11

Divine Origins

To conceive of Atum is difficult. To define him is impossible.

The imperfect and impermanent cannot easily apprehend the eternally perfected.

Atum is whole and constant. In himself he is motionless, yet he is self-moving.

He is immaculate, incorruptible, and ever-lasting.

He is the Supreme Absolute Reality.

HERMETICA

S o let us now imagine how you might go about creating the cosmos. If you were the one and only for all eternity and there was no one else but you to create from, how would you set things in motion? After all, there is no blueprint to create galaxies, solar systems, oceans, plants, people, or animals. There is only you. So the Creator did the only thing it could: it began by dividing itself in two so that it could behold itself. Taoist wisdom tells us, “The Tao produced One: One produced Two: Two produced three: Three produced all things. All things leave behind them the Obscurity (out of which they have come), and go forward to embrace the Brightness (into which they have emerged), while they are harmonized by the Breath of Spirit.” 1

These two essential aspects are the Divine Mother and the Divine Father, pure emanations of love and wisdom, truth and power, who have been honored by civilizations throughout the ages. While these divine parents may have gone by many names in different ages and cultures, I call them Auriel and Rigel, for that is how they first introduced themselves to me nearly thirty years ago. Auriel, the Divine Mother, is the emanation of unconditional love. Her symbols are the pink rose and the sacred heart. She is the velvet cloak of the green rolling hills, the vault of the stars at night, and the whisper of your heart when it yearns for union. Eastern traditions call her Aditi, the First, the All Mother, Begetter of the Universe. She is the white dove of peace that brings the Holy Spirit, and the homing beacon in every heart that calls us home. She is, indeed, the very fabric out of which the universe is made.

Rigel, the wise Divine Father, is the Great Eagle whose wings span the cosmos. He is the blue flame of burning truth, power, and wisdom whose wings turn the universe. An image of the Great Eagle is engraved on hundreds of temples and cathedrals across the world, symbolizing the Divine Father Who Sees the All. In Native American cultures he is the Great Thunderbird or Eagle. In Egypt he was known as Heru, or Horus the Elder, an aspect of the divine masculine who is beyond the worlds of form.

It is from this name, Heru, that we get the name Jeru salem, since in the ancient world the letter H was used for J in the Hebrew language. In Rome, the eagle represented the “God Most High” and became the emblem of the emperors. Because of the eagle’s association with the virtues of wisdom, strength, and reverence, this symbol was later adopted by a number of nations in their coat of arms, including Poland, France, Germany, Romania, Russia, Iceland, Austria, Yemen, Mexico, Moldova, Nigeria, Ghana, Syria, Albania, Armenia, Indonesia, Zambia, and the United States.

Figure 11.1. The Great Eagle

The United States chose this symbol because it was revered by the Iroquois Confederation, from whom Thomas Jefferson got the structure for our legislative branch of government. Among virtually all Native American peoples eagle feathers are the most sacred of healing tools, for the eagle represents a state of wholeness that is only achieved through understanding and initiation rites. Even today, the highest rank a Boy Scout can hold is that of Eagle Scout. Yet the symbol of the eagle was already known to our Founding Fathers, whose roots lay in the mixture of Freemasonry and Rosicrucianism that blended the wisdom of ancient Egypt with the teachings of Christ. As we can see, the deeper meaning of this symbol goes back tens of thousands of years, even to the time of the Anunnaki gods who once helped to settle this planet. *8

The Masculine and Feminine Principles

Knowledge of the Divine Mother and Divine Father is known throughout the cosmos, although few of us have learned how to honor the Divine Mother in our patriarchal age. Yet in the mystical teachings of the Kabbalah these are the first two expressions of the One who existed before all things, Kether. In the Kabbalah the divine pair is known as Chokmah, wisdom, and Binah, understanding—the Father and Mother of the All. In Hinduism this is Vishnu and Lakshmi, the divine couple that resides in the Cosmic Egg that floats on the waters of the deep. They are the two great principles of love and truth. Tibetan wisdom calls them the great Mother-Father God Samatabhadra and Samatabhadri, or Yab-Yum, the intertwined masculine and feminine energies in Tibetan practice. Tibetan Buddhism refers to these two great principles of wisdom (feminine) and skillful means (masculine), symbolized respectively by the ritual implements of the bell and the dorje that animate the universe. Like us, one part of these divine beings eternally resides in the Cosmic Sea, while another part is woven into the fabric of the cosmos.

