can be a certain physical depletion, but one becomes much stronger and more vigorous on the spiritual level. Of course, we cannot actually see this and so we think that as one grows older the spirit declines along with the body. But in fact it is just the opposite. The trouble is that human beings, who are always getting everything mixed up, identify with their physical bodies. The physical body has to work hard, that’s true, it has to spend itself, and in the end it can be exhausted, but the spirit, on the contrary, grows stronger. When one triangle diminishes the other one expands. That is the way of everything in life.

In point of fact, though, for the great Masters and Initiates, it does not happen quite like that, for they have discovered a secret: by helping and enlightening human beings, they deprive themselves, that is true, but at the same time they are able to capture forces and energies from the divine world... And they receive far more than they spend! It is when one gives to others that one receives, that one is filled to overflowing. And here are the two triangles again: you give below and you receive from above. When you are a triangle of the spirit here, amongst human beings, you give, but at the same time you are a triangle of the feminine principle with respect to Heaven, so you receive. You give and receive... give and receive... And if you don’t know how to do this you will very soon be utterly empty and exhausted and you will regret having worked for others. So you have to learn to be both emissive and receptive: emissive below, for the earth and receptive above, for Heaven. When you are capable of manifesting yourself at the same time, as the triangle which gives to the earth and that which receives from Heaven, then you will have attained fulfilment.

Notes

1. See Man’s Subtle Bodies and Centres – the Aura, the Solar Plexus, the Chakras…, Izvor Coll. n° 219, chap. 3: ‘The Solar Plexus’, Part II.

2. See La clé essentielle pour résoudre les problèmes de l’existence, Complete Works, vol. 11, chap. 3: ‘Prendre et donner (le soleil, la lune et la terre).’

3. See Love and Sexuality, Complete Works, vol. 15, chap. 8: ‘Materialism, Idealism and Sexuality’.

Chapter Four: The Pentagram - I

The Gospels tell us that when Jesus was born a star appeared in the East and that that was how the Three Kings knew that a saviour had been born to mankind. In Christian tradition, this star has always been represented as the pentagram or five-pointed star, and every year, at Christmas time, you can see reproductions of it everywhere. Astronomers who have researched the question and tried to calculate what star it could have been have never found any conclusive evidence on which to base a theory, although several hypotheses have been put forward. One wonders: did it really exist, that luminous sign in the heavens that guided the Three Wise Men to Bethlehem? The Gospel says: ‘And, lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was.’ One must admit that it was behaving in a rather unusual way for a star: no wonder it has been something of a conundrum for astronomers! But instead of trying to decide whether or not it ever really existed, it would be more profitable to try to understand what the authors of the Gospels meant to convey to us when they told this story of the star that appeared at the birth of Jesus.

The pentagram, or five-pointed star, is the symbol of the complete man. Look at this figure and see how it represents a diagram of a man standing with legs apart and arms outstretched.

When one studies the name of God in Hebrew, one learns that it consists of four letters: h w h y Yod Hé Vau Hé. This is the Tetragrammaton that is commonly rendered as Jehovah, the sacred name that Jews never utter. As I have already explained, the four letters of the name of God correspond to the four principles in man: Yod corresponds to the spirit, Hé to the soul, Vau to the intellect and the second Hé to the heart. But these four principles have to be made manifest, become incarnate through the intermediary of a fifth, that of the will. This incarnation is expressed in the name of Jesus: Joshuah, which consists of the four letters of the name of God: Yod, Hé, Vau, Hé, with the addition of a fifth letter, v Shin in the middle. The Shin symbolizes the union of spirit and matter.

When Jesus proclaimed that he and all men were sons of God and called on men to work to establish the Kingdom of God on earth, he was simply emphasizing man’s true mission in life: to incarnate the Deity. Jesus, the Christ, is the Word made flesh. When God took on human flesh He became man. Man is simply the manifestation on earth of the Godhead. The firstborn, Jesus, is the man. It was to him that Pilate pointed, saying, ‘Behold the man!’ Yes, God made flesh, the perfect man symbolized by the pentagram: here we have the significance of the five-pointed star that announced the birth of Jesus.

And now, our role is to put this Teaching of the perfect man into practice in our lives, thanks to all the possibilities with which we have been endowed. Amongst these possibilities are the five senses (the number five again!): sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch. And the principal organ of the sense of touch which is the sense that is most closely related to the world of matter, is the hand with its five fingers. The fingers are antennae specially designed to capture certain influences. The thumb is related to Venus, the index finger to Jupiter, the middle finger to Saturn, the ring finger to the Sun and the little finger to Mercury. This is why it is sometimes a good idea to do this exercise: raise your hand and concentrate on each one of your fingers in order to attract beneficial influences from the corresponding planets. With this you can then do some useful work on yourself and on others.

Man, therefore, is a living pentagram. This is true on the physical level but it is also true on the spiritual level when he possesses and manifests the five virtues: love, wisdom, truth, justice and kindness.1 These five virtues can be arranged on the pentagram like this:

The Master Peter Deunov used to give us this rule: ‘Let kindness be the foundation of your life, justice the measure, wisdom the barrier, love the delight and truth the light.’ If you think about this precept you cannot help but find that it is remarkably true. Kindness is the only solid basis on which a building can rest. Even if your edifice is beautiful and intelligently conceived, if it is not founded on kindness it will crumble away. Justice is a quality of measure: as indicated by the scales that represent justice, to be just, one has to be capable of maintaining a certain balance by adding a little here and taking away a little there. Wisdom is a barrier by means of which we can protect ourselves from the enemies that threaten us from without or from within. Without love, life is insipid, tasteless: even if we are very rich, very knowledgeable and very renowned, if there is no love in us we shall never have a zest for life. And truth is the lamp that lights our path; without it we shall always wander in falsehood and error.

These five virtues are essential for man’s development. Unfortunately very few people nowadays know how the five virtues are related to the human body. True Science, as well as all success and every victory in life, rests in the knowledge of this relationship. Kindness is related to the legs, justice to the hands, love to the mouth, wisdom to the ears and truth to the eyes. Truth belongs to the domain of the spirit, love to the soul, wisdom to the intellect, kindness to the heart and justice to the will.

