Neschamah, proceeds Michael, the good angel of the Soul. From Nephesch dominating Ruach and uninfluenced by the good aspirations of Neschamah, proceeds Samael, the evil angel of the Soul." 3 Thus the duality of man is explained; reason controlling the passions creates a good angel Michael, literally a force which each Soul draws from the Sun and entitizes, and which becomes a reliable helper towards the higher development. But when passion dominates or is excused and its indulgence is argued away by reason, it creates an entitized evil angel or Genius, Samael, which is always ready to give a plausible excuse or reason why black should be called white and evil good. Again, the Kaballa tells us that man's personality is an image which is double, since it can reflect either Michael or Samael. In other words man can choose which likeness shall be imprinted upon the sensitive plate of his individuality. Once the choice is made it is like a sensitized photographic plate, the more it is exposed to the light of the Sun, i.e., the higher we climb, the more intense the image. This accounts for the fact that many persons have great spiritual unfoldment and charming manners, yet have deformed bodies or repulsive features. In some incarnation they have permitted Samael to rule and find expression in their lives, hence must bear his imprint until the rule of Michael can transmute it into his image. Hence the choice is, Shall we let Michael or Samael rule our lives and make his imprint upon our bodies? "Beauty is but skin deep" is only a half truth, for true beauty is an expression of Soul development or "the beauty of holiness" which will ultimately produce a symmetrical expression on all planes and in all our bodies, beginning with the inner and most ethereal and gradually manifesting outwardly; for we could not imagine a Super-man with a deformed body or repulsive visage. Those who today have beautiful bodies but evil minds are those who in the past have 3 The Kabbalah Unveiled, Mathers, 37. allowed Michael to rule, but who today are allowing the imprint of Samael to overlay that of Michael. In the Sepher Yetzirah "the Twentieth Path is the Intelligence of Will, and is so-called because it is the means of preparation of all and each created being, and by this intelligence the existence of the Primordial Wisdom becomes known." 4 Page 30. CHAPTER XLI. The Twentieth Letter. RESH (). "He produced Resh, and referred it to Peace; He crowned it, combined and formed it with Saturn in the Universe, the sixth day of the week, and the left nostril of man."-Sepher Yetzirah, 22. "The number one (1) signified with the Alexandrian Initiates a body erect, a living, standing man, he being the only animal that has this privilege. And, by adding to the '1' a head, it was transformed into a 'P,' a symbol of paternity, of the creative potency; while 'R' signified a 'moving man' [with his foot forward], one on his way."-The Secret Doctrine, Blavatsky, ii, 607. The twentieth letter of the Hebrew alphabet is Resh (R). It is a double letter corresponding to the planet Saturn whose double aspects are the strength of silence and immobility and the dissolution of death; also peace and war. Its meaning is the head. As the head of man is the seat of government, this letter corresponds very well with the meaning given to number 20 in the preceding Chapter, for it is man standing upright, his head containing a brain so developed that it has unfolded or awakened the Third Eye or Pineal Gland, the center of spiritual sight situated in the middle of the brain. "The Pineal Gland, or Coranarium, is a rounded, oblong body, from three to four lines long, of a deep reddish grey, connected with the posterior part of the third ventricle of the brain. It is attached at its base by two thin medullary cords, which diverge forward to the Optic Thalami. Remember that the latter are found by the best Physiologists to be the organs of reception and condensation of the most sensitive and sensorial incitations from the periphery of the body (according to Occultism, from the periphery of the Auric Egg which is our point of communication with the higher universal planes). We are further told that the two bands of the Optic Thalami, which are inflected to meet each other, unite on the median line, where they become the two peduncles of the Pineal Gland. "The Pituitary Body or Hypophysis Cerebri is a small and hard organ, about six lines broad, three long and three high. It is formed of an anterior bean-shaped, and of a posterior and more rounded lobe, which are uniformly united. Its component parts, we are told, are almost identical with those of the Pineal Gland; yet not the slightest connection can be traced between the two centers. To this, however, Occultists take exception; they know that there is a connection. . . . Dissectors on the other hand, have to deal with corpses; and, as they themselves admit, brain matter, of all tissues and organs, collapses and changes form the soonest-in fact, a few minutes after death. . . . But the contraction and even interblending of parts in this process of shrinking, and the subsequent pasty state of the brain, do not imply that there is no connection between these two organs before death. . . . When a man is in his normal condition, an Adept can see the golden Aura pulsating in both the centers, like the pulsation of the heart, which never ceases throughout life. This motion, however, under the abnormal condition of effort to develop clairvoyant faculties, becomes intensified, and the Aura takes a stronger vibratory or swinging action. The arc of the pulsation of the Pituitary Body mounts upward, more and more, until, just as when the electric current strikes some solid object, the current finally strikes the Pineal Gland, and the dormant organ is awakened and set all glowing with the pure Akashic Fire. For a brief space of time man becomes omniscient; the Past and the Future, Space and Time, disappear and become for him the Present. If an Adept, he will store the knowledge he thus gains in his physical memory, and nothing, save the crime of indulging in Black Magic, can obliterate the remembrance of it. If only a Chela, portions alone of the whole truth will impress themselves on his memory, and he will have to repeat the process for years come a fully initiated Adept." 1 ... before he can be Since the awakening of the Pineal Gland is the recognition of the Great Initiator (the Real Self, under the guidance of Saturn, as we have said in a previous chapter), this attainment is the supreme power vested in the head and makes of man the ruler over all the beasts of the field; for man is the only animal in which this can be made to function in the higher realms. Also as we are wont to speak of Saturn as the Great Initiator, it is well to understand that the process of opening the Third Eye is the work of Saturn, working through the Higher Self of the individual. The twentieth letter is also connected with the left nostril of man, which corresponds to the life vehicle, while the right corresponds to the life principle. In other words the life of the physical breath is drawn through the nostrils and, in the illumined Adept, is vitalized by the spiritual force from the auric vibrations through the Pineal Gland. But the two nostrils have each its own work to perform; the right carries the life-principle outwardly while the left as it draws in the vital breath, becomes a vehicle for the more mysterious spiritual force of the inner life. THE TWENTIETH TAROT CARD. The twentieth card of the Tarot is called The Judgment. It pictures in the center of the card an angel with radiant wings. This angel is enthroned in the clouds while the halo from him extends like an encircling wreath above his head and around him. From his aura great shafts of light both positive and negative shoot down to earth, symbolizing the human nature of the sign or that it must be interpreted in connection with the evolution of the pairs of opposites and of man and woman. The angel is blowing a long, straight horn, having a banner 1 The Secret Doctrine, Blavatsky, III, 504-5. |