In Hinduism these two complementary forces are Shiva and Shakti, the male and female expressions of kundalini, or the life force. Shiva, it is said, chases Shakti throughout time, pursuing her as long as the universe exists. When he catches her, Creation will roll back on itself, returning to a primordial state of Oneness. In this moment it is said the universe will vanish, for it is through the duality of these two primordial beings that the subject and the object are created, making it possible for the lover to behold the beloved. In the Zoroastrian hymn the Ahunavaiti Gatha we read:

In the beginning there was a pair of twins, two spirits, each of a peculiar activity; these two spirits united, create the first; one, the reality; the other, the nonreality. . . . And to succor this life Armaiti (the Divine Mother) came with wealth, the good and true mind: She, the everlasting one, created the material world. . . . All perfect things are garnered up in the splendid residence of the good Mind; the Wise and the Righteous, who are known as the best beings. 2

Figure 11.2. The union of the Divine Mother and Divine Father that form the Cosmic Eg g

In Taoism these two forces are depicted by the yin-yang symbol, the path to union that expresses itself as the two genders of every species, the poles of the planet, the valences of atoms and batteries woven into the fabric of the universe itself, because nothing in creation can exist without these two complementary energies. In Egypt they are known as Isis and Osiris, said to have been created long before they came to Earth as the eternal sister and brother, the wife and husband, the two halves of a single whole. They are the divine twins who are both separate and joined as long as the universe is in form. Jesus speaks of them as the “Abba-Amma” God behind Creation itself. 3

The Dot within the Circle

Behind these two powerful energies is the one primordial presence, that of Source. The Supreme Creator has been called by many different names: Atum, Saguna Brahman, Sugmad, YHVH, Allah, the Logos, and the Infinite, to name a few. But whatever name we use, this divine intelligence is the Source of all things. Its consciousness seems to spring from nothingness, and it manifests in countless forms, forms so small and so grand that you may hold it in your two hands or see the vastness of its reflection spread out against the majesty of the night sky. Its consciousness exists in everything, whether multiplied or divided, and it surrounds us in both the visible and invisible realms. In the Hermetica, an ancient Greek-Egyptian wisdom text, the purported author Thoth asks: “Do you think Atum is invisible? Nothing is more visible than Atum. He created all things so that through them you could see Him. This is Atum’s Great Heart—that He manifests Himself in everything.” 4

The Upanishads remind us: “Manifest, near, moving in the secret place, the great abode herein rests all that moves, breathes, and shuts the eyes . . . Luminous, subtler than the subtle, in which the worlds and their denizens are fixed. That this imperishable Brahman . . . that deathless Brahman is before, Brahman is behind, Brahman to the right and to the left, below, above, preceding: this Brahman truly is the all.” 5

Fig. 11.3. The ancient symbol for God, the Sun, and the singularity, surrounded by Creation

Thus the ancients chose the symbol of a circle with a dot at the center to represent this first cause (see figure 11.3 above). In later centuries this representation became the astrological symbol for the Sun, the giver of light and life, not only because it sits at the center of our solar system, but because nothing would exist without this light. In Dante’s Paradiso, the third part of his Divine Comedy, the saintly Beatrice tells Dante that the heavens and all of nature hang from this one eternal point. 6 “Manifesting as the formless dot, the beginning of all things is a state of Oneness which man calls unity. All things in the world today have one natural origin. All things began as one which came forth out of Nothing, the Unmanifest, by the ‘elongation of the dot.’” 7

The Kabbalah refers to this primordial atom or supreme intelligence as the “Unknowable Ain.” The Ain is the heart of the Great Mysteries, and today physicists are using this same symbol to represent the concept of the Singularity and the Event Horizon. These are scientific names for the One who creates the many, for they are irrevocably linked to each other. From the One comes the circular expanse of the universe. Eventually, the many will discover that this One lives within the center of their being. “This great unborn Soul is the same which abides as the intelligent [Soul] of all living creatures. . . . Subduer of all, Ruler of all, the sovereign Lord of all . . . Upholder of worlds, so that they fall not into ruin.” 8

Manly P. Hall reminds us,

All things move and evolve as diversity in unity. . . . Realizing the fundamental unity of all forms and all life manifesting through infinite diversity, infinite time, and infinite space, the student can understand the ancient occult demand for brotherhood. If all things are individualizing sparks from one neutral source, then each is a brother to everything else. Man is not to coalesce with, but to cooperate with all living things. . . . The unity buried in this diversity, and hence unrecognizable by the young soul, is seen in its true aspect as the sole reality by him who has raised his spiritual consciousness above the plane of matter. 9

Ancient Egyptian sages referred to this creative force as Tum or Atum, the first primordial drop in the Cosmic Ocean that set everything in motion. This is the primordial atom, the Word that moved across the waters of the deep, creating ripples like a pebble thrown into a pond. These ripples flow out from the center in concentric waves, like a great beacon of sound, moving at tremendous speed to create the expanse of all dimensions.