And that is not all: we can also find a correspondence to the five elements. First of all, which are the five elements? Earth, water, air, fire and ether. Why do you suppose we speak of ‘quintessence’? What is a quintessence? It is the fifth element, the quinta essentia, which is the synthesis of the other four essences, their purest distillate. The will corresponds to earth, the heart to water, the intellect to air, the soul to fire and the spirit to ether.

By means of his will, intellect, heart, soul and spirit, therefore, man is in contact with the five elements constantly at work in the cosmos, and he can work in conscious harmony with them. This is the symbolic meaning of the double pentagram, the small pentagram inscribed in the heart of the large one: man the microcosmos lives and works in the bosom of God, the macrocosmos.

The Scriptures say that God made man in His own image. Since man, the ‘little world’ was created in the image of God, this must mean that he possesses all the elements and materials that exist in the ‘big world’, all the qualities and virtues of God Himself.

If, in spite of this, he often demonstrates how poor and miserable he is, it is because he has not done what he should to adapt and conform to the divine model of which he is the reflection. To conform he needs to know the law of affinities. What is this law? Let me explain by an illustration: you take two tuning forks adjusted to vibrate on the same wave-length. If you set one of them vibrating, the other, without your even touching it will also begin to vibrate on the same note. This is the phenomenon known as resonance. If, therefore, you can adjust your resonator to the same wave-length as the cosmic resonator, the latter will respond to your vibrations.

And now, let us return to the sketch of the pentagram on which we placed the spirit, soul, intellect, heart and will. If your spirit vibrates, the Cosmic Spirit will respond. If your soul vibrates, the Universal Soul will respond, and so on. But the reverse is also true: the Cosmic Spirit and the Universal Soul never cease vibrating, so that when your spirit and soul are tuned to the same wave-length you receive all their messages. Or if Cosmic Intelligence is propagating certain ideas or a certain understanding in the world, your intellect which is tuned to the same wave-length will receive them.

Suppose also, that your heart emanates a great deal of love for the whole of humanity: the Universal Heart will send you a great deal of love in return. Love will flood in on you from all sides. If by your thought you send out light into the world, it will come into contact with Cosmic Wisdom which, in return, will send you such rays of light as will dazzle you... and so on. So this is how you can become the little pentagram in the centre of the big pentagram: by using your spirit, soul, intellect, heart and will to enter into contact with the corresponding powers in the universe.2

The Scriptures say, ‘Ye are the temple of the living God’. But human beings are accustomed to praying in temples built of wood and stone which are not alive, and they have no consideration for the living temple that is their whole being. It is true that, thanks to the faithful who have prayed in those temples of stone for hundreds of years, there is something alive in them, but they still cannot compare with a living human being who has consciously developed a strong will, purified his heart, opened his intelligence to the light, expanded his soul and sanctified his spirit, for such a man has become a living temple. And it is when you yourself have become a temple, and you go into that temple to pray, that God hears and grants your prayer. And if, at the same time, you are conscious of being within that other vast temple, the temple of the universe, then you will be a whole being; you will know fulfilment. All this is expressed in the symbol of the small pentagram enclosed in the big one. The big pentagram is the Cosmic Being of Light: the Christ, and man is contained within Him. Yes, this is the symbolism you have to understand: the little temple in the big Temple, the microcosmos in the macrocosmos.

One day there will be no more use for temples and churches because human beings will begin to realize that in reality they are already in another temple, the immense Temple of living Nature. In that Temple the sun is the High Priest and the stars are the sanctuary lamps. This day will come: I prophecy it. We shall abandon the temples built by human hands and take our places in the one, unique Temple that God Himself has built: the universe. When that day comes we shall, always and everywhere, be in a temple to pray to the Lord, since we shall be both in our own temple and in the great Temple of the universe.

Notes

1. See New Light on the Gospels, Izvor Coll. n° 217, chap. 9: ‘The Parable of the Five Wise and the Five Foolish Virgins’.

2. See ‘You Are Gods’, Synopsis Coll., Part IV, chap. 1-IV: ‘The Law of Affinity’.

The Pentagram - II

The symbol of the pentagram is very widely known. Not only has it been adopted by many occult groups and used in innumerable treatises on magic, but it can also be seen in public places, on the flags of several countries or in military decorations, as well as in fair-grounds and music halls. Many people wear it in the form of jewelry or as a pendant. In fact it is so common that it never occurs to anyone to wonder what it represents.

It is not good to wear symbols like this if they have not been vivified, that is, if they have no correspondence with anything in one’s life, if they’re not connected in the minds of those who wear them, with some particular concept, thought or virtue. It can be useful and very beneficial to wear a piece of jewelry in the form of an initiatic symbol as long as certain conditions are respected, otherwise it is not without danger. Some spirits from the astral plane are attracted by pantacles, but if they see someone who does not practice the virtues that correspond to the symbol he is wearing, they torment him. So many people, even occultists, who use talismans have had their lives turned inside out by invisible forces they have been unable to control.

People buy talismans in the hope of getting a faithless lover back, or to succeed in business, without in the least realizing that they are running headlong into danger.1

I have no desire to prevent the manufacturers of talismans or those who sell them from going on with their business, but I want to draw your attention to the meaning, value and power of these signs so that you shall not be tempted to try dangerous experiments. Symbols are always related in some way to entities, so that when a man uses a symbol he is automatically in contact with the entities concerned and very often he commits himself to a contract which can be very prejudicial to him. Invisible entities do not like to be treated lightly; they are prepared to put themselves out and are happy to do so when they are asked for help, but only if it is for a high ideal, to serve a Divine Cause.

We have no right to handle symbols without knowing exactly what they mean. Each symbol is a conventional sign in nature and even though human beings may not know what that sign means, the spirits of nature are not so ignorant: they know! So, be careful! When you display the pentagram it is as though you were giving an order, flashing a signal to release certain forces. This is why it is so important to be fully conscious of what you’re doing when you work with this symbol and, especially, to place it in the correct position, with the point at the top.

