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SYMBOLS OF THE CREATIVE POWERS. 379
Thought. Two sides of the Upper Triangle, by which the Ineffable
Essence and its Manifested Body, the Universe, are symbolized, the
right side and the base, are composed of unbroken lines ;
the third, the
left side, is dotted. It is through the latter that emerges Sephira.
Spreading in every direction, she finally encompasses the whole
Triangle. In this emanation the triple Triad is formed. From the
invisible Dew falling from the higher Uni-triad, the "Head,"—thus
leaving 7 Sephiroth only—Sephira creates Primeval Waters, or in
other words, Chaos takes shape. It is the first stage towards the
solidification
of Spirit which, through various modifications, will produce
Earth. "It requires Earth and Water to make a lyiving Soul,"
says Moses.
It requires the image of an aquatic bird to connect it with
Water, the female element of procreation, with the 0.%% and the bird
that fecundates it.
When Sephira emerges as an Active Power from within the Latent
Deity, she is female; when she assumes the office of a Creator, she
becomes a male; hence, she is androg>^ne. She is the "Father and
Mother, Aditi," of the Hindu Cosmogony and of the Secret Doctrine.
If the oldest Hebrew scrolls had been preserved, the modern Jehovahworshipper
would have found that many and uncomely were the
symbols of the "Creative God." The frog in the moon, typical of his
generative character, was the most frequent. All the birds and animals
now called "unclean" in the Bible have been the symbols of this Deity,
in days of old. A mask of uncleanness was placed over them, in order
to preserve them from destruction, because they were so sacred. The
brazen serpent is not a bit more poetical than the goose or swan, if
symbols are to be accepted a la lettre.
In the words of the Zohar:
The Indivisible Point, which has no limit and cannot be comprehended because
of Its purity and brightness, expanded from without, forming a brightness that
served the Indivisible Point as a Veil ;
[yet the latter also] could not be viewed in
consequence of its immeasurable Light. It too expanded front without, and this
expansion was its Garment. Thus through a constant upheaving [motion] finally
the world originated.*
The Spiritual Substance sent forth by the Infinite lyight is the First
Sephira or Shekinah. Sephira, exoterically , contains all the other nine
Sephiroth in her: esoterically, she contains but two, Chokmah or Wisdom,
"a masculine, active potency whose divine name is Jah (rr"')," and
• Zohar, Part I. fol. 20a.