The Nine Dimensions

Both Hebrew and Christian theology adopted the image below, placing God at the center of the universe in a hierarchy of ascending and descending planes. Entities closer to the center, they believed, are closer to the presence of God, while those on the edges are farther from the light of the Divine. This same principle can also be found in the microcosmic and macrocosmic layers of an onion, the rings of a tree, the orbital planes of an atom, and the structure of the solar system.

Thus the masters taught that the Word brought all things into being. “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. . . . All things were made through Him and without Him nothing was made that was made” (John 1:1–3).

Many ancient wisdom teachings believed that there are seven of these vibrational dimensions nested inside one another, and each plane was believed to have seven sub-octaves. Other cosmological systems claimed that there are as many as nine, ten, or even twelve dimensional planes with their respective sub-octaves, some vibrating at such exquisite levels of purity that they can hardly be perceived. Throughout time, the knowledge of these inner planes has been encoded into different symbols, key among them being the seven-layered labyrinth inscribed on the floor of many ancient temples, as well as the beautiful Chartres Cathedral in France.

Figure 11.4. An ancient depiction of the nine dimensions nested inside one another. Many ancient traditions have used this image of concentric circles to represent how the various planes are layered, separated only by the vibration of their frequency.

Figure 11.5. There are nine or ten layers inside an onion, reflecting this same implicit order. Like a transmitting beacon of sound and light, these rings radiate out from the center.

Figure 11.6. The classic labyrinth was constructed with seven rings or dimensions that the Soul must traverse in its descent and ascent to and from Heaven.

This labyrinth represents the Soul’s journey into and out of the worlds of form. At the center of the journey sits the Flower of Life, leading to the activation of the six-dimensional rainbow body of light. Only here, at the center, can we connect with Heaven, a realm that sits at the center of the six lokas, or planes, as described in Tibetan wisdom. It is in this place of centeredness where we access the heart, where our Angelic Self resides, and it is only this connection that will free us to make the journey out of the world of duality. We are reminded:

This involution of the life of the Logos as the ensouling force in every particle, and its successive enwrapping in the spirit-matter of every plane, so that the materials of each plane have within them in a hidden, or latent condition, all the form and force [of the Divine]—the possibilities of all the planes above them as well as those of their own—these two facts make evolution certain, and give to the very lowest particles the hidden potentialities which will render it fit—as these forces become active powers—to enter into the forms of the highest beings. In fact, evolution may be summed up in one phrase: it is latent potentialities [within every being] becoming active powers. 1 0

Multiple Dimensions, String Theory, and Parallel Worlds

Theoretical physicist and futurist Michio Kaku is the cofounder and popularizer of string field theory, which proposes that there are multiple universes and dimensions beyond the one we know. He writes about these various dimensions in his book Parallel Worlds: A Journey through Creation, Higher Dimensions, and the Future of the Cosmos. Until recently, Kaku tells us, scientists viewed the idea of a multidimensional reality with great suspicion. “But recently the tide has turned dramatically, with the finest minds on the planet working furiously on the subject. The reason for this sudden change is the arrival of . . . ‘String Theory’ and its latest version, ‘M-theory,’ which promises not only to unravel the nature of the multi-verse, but allows us to ‘read the Mind of God.’” 11 String theory is actually a scientific description of the ancient philosophical concept of the “music of the spheres,” the biblical Holy Word, or the audible life stream known in Sanskrit as shabda (“speech-sound,” as in the sacred syllable Om ). Dr. Kaku tells us that “string theory and M-theory are based on the simple and elegant idea that the bewildering variety of sub-atomic particles making up the universe are similar to the ‘notes’ that one can play on a violin string, or on a membrane such as a drum head. (These are not ordinary strings and membranes; they exist in 10 and 11 dimensional hyperspace.)” 12   *9

Physicists have traditionally viewed electrons as being point particles that are infinitesimally small. This means that they had to introduce a different point particle for each of the hundreds of subatomic particles they found, which is very confusing. But according to string field theory, if we had a super microscope that could peer into the heart of an electron, we would see that it is not a point particle at all, but a tiny vibrating string; it only appears to be a point particle because our instruments have been too crude. This tiny string, in turn, vibrates at different frequencies and resonances. If we were to pluck this vibrating string then it would change mode and become another subatomic particle, such as a quark. Pluck it again and it turns into a neutrino. In this way we can explain the blizzard of subatomic particles as nothing less than different musical notes of a string. We can now replace the hundreds of subatomic particles seen in the laboratory with a single object: the string.