The pentagram with the point at the top represents man whose thought is directed towards God, man who desires to work for the glory of God. All his other activities, represented by the arms and legs, are subordinated to this work in the service of the Deity. But if you reverse the position of the pentagram so that the head points downwards, then it no longer conforms to the divine order... And that is exactly the attitude of the Devil. Why do you suppose the goat’s head was chosen to symbolize the Devil? Because, with its horns, ears and little pointed beard it has exactly the form of a reversed pentagram.

So, be careful how you draw or place a pentagram for it is an extremely potent sign. Five is the number of the Sephira Geburah, the home of the planet Mars. Geburah is the power that protects the home and repulses the enemy. This is why White Magicians often used to place a pentagram at the door of their house: to prevent evil spirits from entering, but also to prevent good spirits from leaving. Obviously it is not sufficient to put up a pentagram in front of your house in order to be protected. If this symbol is to be truly effective you have to work to transform yourself, interiorly, into a pentagram. The pentagram could be described as the skeleton of a spirit from the astral world. If you breathe life into it it will be like a watch-dog and defend the entrance of your house against all evil entities; and the only way to breathe life into it is by the quality of your own life. If Jesus had such power against devils and the forces of evil it was because he was the living pentagram.

When you have to draw this symbol, therefore, do so in the conscious recollection of what it represents, so that its beneficial vibrations travel through space and return to you amplified. In this way you will advance along the path of perfection. Before going to bed at night, for instance, you can be sure of going to sleep in the best possible conditions of peace and harmony, if you trace a pentagram in the air with your right hand in the order indicated in the diagram.2

The methods you are given in this Teaching are extremely simple: use them! Of course, I realize that many of you would prefer to hear about talismans engraved with all kinds of mysterious signs, or magic formulas and incantations... You don’t realize how dangerous these things can be.3 You have to be very advanced and very pure before you venture into the domain of high magic.

Notes

1. See The Book of Divine Magic, Izvor Coll. n° 226, chap. 5: ‘Talismans’.

2. See Looking into the Invisible – Intuition, Clairvoyance, Dreams, Izvor Coll. n° 228, chap. 15: ‘Protect Yourself While You Are Asleep’, chap. 16: ‘Astral Projection While Asleep’.

3. See The Book of Divine Magic, Izvor Coll. n° 226, chap. 1: ‘The Danger of the Current Revival of Magic’.

Chapter Five: The Pyramid

One cannot understand the structure of human beings unless one understands that of the universe, and one cannot understand the structure of the universe unless one understands that of human beings. Through the medium of his intelligence, sensitivity and will, man manifests himself as spirit, soul and physical body, thus showing that he exists on the three levels: the divine, the spiritual and the physical.1 In their meditations, Initiates have always recognized the existence of this ternary structure and found it to be an essential key. The whole of creation is built on this pattern; everything imitates and reflects this reality of the three worlds: the divine world, the spiritual world and the physical world or, if you prefer, the world of principles, the world of laws and the world of facts.

Facts, or phenomena, are countless in number; they are governed by a lesser number of laws, and the laws are themselves determined by a handful of principles which are, in fact, only one: God Himself. The world of facts is the world of dispersion and multiplicity, whereas the divine world is the world of oneness, unity. When human beings complain that they feel as though they were plunged in darkness and chaos it is simply because they fail to take into account the existence of these three worlds and their hierarchical ordering. As long as one restricts oneself to the lowest level, the level of facts and events, one can never hope to have a clear view of reality nor to dominate the situation. To have a clear view of things as they are, to be capable of action and creation, one has to raise oneself mentally to the world of principles, to this highest peak ruled by the spirit.

Why did the great Egyptian Initiates build their monuments in the form of pyramids in which the lines of the four corners converge as they rise, moving closer and closer together, until they meet at the summit? It was precisely in order to teach us that we, too, should seek that summit, that point of convergence. A lot of people have written books about the pyramids, but what is it that interests them? The way in which all those immense blocks of stone were arranged and piled on each other without mortar; the shape and size of all the different chambers and corridors... They have even published detailed plans, and sketches of all the objects found in them, and so on. They have observed how the openings were oriented in relation to the points of the compass or to certain constellations... Many of these books are real treasure-houses of information and erudition.

Well, as far as I’m concerned, I know nothing about all those details, I leave all that to the archaeologists. All I am interested in is listening to what the pyramids have to tell me. And do you know what they are saying? A great many things, but this in particular: that politicians and economists will never manage to solve the problems of the world until they have deciphered the message contained in the structure of the pyramid! Does that surprise you? Yes, but don’t you see? Everybody is bent on defending the interests of his own country: in these conditions they will never reach an understanding because they approach everything on the lowest level, the level of facts. Men will never understand each other, never reach unity, if they don’t look at things from a higher viewpoint, if their attitudes are never determined by higher principles. One has to rise to a higher level of comprehension to discover the laws that govern things, and to a still higher level to find the principles that govern the laws, until one reaches the Supreme Principle who embraces all reality: the Eternal Spirit. At that level everyone is obliged to have one and the same view of their common interest.

Perhaps you will say that it is completely impossible for everyone to think exactly the same way. Obviously, if you stay on the level of facts, that is true: you will never agree. In fact you will see others as distinct, hostile even: opponents to be combated. And if you move onto the higher level of feelings you will find yourself in sympathy with some and ill-disposed towards others, so you will be able to work with some but not with others; again you are on a level of dispersion and division. But if you succeed in rising to the divine level, to the level of the spirit, you will discover that all human beings are brothers and sisters. And it is quite true: at that level one can understand and accept others and stop quarrelling.2

The true solution, therefore, is for all human beings to begin climbing to the top of the pyramid, the only vantage point from which one can have an uninterrupted view of the whole of reality. From the top of a mountain one has a circular view of the whole panorama, but as soon as one begins to go down towards the valley part of it is hidden. Those who are on one side of the mountain see one aspect of the countryside and those who are on the other side see another, and finally, as none of them sees the same thing and as each is persuaded that what he sees is the whole truth, they end by massacring each other.

