Collected Works (Vol. I)

268 APPENDIX 3rd. Bows his Head and crosses his Arms on his Breast (to form the Penta- gram). The Sign of Osiris risen. All give the Sign of the Cross, and say :— L.V.X. Then the Sign of Osiris risen, and say :— Lux, the Light of the Cross. This Formula, on which one may meditate for Years without exhausting its wonderful Harmonies, gives an excellent Idea of the Way in which Qabalistic Analysis is conducted. First, the Letters have been written in Hebrew Characters. Then the Attributions of them to the Zodiac and to Planets are substituted, and the Names of Egyptian Gods belonging to these are invoked. The Christian Idea of I.N.R.I. is confirmed by these, while their Initials form the sacred Word of the Gnostics. That is, IAO. From the Character of the Deities and their Functions are deduced their Signs, and these are found to signal (as it were) the Word Lux (WS), which itself is contained in the Cross. A careful Study of these Ideas, and of the Table of Correspondences, which one of our English Brethren is making, will enable him to discover a very great Deal of Matter for Thought in these Poems which an untutored Person would pass by. To return to the general Dogma of the Qabalists. The Figure of Minutum Mundum will show how they suppose one Quality to proceed from the last, first in the pure God-World Atziluth, then in the Angel-World Briah, and so on down to the Demon-Worlds, which are however not thus organised. They are rather Material that was shed offin the Course of Evolution, like the Sloughs of a Serpent, from which comes their Name of Shells, or Husks. Apart from silly Questions as to whether the Order of the Emanations’ is con- firmed by Paleontology, a Question it is quite incompetent to discuss, there is no Doubt the Sephiroth are types of Evolution as opposed to Catastrophe and Creation. The great Charge against this Philosophy is founded on its alleged Affinities with Scholastic Realism. But the Charge is not very true. No Doubt but they did suppose vast Storehouses of ‘‘ Things of one Kind” from which, pure or mingled, all other Things did proceed. Since 5, a Camel, refers to the Moon, they did say that a Camel and the Moon were sympathetic, and came, that Part of them, from a common Principle: and that a Camel being yellow brown, it partook of the Earth Nature, to which that Colour is given. Thence they said that by taking all the Natures involved, and by blending them in the just Proportions, one might have a Camel. But this is no more than is said by the Upholders of the Atomic Theory. They have their Storehouses of Carbon, Oxygen, and such (not in one Place, but no more is Geburah in one Place), and what is Organic Chemistry but the Production of useful Compounds whose Nature is deduced absolutely from theoretical Considera- tions long before it is ever produced in the Laboratory?