In this new scientific vocabulary, the laws of physics, carefully constructed after thousands of years of experimentation, are nothing more than the laws of harmony one can write down for strings and membranes. The laws of chemistry are the melodies that one can play on these strings, and the universe is a symphony of strings. And the “mind of God” that Einstein wrote so eloquently about is cosmic music resonating throughout hyperspace. 13

Esoteric wisdom says that this divine melody, or shabda, is the modulating frequencies of the sacred sound that set everything in motion. As we shall see, these modulations are part of the functions of the Seraphim, who, along with the other orders of Angels, ultimately create the templates for all the structures of the universe, informing the structure of energy as it descends into the worlds of matter.

This torus (see figure 11.7 below) is both the infinity symbol and the ouroboros, *10 the ancient symbol of the snake or dragon biting its tail. All of these symbols were designed to depict the circular nature of the universe.

Jill Purce, a British voice teacher and family constellations therapist, writes about how this waveform pattern is created by the unformed waters of the Cosmic Egg turning in to behold itself:

These same vortical [spiral] laws govern the movements of water, which composes nearly three-quarters of our physical bodies. Water is the pure, potential, and unformed matrix from which all life takes its being . . . [the Cosmic Sea, or plenum]. It is from the involution of the unformed waters that the egg crystallizes by turning in upon itself—of energy, of matter, or of consciousness; and all these are one and the same.

Figure 11.7. The torus may very well be the shape of the universe according to the latest physics, for it is the perfect circle turning in and out on itself.

Figure 11.8. This infinity symbol shows a snake biting its own tail, a variation on the ouroboros and representing the recurring cycles of time and the cyclical motion of the Creator.

Figure 11.9. The celestial circle of Heaven, called the Empyrean (illustration by Gustave Doré )

This order, reverberating down into the microscopic and subatomic levels, both structures and reflects our consciousness. The full significance of this organization, which was obviously known to the Greeks, since their word kosmos means ‘order,’ is again being demonstrated by physicists, who say that matter actually consists in its own movement and organization. Similarly, the growth of human consciousness is the continuous refining of its own organization, the ordering of its individual microcosm. 14

This means that as we evolve, we move up the spiral ladder of consciousness in the unwinding or activation of our own DNA. This spiral movement can also be found in our sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems, acting as a stairway to Heaven. William Blake, the British mystic and painter, portrays this beautifully in his image of the Soul’s ascent into the heavenly realms, as seen in color plate 5 .

The Eagle, the Sacred Masculine

So how does this spiral come to exist? It is the Divine Father’s waveform on which the universe is built. Madame Blavatsky writes, “To reach the knowledge of that Self, thou hast to give up Self to Non-self, Being to Non-Being, and then thou cast repose between the wings of the Great Bird . Aye, sweet is rest between the wings of that which is not born, nor dies, but is the AUM throughout eternal ages.” 15 What is Blavatsky speaking of? It is the wings of the Great Eagle. Other mystics have acknowledged this eternal presence, the winged one that I have come to know and love as Rigel.

Figure 11.10. Rigel the Great Eagle, symbol of Father God who sees all things

To Zoroastrians, this Divine Father is the Hawk, an aspect of the sacred masculine that never comes into the worlds of form, but who sends aspects of himself into the lower dimensions through the solar lords, the Seven Holy Kumaras. Only four of these seven beings ever incarnate in the physical world; the other three remain in the higher dimensions to oversee the evolution of billions of worlds. The four incarnate Kumaras are known as the “deathless ones,” the sons of God in Vedic literature. These are the great solar lords who come from age to age and are associated with the torch of illumination, the staff of wisdom, the Tree of Life, the trifold Flame of the Sacred Heart, the ankh (or cross), and the scales of justice. We find these symbols linked to divine teachers such as Lord Krishna, Jesus (or Lord Issa), Mithra, Quetzalcoatl, Hermes, Rama, Thoth, Osiris, Horus, Moses, Pythagoras, Tammuz (or Dumuzi), and Orpheus, to name a few. The Chaldean Oracles of Zoroaster, fragmentary texts from the second century AD, begin in this way:

But God is He having the head of the Hawk. The same is the first, incorruptible, eternal, unbegotten, indivisible, dissimilar; the dispenser of all good; indestructible; the best of the good; the Wisest of the wise; he is the Father of Equity and Justice, self-taught, physical, perfect, and wise—He who inspires the Sacred Philosophy.