If the Initiates chose to build their sanctuaries in the shape of a pyramid, it was because they wanted men to learn the lesson of unity from those lines reaching up to join together at the summit, reaching up towards the sun. The pyramid is a symbol of the hierarchy that exists in the universe. It is a symbol that can help us, in absolutely every area of life, to move out of the lower level of dispersion and onto the higher planes of unity. It is this progressively purer, unencumbered view of reality that makes us capable of acting divinely. We must learn, therefore, to be guided by the lines of the pyramid. Before drawing a final conclusion about something and deciding on a course of action we must rise to the summit from where we can have a clearer view.

And now let us look at the form of a pyramid in greater detail. The pyramid is a cube surmounted by four triangular faces.

In its symbolism, the cube is identical with the square, it is the Four, the number attributed to matter, the number of the four elements. The cube represents everything that is solidly and durably established on the material level. This is why monarchs such as the Egyptian Pharaohs, for example, were represented seated on a cube of stone, symbol of the stability of their reign. In two-dimensional space, the cube ‘unfolds’ into the form of a cross, and if Christian churches are usually built in the form of a cross, it is precisely because the cross is the extension of the cube of stone: churches were designed to figure the lasting establishment of the religion of Christ on earth.

Inasmuch as it is a figure that is completely closed, the cube symbolizes limitation, the prison. And that is why the cross formed by developing the cube also signifies limitation and suffering. But the cube is only the base of the pyramid, and that base supports four triangles. In relation to the square which symbolizes matter, the triangle symbolizes the spirit, Three being the number of the divine principles: light, heat and life. The Four represents matter, the Three the spirit and four plus three make seven.

And did you realize that you, too, are Seven? Your head is the Three, your two arms and two legs are the Four, and the Three is above the Four. The Three unites with the Four to form a living being, whereas when the Three is alone it floats in the air. You have all seen little Threes floating in the sky in the paintings of certain Old Masters. Yes... little angels! They have no bodies, only a head and they represent the Three: the spirit which floats through the air. When the Three has not yet been materialized it floats up in the air: it is an idea. When you have an idea, that is the Three. But give it material reality and it becomes the Four; the two combined make seven and the Seven is a human being.

Seven is the symbol of perfected man... Perfect in the sense that he expresses the whole human being: spirit and matter. This is why the Initiates say that man is the key to the universe. But what is a key?3 In many old initiatic drawings one sees certain persons holding a key in the form of a cross surmounted by a triangle. It is the same symbol as the pyramid: the Four surmounted by the Three, matter under the ruler ship of the spirit.

Notes

1. See Man’s Psychic Life: Elements and Structures, Izvor Coll. n° 222, chap. 6: ‘Body, Soul and Spirit’.

1. See A Philosophy of Universality, Izvor Coll. n° 206, chap. 8: ‘Brotherhood, a Higher State of Consciousness’.

3. See Cosmic Balance – The Secret of Polarity, Izvor Coll. n° 237, chap. 13: ‘The Key and the Lock’.

Chapter Six: The Cross - I

Christians have made the cross the symbol of their religion. When you see someone wearing a cross, you know immediately that he’s a Christian. They think that by wearing the cross they are giving witness to their faith and making sure of the protection of Heaven, and that it will be beneficial to their evolution. Unfortunately it is not so! Wearing a cross has never saved anyone from sickness or sin. If someone has nothing good either in his head or in his heart, wearing a cross will neither transform nor protect him. One hears all kinds of tales of the cross putting devils to flight. Don’t you believe it! It is only in legends that the cross puts devils to flight. The Devil is not in the least afraid to go into churches where beautiful gold crosses encrusted with precious stones are there for all to see. And how many priests and bishops who hold up the cross for the faithful to venerate have been known to drink with the Devil!

For Christianity, the cross is associated with the death of Jesus, but the symbol existed long before his time. One finds it in all the most ancient civilizations and religions: in Mesopotamia, Egypt, China, etc. Where did this symbol originate? Who invented it? The answer is that nobody invented it: it exists in nature.

Look at the natural movement of water and of fire: water flows and spreads horizontally, whereas fire rises, leaping upwards in a vertical movement. Fire, the vertical line, and water, the horizontal line, are the expression of the two principles, masculine and feminine, positive and negative, which are constantly at work together in the universe.1 A true understanding of the cross requires that you understand the nature and work of these two principles represented by fire and water, otherwise you will throw water onto your fire – symbolically speaking – and put it out; or you will plunge fire into water and the water will evaporate. If you bear in mind the true nature of these two elements then you will act wisely and put the water into a container before you light the fire under it. Then the fire will excite the water and produce energy which you can use to set in motion machines and even the world itself. Thanks to the separation between them they will no longer destroy each other. One has to learn how to get the masculine and feminine, the active and passive, the emissive and receptive, spirit and matter, man and woman, intellect and heart, wisdom and love... how to get these, the two principles, to work together.

The cross, therefore, represents the masculine and feminine principles at work together in the universe. But their activity stems from a centre: the intersection of the two branches of the cross. This centre unites the forces and holds them together; without it, as soon as the cross began to revolve, everything would be scattered over the surface of the disc. For the cross revolves, and as it spins, its branches describe a circle, the symbol of the sun. The cross, as it revolves, forms the swastika, and it can revolve either to the right (in which case the arms of the cross bend to the left) or to the left (in which case they bend to the right).

If the cross turns to the right it means that the screw is being tightened so as to prevent certain energies from manifesting themselves: they are being kept on a tight rein to hold them in check. This is the symbol of spirituality which curbs the physical forces. One can see examples of this in yogis who stay in the same motionless position for hours on end: they are keeping their lower nature ‘screwed down’ in order to allow the energies of their higher, divine nature to manifest themselves, for one cannot approach the divine world unless one lowers one’s level of physical activity. When the swastika spins in the other direction, to the left, it means that one is unscrewing, releasing the constraints on one’s physical and instinctive forces, thereby preventing the sublime powers of the spirit from manifesting themselves. One is abandoning oneself to the mechanical, earthly dimension in order to achieve power in material things alone.

Another way of representing the cross in motion is that of the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet: a aleph.2 A cross with arms placed diagonally is active; a cross with arms at right angles to each other is motionless, static.

