The Supreme Doctrine - neo-alchemist

Chapter Seven
LIBERTY AS ‘TOTAL DETERMINISM’
IN order to tackle profitably the problem of liberty it is necessary to come
back to the basic idea that the whole cosmic architecture consists of the
exact, rigorous equilibrium of two inferior principles, positive and
negative, brought about by a conciliatory principle which is above them. Seen
in the perspective of our actual state, in which we have not yet attained
'realisation', the conciliatory principle takes on two aspects:
1. When we consider particular phenomena we see the conciliatory
principle under a partial aspect, and we can call it the 'temporal conciliatory
principle'. It is the Demiurge who presides at the creation of the Ten
Thousand Things, at constructive and destructive phenomena, anabolism and
catabolism, all of which manifest the cosmic metabolism;
2. When we consider the spatial and temporal totality of the cosmos we
arrive at the conception of the Intemporal or Supreme, or Absolute
Conciliatory Principle, which presides at the Unity of phenomenal
multiplicity, the Intemporal Principle in which there does not yet exist any
dualistic manifestation and for which the temporal conciliatory principle
represents a sort of inferior delegate.
This Supreme Conciliatory Principle is the First Cause, anterior to all
manifestation, and it is to it that our abstract thought tends when it reascends
the universal chain of effects and causes.
The existence of the Demiurge between the First Cause and phenomena
leads us necessarily to distinguish two determinisms:
1. A partial determinism according to which the temporal conciliatory
principle determines the phenomena;
2. A total determinism according to which the Supreme Conciliatory
Principle determines the temporal conciliatory principle and, through it, the
phenomena.
Each of these two determinisms is manifested by laws. But it is
interesting to see the differences which exist between the laws of partial
determinism and the law of total determinism.
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