Theurgists assert that He is a God and celebrate him as . . . a circulating and eternal God, as understanding the whole number of all things moving in the World, and moreover infinite through his power and energizing a spiral force. The God of the Universe, eternal, limitless, both young and old, having a spiral force . 16

The Spiral of Creation

To the Greeks, the Fibonacci sequence is the mathematical blueprint on which the universe is built. This is the sweep of the Eagle’s wings moving through the universe, an expression of pi, the mathematical constant that forever builds upon itself.

Figure 11.11. The sacred spiral of pi is seen as the vortex of life as it moves the planet.

Figure 11.12. The spiral permeates creation. Here it is shown in a pinecone, a snail’s shell, and a galaxy.

Jill Purce writes, “This simple two dimensional spiral has a number of remarkable properties. It both comes from, and returns to, its source; it is a continuum whose ends are opposite and yet are the same; and it demonstrates the cycles of change within the continuum and the alternation of the polarities within each cycle. It embodies the principles of expansion and contraction through changes in velocity, and the potential for simultaneous movements in either direction towards its two extremities.” 1 7

When we stand back and look at the world around us, we can see the curl of this spiral mirrored in the wind and water currents, the spiral of smoke, and the interstellar gas that forms the galaxies. It is found in the coils of a pinecone, the unfurling of a rose, the whirling pattern of our fingerprints, and the way hair grows out of the crown of our head. It is found in things as grand as hurricanes and as mundane as water going down a drain. These are all the manifold expressions of the Eagle’s wings.

The Fibonacci sequence begins with the number 1, then moves to 2, and then each additional number is generated when the last two numbers are added together. Thus the sequence moves from 1 to 2, then to 3, then to 5, to 8, 13, 21, and so on. From God’s point of view, this makes perfect sense. First the one divided itself in two. It then created the Cosmic Egg in which the Divine Mother and Divine Father reside. This generates the vesica piscis, a shape that is the intersection of two discs, or the number 3. This is the doorway where Spirit can move into the worlds of matter. It is also the shape of the Cosmic Egg, a subject we will come to shortly.

Next, the Divine Daughter and Divine Son were born as mirror expressions of their parents. This generates the number 5. Then came the overseers of magnetic fields, electrical fields, and mineral fields, which generates the number 8. These numbers are not simply mathematical formulas, but the first great intelligences that derive from the One. They are the interpenetrating waveforms that hold the universe together; I know them as the “Council of Nine,” the nine primordial waveforms that create, maintain, and sustain the cosmos. Eventually, these highly sentient beings stepped themselves down into smaller subsets, creating the nine orders of Angels, the nine Sephirot on the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, and the trillions of life-forms found in the world around us. This is also why the number 9 is intrinsic to Creation. For example, there are only nine primary numbers before we return to the number 10, thus regenerating the entire sequence of numbers. A circle measures 360 degrees, which, when added together makes the number 9. It takes nine months for the human gestation cycle, and some of the most sacred numbers spoken about in Revelations, like 144,000, add up to the number 9.

Figure 11.13. The Fibonacci sequence as the template for creation

Figure 11.14. The separation and merger of the two divine forces that set Creation in motion through the doorway of the vesica piscis

The Dove, the Divine Mother

The dove is the symbol of the creatrix from whom all expressions of the Divine Mother flow. She is the heart of unconditional love. Her symbols are the pink rose and the dove, the bringer of peace. She is the homing beacon who leads us back to our center, the principle of love made manifest in the adamantine particles of love that comprise the atoms of the universe. She is the Holy Spirit permeating the universe.