The cross is a pantacle which has a very profound meaning: it represents man himself. When one draws a cross or makes the sign of the cross one should understand man, human beings, the synthesis of the two principles, masculine (the spirit or intellect) and feminine (the soul or heart). The union of these two principles produces movement, for when one joins thought and feelings, it gives birth to movement or action. The movement of the cross traces the outline of a circle: the sun, and the more intense the movement the brighter the sun. The sun unites the two principles: it is the cross in motion.

And when two branches of the cross (a man and a woman) meet, what are they doing? They are combining fire and water. And if they don’t know how to do this, here again, the water (that is to say, the woman) will evaporate and the fire (the man) will be extinguished. Men know that fire and water are capable of destroying each other and they have drawn the conclusion that they are enemies. On the surface that is true: men and women are locked in an eternal struggle, and what most people call love is simply a war between the sexes. This war exists because they have not understood the symbol of the cross in order to produce movement, that is to say: life.

There must be a reason for the fact that men and women are always seeking each other, and we have to find that reason. It is because they represent the two great cosmic principles that create life together. But in order really and truly to create life instead of destroying each other, they have to meet and exchange in a new way. As I have said: water and fire must not come into direct contact: the water must be poured into a container before being placed on the fire.

This law is valid for everyone you meet. It is entirely up to you whether you destroy each other or succeed in creating a force that will benefit the whole universe. There is nothing to stop you meeting and loving others but, by your thoughts, learn to keep a certain distance between you. This distance is the separation, the saucepan!

Love is the most difficult of all questions to understand and solve: it will be centuries before human beings manage to solve this problem and yet it has all been explained already by the symbol of the cross. Don’t be upset if I tell you that the cross does not correspond to what you have heard or read about it so far. I have no desire to quarrel with Christians, I only want to help them to expand their understanding by explaining Christ’s teaching to them by means of the cross, this symbol of the presence and activity of the two principles throughout the whole universe.

Notes

1. See The Mysteries of Fire and Water, Izvor Coll. n° 232, chap. 1: ‘The Two Principles of Creation, Water and Fire’.

2. See ‘Cherchez le Royaume de Dieu et sa Justice’, Synopsis Coll., Part II, chap. 2-I: ‘L’alphabet cosmique, Aleph’.

The Cross - II

As I have already said, the symbol of the cross was not invented by man: he found it by observing nature. The cross represents the movements of fire and water, but it is also the four directions of space, the four Cardinal points of the compass: north, south, east and west.

The cross can also be found in the zodiac which can be divided into three groups of signs, each one composed of two pairs of polar opposites situated at right angles to each other so that their axes form three crosses: Aries–Libra and Cancer–Capricorn; Leo–Aquarius and Scorpio–Taurus, and Sagittarius–Gemini and Pisces–Virgo.

In each one of the crosses thus formed we find the four elements. Take the first one: Aries–Libra and Cancer–Capricorn; the axis Aries (fire)–Libra (air) represents the masculine principle, whilst the axis Cancer (water)–Capricorn (earth) represents the feminine principle. And the same is true of the two other crosses: Leo (fire)–Aquarius (air) and Scorpio (water)–Taurus (earth), and Sagittarius (fire)–Gemini (air) and Pisces (water)–Virgo (earth).

The cross represents also the four currents which traverse space: two running from north to south and south to north and from east to west and west to east, and two others which run from the zenith to the nadir and vice versa.

Man, who is placed at the point of convergence of these currents, is subject to their influence and has to learn to work with them.

The entire universe is simply one great cross. And man, when he stretches out his arms, is also a cross. The cosmic cross is formed of two members of equal length but there are many different versions of the cross. The vertical member can be longer than the horizontal and this means that the masculine element is more highly developed than the feminine. Also, there can be two or even three horizontal bars, but it is interesting to note that one never finds a double vertical member, for only the feminine principle, matter, can be multiple: the spirit, the masculine principle symbolized by the vertical position, is one.

So far we have only examined the cross in one-dimensional space + but it can also be represented in two-dimensional space. The two-dimensional cross is formed of the six square faces of a cube ‘unfolded’ or developed on the plane.

It is interesting to note the relationship between the cross and the square, a relationship founded on the fact that they have the number four in common.

The Master Peter Deunov said, ‘The number Four is the divine process by which our thoughts and feelings are sifted in this world’. Four, therefore, is the number of purification and, consequently, of suffering, for suffering is often the only means of purification. When you suffer, this means that you are being put through a sieve. So Four is the number of purity, suffering and limitation: limitation on the physical level (doesn’t it strike you that a square gives an impression of enclosure, of confinement, of imprisonment even?); suffering on the astral level, and purity on the mental level. In the prison of our physical bodies we are confined and we suffer, but we suffer in order to be purified. Once we are pure we shall be free, we shall be released from prison.

And now, let us look at the three-dimensional cross and you will see what a wealth of meaning it contains. The three-dimensional cross which has length, breadth and depth is made up of five cubes.

The front and back surfaces of the cross are each composed of five squares, making ten in all. Add to this the twelve squares of the sides and you get twenty-two. These twenty-two squares correspond to the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet with which, we are told by the Kabbalah, God created the world.

In point of fact a great many other significant numbers can be found in the cross:

One: the cross itself, the whole.

Two: the two members, horizontal and vertical, and the two dimensions, the length and breadth.

Three: the three dimensions, length, breadth and depth.

Four: the four directions of the members.

Five: the five squares of the two surfaces, representing the pentagram in light and the pentagram in shadow.

Six: the squares on the horizontal plane forming the top and bottom surfaces of the cross when it is erect.

Seven: the squares which form each of the two members when developed on the plane.

Eight: all the squares forming the horizontal member when developed on the plane.

Nine: the five cubes and the four directions.

Ten: the sum of the squares forming the front and back surfaces.

Eleven: the six horizontal squares plus the five squares of one of the surfaces.

Twelve: the squares forming the sides of the cross lying flat on one surface.

All this shows us that numbers are not separated from each other; they are not entities cut off from the whole. They are always aspects of the whole. And the same can be said of man. In his being, he is one. He can be said to be two as a being composed of matter and spirit. Three, when one sees him as a being divided into spirit, soul and body with the three faculties of thought (intellect), feeling (heart) and action (will). He is four insofar as he is composed of the four elements: earth, water, air and fire. He is five when, arms outspread and feet apart, he forms the pentagram, symbol of the five virtues: justice, kindness, love, wisdom and truth. Add to this the spine, and you get six. He has seven bodies: physical, etheric, astral, mental, causal, buddhic and atmic.1 And one can also divide him into ten, as do the cabbalists,2 or twelve, as do astrologers.3 And yet man is still and ever one. In the same way, numbers are aspects of unity, they cannot be separated from each other; they represent the whole seen from different angles.

This truth is written into the structure of the three-dimensional cross. The cabbalists succeeded in condensing a whole science into this one symbol. They observed creation and discovered that it was founded on the cross. The three-dimensional cross symbolizes creation on the level of manifestation (Figure 3). The two-dimensional cross (Figure 2) expresses the same idea on the spiritual plane and the one-dimensional cross (Figure 1) on the mental plane. The cross in Figure 1 is a summary of that shown in Figure 2 which, in turn, is a summary of that in Figure 3. For Initiates, the true cross is the stone cube, symbol of realization on the level of matter.

On the three-dimensional cross the Initiates inscribed the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet, but also the planets, the Sephiroth and all the elements of the Kabbalah, and he who knows in what manner to mix and combine the letters and signs is able to influence the spirits of nature.

And now, let us look at the Sephirotic Tree of Life.4

The Tree of Life can also be seen as a cross with twenty-two surfaces. I have already talked to you about the ten Sephiroth: their nature, their significance, the correspondences between each one and human beings, the virtues, cosmic energies, the seven planets and the four elements. In the square below Kether, the cabbalists say there is the Sephira Daath, the mysterious, hidden Sephira which represents the divine knowledge born of the union of Binah and Chokmah. The ten Sephiroth are linked by twenty-two paths.

Many of the other symbols known to us are the equivalent of the cross: the Egyptian Sphinx, for instance, with the head of a man, the body of a bull, the claws of a lion and the wings of an eagle. These four animals represent the cross formed by the two pairs of opposites: Leo–Aquarius and Scorpio–Taurus. There is a tradition which recounts that in very ancient times, before the Fall of man, the position in the zodiac which is now occupied by Scorpio used to be occupied by the eagle. The

Sphinx, therefore, represents the four elements which are also mentioned in the Apocalypse as the four Holy living Creatures, the Chayot ha Kadesh or Seraphim who stand before the Throne of God and ‘rest not day and night, saying, “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty”.’5 The Sphinx is the cross and the cross represents the roots of matter: the four elements.

The early Fathers of the Church who were versed in Egyptian Lore and did not want it to be lost, attributed to each of the Evangelists one of the four creatures of which the Sphinx is composed: to St. Matthew, the bull, to St. Mark, the lion, to St. Luke, the man and to St. John, the eagle.

The Sphinx also has a close relationship with the Cardinal points of the compass and you can work with these four directions of space: facing in the four directions, one after the other, you can repeat certain formulas while mentally making contact with the four Archangels who open the gates of the four directions: Mikhaël to the east, Raphaël to the south, Gabriel to the west and Uriel to the north. When you understand the living cross, everything in creation will begin to speak to you.

The cross, therefore, is a cosmic symbol which you must study and consider with the greatest respect. It is good to wear a cross, but only on condition that one really understands what it means, otherwise the symbol will work against the person who wears it. Those who are really advanced thrill to the sacredness of the cross, but before wearing it they endeavour to understand its deepest meaning, for they know that he who wears a cross without making any effort to understand it and bring it to life within himself, is heading straight for suffering and death. He who does not know how to bear the cross will be annihilated by it, crushed under the burden of it.

However, we need not necessarily associate the cross with suffering and death. To do so would mean that we had failed to understand the deeper meaning of the cross which represents the whole of creation, of nature and of man himself. If you don’t understand one of your associates you will have all kinds of problems when you have to work with him. But if you understand and appreciate him you will draw great benefit from your association. If you don’t know that fire can burn you, your ignorance will lead to all kinds of accidents because you will handle it carelessly. But if you know it well, what a benefit it can be to you! Every thing and every being can be harmful to us if we don’t know how to react and relate harmoniously with them. This is true of talismans, pantacles and symbols... It is even true of love.

Do you think you’re well acquainted with love? Oh, no, you’re very much mistaken! Love has many different degrees and it is important to understand just a little more and a little better every day. To think that you have understood, is to halt the process of your evolution. And to put an end to your evolution is to condemn yourself to death. As far as love is concerned you must realize that you must go on learning for ever: never stop learning. And it is the same where the cross is concerned. Do you think you know and understand? You’re mistaken: you have not even begun to bear your cross inwardly; it doesn’t speak to you yet. You have worked with the cross for years, but your base metals (the lower instincts) have still not melted, which proves that you do not yet know the stone cube. What kind of love is that, if it cannot even melt metals? In order to comprehend the law that enables you to fuse metals you have to understand the cross, you have to possess the cube of stone.

Notes

1. See Man’s Psychic Life: Elements and Structures, Izvor Coll. n° 222, chap. 6: ‘Body, Soul and Spirit’.

2. See Angels and other Mysteries of The Tree of Life, Izvor Coll. n° 236, chap. 11: ‘The Body of Adam Kadmon’.

3. See The Zodiac, Key to Man and to the Universe, Izvor Coll. n° 220, chap. 2: ‘The Zodiac and the Forming of Man’.

4. See Angels and other Mysteries of The Tree of Life, Izvor Coll. n° 236, chap. 2: ‘Introduction to the Sephirotic Tree of Life’.

5. See The Book of Revelations: A Commentary, Izvor Coll. n° 230, chap. 7: ‘The Twenty-Four Elders and the Four Holy Living Creatures’.

The Cross - III

Christianity puts special emphasis on the crucifixion of Jesus. It is good to associate oneself with the passion and death of Jesus in order to understand the immensity of his sacrifice. There have been mystics who suffered so intensely from the horrors of his agony that the stigmata of his wounds appeared in their own bodies. But these were very exceptional beings, capable of such abnegation that they relived the sufferings of Jesus recorded in the cosmic archives. For there exists a universal library known as the Akasha Chronica, and the events of the lives of the great Masters are all there in that library, available to those who wish to read them.