This divine presence has been known by countless names in different cultures: Lakshmi, Hathor, Nuit, Aditi, Armaiti, Venus, Aphrodite, and Durga, to name a few. In Egypt she is Isis, she of ten thousand names and ten thousand faces. In Britain she is Brigit, the bringer of light. In China she is Quan Yin, the Mother of Compassion. And in Japan she is Amaterasu, Mother of the Sun. In Native American culture she is White Buffalo Calf Woman, the teacher of balance. And in India she is Sita, the pure devoted wife. To the Hebrews she is Sophia, the Mother of Wisdom. And in Christianity she is both Mary, the Mother of Compassion, and Mary Magdalene, the “disciple who knew the All.” *11 She is known to me as Auriel.

Figure 11.15. The dove of peace is a symbol of the Divine Mother and the Holy Spirit as she descends into the world of form

Finally, after nearly 1,500 years, the true wisdom of Mary Magdalene is being brought to light in our time, redeemed from the scandalous lies heaped on her by the early Church, which claimed that she was a prostitute. Nothing could be further from the truth! Not only did Mary Magdalene train as a priestess of Isis at the same time that Jesus studied in Egypt, Gnostic Christians believe that she is an incarnation of the Divine Daughter, Sophia, the female Christ who has been denied for some two thousand years, a daughter of wisdom and love. Today it is profoundly gratifying to see so many people awakening to her beauty, for Jesus revealed to his Apostles that he would not return until the sacred feminine has been re-enthroned in the world. 18 It is perhaps for this reason that the feminine energy continues to be maligned and suppressed in the world today because her emergence poses a threat to the entrenched patriarchy, so it pushes back.

The Great Cosmic Egg

Through the separation of the divine couple, who are nevertheless joined in their essence, the vesica piscis is formed. This becomes the great Cosmic Egg, another name for the primordial drop that floats on the Cosmic Ocean. The vesica piscis is also the one emblem that Jesus left to represent the heart of his teachings. In Christian theology it became the Ichthys, or “sign of the fish,” representing not only this sacred union, but the dawning of the Age of Pisces. It is created through the merger of our male and female natures, which opens our inner sight and allows us to see the Kingdom of Heaven.

Later in Church iconography the vesica piscis was adapted into the mandorla, the aureole that surrounds the entire figure of Christ and other sacred personages, considered the doorway through which these holy ones emerge. Numerous stained-glass windows depict Jesus, Mary, or the Madonna and Child within the mandorla. This is also the shape of the Tisra Til, or Third Eye, which allows us to see into the inner worlds. Hermetic wisdom tells us that this primordial shape is the shape of our auric field. This auric egg has many subtle-energy layers and is composed of the emotional, astral, mental, causal, etheric, and spiritual bodies. The vesica piscis is not only the shape of a candle flame and a drop of water, it is also the shape of the eyes, the windows to the Soul. It is the shape of all seeds whose blueprints produce the millions of species of plants. In fact, this shape reminds us of the small kernel of wheat that the Eleusian Mysteries used to represent the Soul itself. It is also the shape of a woman’s yoni from which the child emerges at birth, as well as the shape of the opening at the end of a man’s phallus, where the seed of life emerges. This shape is also created by the spiraling of our DNA.

Figure 11.16. The Ichthys is the one hermetic symbol left to us by Jesus. It forms the vesica piscis, or seed syllable of Creation, which is the primal sound. This powerful symbol is created by the union of the male and female, forming the doorway through which spirit comes into matter. In the brain this union of both hemispheres allows the opening of the third eye.

From this primordial seed issues the power of the Word that brings the universe into being. This is the Logos or template of Creation itself. In the Hermetica we read: “I saw in the darkness of the deep, chaotic water without form, permeated with a subtle intelligent breath of divine power. Atum’s Word fell on the fertile waters making them pregnant with all forms. Ordered by the harmony of the Word, the four elements came into being, combining to create the brood of living creatures.” 19

Some call this the eternal Hu or sacred Om, the male and female aspects of the Word. This is the sound that near-death experiencer Eben Alexander heard in Paradise, a sound that he identified with the Divine Mother. The Buddhist mantra Om Mani Padme Hum contains both of these seed syllables, describing the first unfolding stages of Creation. First there is the sacred Om. Then comes the Divine Mother (or in Latin, Ma ter and in Spanish, Ma dre), and then the Divine Father (the Latin Pa ter and the Spanish Pa dre). Finally, there is the creation of the perfected human (in English, the hum an being), which is none other than the Adam Kadmon of the Kabbalah. The beautiful Buddhist mantra Om Mani Padme Hum is translated as “the Jewel in the Lotus,” a reflection of the Great Mystery hidden within the Cosmic Egg. Many believe that this powerful mantra sums up the teachings of Buddhism, for it reflects the integration of duality and polarity—the universal and individual, through and into each other, like metaphysical mirrors. Its power is said to be activated by a fifth element, shri or hri, which refers to divinity itself. At the center lies the unknowable One, what the Zohar, the foundational work of the Kabbalah, calls the Ain, the wisdom of the Ain Soph, and the divine child of light called the Ain Soph Aur. This is the first created Soul, the Atman or Isvara of Hindu teachings. This is Sat Nam who holds the holy name of the indwelling Christ.