Yes, all that the great Masters and Envoys from Heaven experienced in their lives, every event, whether tragic or happy, all that was luminous and inspired... It is all there for the asking, for souls who love them. Some people like to relive all that was sombre and painful in the Masters’ lives: I have nothing against this, it is a very generous attitude, for in this way they associate themselves with the sacrifices the Master made for the salvation of mankind. But those who have already experienced such suffering several times no longer feel the need to relive the crucifixion of Christ. The symbol of the cross, in spite of the fact that it is very widespread, is not yet fully understood. It calls to mind only the image of the exhausted, dying Christ, the victim despised and ill-treated by men. Everywhere, in all the churches, the faithful contemplate the crucifix, but they forget to associate themselves with the other symbol which is far more potent and more salutary: the glory of the risen Christ.1

Jesus died for the old world, for those who still had some debts to pay or some misdeeds to make reparation for. And yet the death of Jesus does not impress those who have no conscience, the unscrupulous and unenlightened; they don’t feel in the least concerned by the fact that Jesus died on the cross two thousand years ago for them. His death means something only to those who have already known great suffering and who suffer still. But they should be concentrating on the resurrection now, they should be striving to rise from the dead, not to go on suffering. Suffering is never an end in itself. Jesus suffered, that’s true, but then he resurrected. And what does the word resurrection mean? In Russian resurrection is ‘voskressénié’  and in Bulgarian it is ‘vazkressénié’, which means ‘deliverance from the cross’. How do you explain this etymology?

The cross is the crucible used by alchemists (the word crucible derives from the word cross), and alchemy is the work by which matter is transformed. The alchemist puts the prime matter into the crucible where, in a first phase, it dies and putrefies; this operation corresponds to black. In the second phase the matter is dissolved and purified: it becomes white. Next comes the stage of distillation and conjunction and the matter becomes red and, finally, it is the phase of sublimation and the matter becomes gold. These operations have to be interpreted as the different phases of the inner life. The work that the alchemist accomplishes on the matter in his crucible is, in reality, the spiritual work that the disciple has to accomplish in the crucible of his body. Transformed matter ‘resurrects’ from the crucible as gold; man ‘resurrects’ from the cross. Jesus said, ‘Except ye die ye shall not live’,2 and this could be seen as a summary of alchemical work. And he himself gave us the example: he died and rose from the dead.

In the new life that Christ is now offering us it is no longer advisable to dwell on the agony of the cross, for Christ manifests himself also in beauty, joy and light. Jesus will not be hurt or offended if you don’t continue to concentrate on his martyrdom. He wants the new man to concentrate on the light, beauty and glory of Christ... Think how beautiful was that light when Jesus was transfigured on Mount Thabor and his disciples fell with their faces to the ground, dazzled by such splendour!

In the new culture it is this thought of Christ’s glory that must nourish our inner life. God will rejoice to see that we no longer prefer the negative aspect, that we no longer embrace dust and ashes or kneel before tombs, because He destines us to a more glorious future. If there are still some dead to be concerned about they are not those in the cemeteries, but those who are still buried inside us: our old habits and our old, erroneous notions. These are the dead we should be seeking out in order to get rid of them once and for all!

But now, briefly, let us go back in our minds to the time of Christ’s passion, to those extraordinary events during the course of which a spark from Heaven descended into matter in order to give it new impetus. Jesus did not encounter very favourable conditions, in his day, for the full manifestation of his knowledge or power. This is what the Master Peter Deunov meant when he said, ‘In the past the Christ was small and that is why he was crucified. But now, when the Christ returns, men will not be able to crucify him any longer: no tree is big enough to make a cross for him. Rejoice, therefore, that the Christ has grown so big that no cross can be found for him.’ I am sure you must be shocked by the idea that if Jesus was crucified it was because he was small. He who said, ‘I am the light of the world... I am the resurrection and the life... My Father is always working and I am at work with Him’... Surely he could not be small? That is true too, so let me explain.

Take the case of a very small child: is the spirit who incarnates in him small? No, it is big and powerful, but the body into which it descends is the body of a baby and the spirit cannot penetrate and use it in such a way as to manifest its full potential. When the spirit of Christ came down to earth he was very great, just as great as he is today. It was his body that was small; in other words, those around him were incapable of letting him penetrate them sufficiently. And it was because of this insufficiency, this incapacity of the members of Christ’s body to manifest his full stature, the fullness of his power and immensity, that Jesus could be crucified. True: the crowds shouted ‘Hosannah!’ when he entered Jerusalem, but when he was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane even his disciples abandoned him. So it was in his disciples that Jesus lacked power, it was in them that he was small and unable to stand up to his enemies who were so numerous and so determined to wipe him out.

But now, with the passing of the centuries, the spirit of Christ has gradually spread throughout the world. He can no longer be crucified because he is incarnate in an immense body, sheltered in the hearts and minds of millions of human beings. He cannot be crucified in all of them. This is a form of incarnation we have to understand. To do the work he has to do in humanity a great Master needs a collective body: some of his disciples are the eyes, others the ears or the mouth of that body, others again are the heart, the stomach, the lungs, or the arms and legs... As long as a Master has not breathed life into this collective body he remains small. With only a dilapidated, gross, animal body at its disposition, how can the spirit express itself in the form of love, wisdom and beauty?

So the spirit of a Master does everything in its power to incarnate, not only in his own physical body, but also in the collective body of a spiritual community, in order to develop and ameliorate it. And in return, the members of this collective body have the duty to make a similar effort to help the spirit to incarnate and manifest itself in them. This is why, instead of dwelling on the body of Jesus nailed to the cross, the sole preoccupation of a Christian should be to prepare himself to become a pure and luminous particle of this collective body that the spirit of Christ is endeavouring to vivify. Two thousand years ago, Jesus was crucified. That is a fact and there is nothing one can do to alter it, but it is up to us, now, to strengthen the body of Christ so that his spirit may continue its work of transforming the world.4

Notes

1. See Sons and Daughters of God, Izvor Coll. n° 240, chap. 8: ‘Christmas and Easter: two pages in the Book of Nature’, chap. 10: ‘Jesus, dead and resurrected?’, chap. 11: ‘Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross: the powers of blood’.