Figure 11.17. The divine couple that lives within the Cosmic Egg that floats on the Ocean of Love and Mercy (illustration by Sylvia Laurens)

The Balance of the Universe

The dance of sacred union is mirrored in other ancient symbols. One of the most beautiful is the Star of David, a Hebrew symbol that fits perfectly over the Flower of Life. The Star of David is composed of two intersecting triangles, one pointing up, the other down, representing the union of spirit and matter, masculine and feminine.

In Hermetic wisdom the Star of David represents the merging of the four alchemical symbols representing the elements air, earth, water, and fire. These four elements represent respectively our mental, physical, emotional, and life-force natures, generating the shape of the legendary, alchemical philosopher’s stone that extends life and symbolizes enlightenment and bliss. When these four elements are in equilibrium, the Soul has achieved mastery over itself. 20 Thus the Star of David not only represents the activation of the spiritual Buddha body found in the sixth dimension, but the four elements that make up the entire cosmos.

Figure 11.18. The Hebrew Star of David within the Egyptian Flower of Life

Figure 11.19. It is the merging of all four elemental forces that leads to mastery

Fire and air are masculine elements, while water and earth are considered feminine. These four elements exist in everything in various proportions, and the ancients believed that each dimension has a predominance of one over the others. The third dimension is the realm of earth, while the astral plane is akin to water. The mental world is ruled by air since thoughts rule manifestation, and the higher planes exist as brilliant realms of fire and light. The Hermetica reminds us: “By Atum’s will, the elements of nature were born as reflections of this primal thought in the waters of potentiality. These are the primary things: the prior things: the first principles in all the universe. Atum’s Word is the creative idea—the supreme limitless power which nurtures and provides for all the things that through it are created.” 21

All that we see and all that we don’t see comes from the Divine Mother and Father, or the emanating principles of truth and love. These overlapping energies form the Eye of God, the doorway through which Spirit moves into the world of matter. This is known as the Eye of Ra or Eye of Horus. Ra is the doorway of light, while Horus is the doorway to truth.

These two names, Ra and Horus, symbolize the awakening of the two hemispheres of our brain that, when combined, allow us to open our inner sight, a portal to the doorway of Heaven, the gateway where each Soul stands at the moment of Creation. Thus many cultures use the All-Seeing Eye to represent the omniscience of the Creator itself.

Figure 11.20. The Eye of Horus

Figure 11.21. A NASA image of the energy field of the Milky Way as seen in a spectral photograph that displays the red shift. This astonishing image is but one of many Cosmic Eggs in the galactic ocean.

Furthermore, as we look out into the cosmos, we find that each galaxy is enveloped in an energy field that looks like a Cosmic Egg. *12 So all of these millions of galaxies recently discovered by modern science reveal a plethora of Cosmic Eggs floating in the great sea of the cosmos—the exact image once shared by sages in the mystical literature of the Vedas.

Behind the vesica piscis is a great primordial intelligence. This is the being that I call Domalar, one of the nine intelligences of the Council of Nine. She is the place of endless possibilities, the merging of Spirit with matter that allows life to come into being in the worlds of form. The Hermetica reminds us that “the Cosmos which our senses perceive is a copy and an image of this eternal Cosmic Mind, like a reflection in a mirror. . . . From its first foundations there has never existed a single thing which was not alive.” 22 And thus from the microcosm to the macrocosm, this living template permeates the entire universe.

The Son of God Begotten

From this first trinity that includes the Divine Mother, the Divine Father, and Domalar, their place of union, the Son and Daughter are born. The Son is often described as a solar male, while his sister, the Daughter, is his lunar reflection. Yet in truth all of these beings are beyond the kind of duality that we humans ordinarily perceive. As a result, there are both lunar and solar aspects to each of them, because, while they exist to create balance in the world, they themselves are whole and complete beings. In some cultures we find goddesses like the Egyptian Sekhmet or the Japanese Amaterasu, who are solar females. Likewise, there are expressions of the lunar male like Thoth and Khonsu in Egypt, and Nannar in Sumeria.