2. Op. cit., chap. 3: ‘Whoever would save his life would lose it’.

3 Op. cit., chap. 4: ‘Let the dead bury the dead’.

4. See ‘Cherchez le Royaume de Dieu et sa Justice’, Synopsis Coll., Part VII, chap. 5: ‘Et je suis avec vous, tous les  jours, jusqu’à la fin du monde’.

Chapter Seven: The Quadrature of the Circle

A tree has roots, a trunk and branches but it is not really a tree until the spirit has begun to work in it and make it produce leaves, flowers and fruit. And this is equally true of humanity: a man has a stomach, lungs and a brain but that is not enough to make him into a true human being. Just like the roots, trunk and branches of a tree, a man’s organs are only the material medium through which the spirit works to produce leaves, flowers and fruit. The leaves are for the stomach, the flowers for the lungs and the fruit for the head.1

The secret involved here is that we must be sure to infuse the spirit into absolutely everything we do. The descent of the spirit can be compared to the arrival of spring which brings out all the wealth that has lain dormant in the tree. A man who doesn’t know how to let the spirit work in him becomes a dead stump, fit to be felled and cut up for firewood or perhaps for building. Whereas those who do let the spirit work in them are cared for and tended every day; they are visited, fed, watered and protected from parasites. Some people claim to be protected and helped, but if they have no leaves, flowers or fruit to show for it, it is just not true. Nobody is interested in a sterile tree, nobody visits it, even Heaven avoids it!

Then comes the season when the leaves, flowers and fruit fall and all that remains are the roots, stem and branches. And this shows us that the material, physical aspect is steadfast and durable whereas the spiritual aspect only manifests itself intermittently. When spring comes round again the leaves, flowers and fruit will appear once again. Those who have not yet understood these great laws lament and lose courage, or draw false conclusions, saying, ‘Since it’s the physical aspect that is the most durable it must obviously be the most important.’ True enough, the material medium, the stomach, lungs and brain are always there whereas the functions are periodic, just like the leaves, flowers and branches.

But that is no reason to be discouraged or to adopt a materialistic philosophy. In the spiritual life the leaves, flowers and fruit are inspirations. They only appear from time to time, but don’t worry! Since inspiration has already visited you that is proof enough that it will come again. Something that has happened once can happen a second time. The trouble is that you don’t know how to persuade inspiration to come back. The spirit is the most tenacious and faithful, but it is always in motion, whereas matter is motionless, coagulated. And the absence of movement in matter is symbolized by the square whereas the cyclic, periodic movement of the spirit is symbolized by the circle. And the whole question is how to join the circle and the square.

From the beginning of time geometers have struggled to solve the problem of the quadrature of the circle: how to draw a square with exactly the same area as a given circle, and they have never succeeded. Perhaps they will find the solution one day, but they should know that the Initiates solved the problem a long time ago because they knew how to observe nature and, in particular, they saw how the bare branches of trees are periodically clothed with leaves, flowers and fruit. The spirit comes periodically to accomplish a certain task: this is the circle, the symbol of the limitless, infinite universe. It is within this circle that the square, matter, can flower and bear fruit at each return of the spirit. When a tree that has been vivified by the spirit bears fruit it has solved the problem of squaring the circle. There is always some moment, therefore, when the square and the circle coincide.

So many people claim to be deeply spiritual, and yet, when I look at them, all I see is an enormous square with a little tiny circle in the middle! He whose circle is inside his square goosesteps his way through life and he disturbs the earth. Whereas he whose circle surrounds his square doesn’t walk at all... he flies! The earth recognizes him, she is not distressed by his passing, in fact she likes to feel him pass. For the earth is sensitive and conscious.

When we have run out of inspiration we are like a tree in winter and we must remember that inspiration comes periodically like flowers which appear only when all the right conditions are present in the spring. So it is up to us to create the conditions of springtime in our souls and this can be done in only one way: by love. It is love that creates spring in man. But not just any kind of love; it has to be spiritual love. The spirit cannot be forced, it breathes where it will as it says in the Gospels: ‘The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth...’ But through love we can prepare for its coming.2

When a tree flowers again at the end of winter it is putting on new raiment, new ornaments and everybody enjoys looking at it. The same is true of a human being. Why do you like someone better at some moments than at others? Because he is in flower! His stomach, lungs and head are just the same as they were, but you find him adorable because he is covered with leaves, flowers and fruit. Nobody appreciates a dingy bare tree. So if you feel that you are not appreciated, tell yourself: ‘I’m in a period when all my leaves, flowers and fruit have fallen. Is that any reason to commit suicide? Certainly not. I shall work hard and the spring will come round again’. If you give in to discouragement it shows that you have not understood that life is perpetual motion. Why try to arrest this motion? Even if it’s mid-winter for you at the moment, don’t be discouraged, the spirit will come back again and the leaves will reappear. If you don’t have the patience to wait for the seasons to come round, if you don’t know that the square has to be inside the circle and not outside, it means that you have understood nothing about the true philosophy.

Meditate frequently on the life history of a tree. Since inspiration only comes periodically, think about preparing the conditions for its coming through the work of your intellect, heart and will. But remember, also, that the intellect, heart and will follow different paths and that they will not necessarily all arrive at the same point at the same time.

The physical side is tenacious, but the spiritual side is just as durable. Proof of this lies in the fact that if you destroy the physical body, your subtle bodies (etheric, astral, mental, causal, buddhic and atmic) continue to exist. Even if you destroy the house (the square), the circle remains indestructible. Wherever it may be, it is impossible to destroy the circle because it surrounds us on all sides. It is the Cosmic Ocean in which we live and breathe.

Notes

1. See True Alchemy or the Quest for Perfection, Izvor Coll. n° 221, chap. 2: ‘The Human Tree’.

2. See Aux sources inaltérables de la joie, Izvor Coll. n° 242, chap. 15: ‘Afin que l’amour ne vous quitte plus’.