In the incoming Age of Aquarius these male and female aspects of the Divine will return to balance once again, both in the world at large and in our personal expression in the world. The astrological sign of Aquarius is known for its androgynous qualities; it is ruled by the elements of air (or understanding) and ether (or Spirit), so as this age unfolds, our societies will move back into balance, with both genders being honored. Over the last two thousand years, during the Age of Pisces that is just ending, the male principle was symbolized by the solar lion as “the Light of the World,” while the Daughter was marginalized, maligned, and forgotten. But these two beings, the Son and Daughter of God, are embodied in the trifold flame of the Sacred Heart and represent our own potential for divine union. This trifold flame is composed of the pink/rose ray of the Divine Mother, the blue/violet ray of the Divine Father, and the golden ray of the Holy Child.

In Egypt the solar male was epitomized by Osiris, and later by Horus, his son, while Isis, the Mother of Wisdom, was the female expression of the Christ energies. The Inca called the solar male Inti, just as he was Lugh to the Celts, and Helios to the Greeks. Christians refer to him as Jesus (or the Arabic Issa), the living Christ. When this Christed energy is ignited it moves up the spine, igniting our halo and signaling the merging of our little self, or personal ego, with our Angelic Twin, the higher Self. The ancient symbol for this activation is the caduceus, the staff of enlightenment, a symbol brought to humanity by Thoth, the founder of all the Mystery Schools. Traditionally this staff was only carried by master initiates who had attained this state.

Today the caduceus is used as the emblem of healing in medicine, yet what it really illustrates is the awakening of the sympathetic (masculine) and parasympathetic (feminine) nervous systems moving up the spine. When joined, these two currents activate the central nervous system that conducts kundalini energy up the spine to the crown, awakening the pineal gland in the center of the brain. This, in turn, awakens our inner sight, allowing the Soul to have access to the higher realms of light.

Figure 11.22. The caduceus, the staff of enlightenmen t

The Daughter of God Not Forgotten

The Daughter is known in the Talmud as the Shekhinah, the Breath of God. Her symbol is the snake, the perfect emblem for the sine wave on which all light and sound must travel—the carrier of the Holy Spirit through space and time. Her movement is found in the rhythm of our heartbeat, the graph of our brainwaves, the oscillation of magnetic fields, and the rising and falling ocean tides. The Shekhinah carries the light of her Brother and the sound of her Mother, allowing all worlds to come into existence. She is the intelligence hidden in our undulating DNA and the delivery mechanism through which sound, light, and movement travel through space.

In ancient traditions this undulating energy was symbolized by the snake, the symbol of mystical wisdom. In Egypt she was called Uchat Buto, “Ancient of Ancients.” In North, South, and Central American cultures she was the Grandmother Snake, bringer of enlightenment, still revered by ayahuasca shamans today.

In Mesopotamia we find statues of priestesses holding two serpents, one in each hand, symbolizing the two nervous systems used in the process of enlightenment. This tubular serpentine shape can also be found in the human body as the esophagus, the intestines, and the male and female organs of procreation. Carl Jung wrote that the snake is the “word-creating Spirit concealed or imprisoned in matter,” the oldest symbol in alchemy. When she transforms into the winged serpent she becomes the Morning Star, an emblem of the Soul’s discovery of its true angelic nature. 23 This is also the shape that is created as our solar system moves around the galactic center, inscribing a large cosmic serpent reminiscent of the ouroboros, which was the symbol used by the ancients to represent the passage of time.

Figure 11.23. The snake as a symbol of the Shekhinah

It is unfortunate that in the last two thousand years the real meaning of the serpent has been demonized by the dualistic, fear-based dogma of the patriarchical religions. Yet when we stop to think about it, the snake is the only animal that is reborn while still alive—the perfect symbol for our own process of spiritual initiation. Today, humanity is beginning to emerge from the fear-based misogyny of millennia of male-dominated religion, yet when we look around us we can see that there are still places where women are intellectually and socially controlled, killed, or repressed by their male “masters.” Nevertheless, any true look at the universe has always and will always include both the Divine Male and the Divine Female as equal partners in Creation. The more we can return our own lives to this balance, the faster we will restore this broken world to wholeness.

Figure 11.24. The spiral movement of the planets around the Sun is reminiscent of the snake.