Chapter X: Part I: Texts (6)

Of course there was a field of Jewish Cabbalistic literature,—not open, but confined, for the most part, as a kind of sacred mystery, within narrow and restricted limits, even among the Jews themselves. It was of the same nature with what is called, to-day, The Speculative Philosophy of Free Masonry, an ever seemingly substantive embodiment out of surrounding shadowy mists and mental fogs, wherein a doubt always exists whether after all there is in the nebulous matter of the mist itself anything from whence substance may congeal; or, it may, for illustration, be compared to the city of King Arthur, before whose gate Gareth, standing, says: “But these my men—(your city moves so weirdly in the mist),—doubt if the King be King at all, or come from Fairy land: and whether this be built by magic, and by fairy kings and queens, or whether there be any city at all, or all a vision.” It is necessary to make a brief mention of this literature with its sources; both that these may be known, and that a foundation may be laid for what is stated as to the reality of Cabbalah, and its significance.

There is almost no teaching of the Cabbalah in the English language except the Essay by Christian D. Ginsburg, LL. D., to which we have referred. Dr. Ginsburg says: “It is a system of religious philosophy, or more properly, of theosophy, which has not only exercised for hundreds of years an extraordinary influence on the mental development of so shrewd a people as the Jews, but has captivated the minds of some of the greatest thinkers of Christendom in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and which claims the greatest attention of both the philosopher and theologian.”

It is faintly claimed that some statements applying to Cabbalah are to be found in the Talmud; but apart from this we have:—(1) The Commentary on the Ten Sephiroth, by R. Azariel ben Manachem (1160-1238), who was a pupil of Isaac the Blind, and master of the celebrated R. Moses Nachmanides, (2) The Book Sohar (Light), or Midrash, Let there be Light, claimed to have been a revelation from God, communicated through R. Simon ben Jochai, A. D. 70-110, to his select disciples. This book has been pronounced by the ablest critics to have been a pseudograph of the thirteenth century,—the composition of Moses de Leon, who lived in Spain; who, by the admission of his wife and daughter after his death, first published and sold it as the production of R. Simon ben Jochai, and (3) The Book Jetzirah or Book of Creation,—of unknown age and authorship, but mentioned as early as the eleventh century in the Book Chazari, by R. Jehudah Ha Levi,—as the literary sources for the entire system and scope thereof, so far as disclosed. It is from these sources that the entire volume of Cabbalistic literature has had rise and development.

From these sources, and the numberless treatises and expositions thereon, the history of the subject matter and containment of Cabbalah is laid down as follows: It was first taught by God himself to a select company of angels. After the fall the angels taught it to Adam. From Adam it passed to Noah, thence to Abram, the friend of God who carried it to Egypt. Moses, who was learned in all the wisdom of Egypt, was initiated into it from the land of his birth. He covertly laid down the principles of its doctrines in the first four books of the Pentateuch, but withheld them from Deuteronomy (“this constitutes the former the ‘_man_’ and the latter the ‘_woman_’”). Moses initiated the seventy elders, and they again passed the sacred and secret doctrine down to the heads (continually imparting the same) of the Church of Israel. David and Solomon were adepts in it. No one dared to write it down till the supposititious Simon ben Jochai, who really lived and taught, as one of the most celebrated doctors, at the time of the destruction of the second temple; and his teachings are claimed to constitute the Book of Sohar, published, as already said, by Moses de Leon of Valladolid, in Spain. But Ben Jochai, or whoever worked under his name, though he wrote and published, as said, covered the true doctrine by veils, so that no one but an initiate, or, as the saying runs, “by the gift of God,” could penetrate behind them;—though the veils of the words still plainly held the secret doctrine, to those who could see. The Cabbalah, as an exposition to the Sacred Text of Holy Writ, was claimed to contain the Wisdom of God in every branch and department of His working,—and all terms and descriptions were exhausted to express the ineffable reward to him who might be permitted to penetrate behind the veil, either by initiation or “by the gift of God;” satiating every function of enjoyment, and affording an indescribable bliss, in the ultimate possessions of the Divine conceptions.

More definitely:—The exposition of the system treats of the impersonal First Cause manifesting within the limits of the finite. “Before he gave any shape to this world, before he produced any form, he was alone, without a form and resemblance to anything else.[91] Who, then, can comprehend him, how he was before the creation, since he was formless? Hence, it is forbidden to represent him by any form, similitude, or even by his sacred name, by a single letter or a single point; and to this, the words, ‘Ye saw no manner of similitude on the day the Lord spake unto you’ (Deut. iv. 15)—_i. e._, ye have nor seen anything which you could represent by any form or likeness,—refer” (Sohar 42 b, 43 a, Sec. AB):—And this shows clearly enough that the supposed sacred names of Scripture do not have reference to the Impersonal First Cause, as its essential designations, but rather to its creations. * * Then—“The creation, or the universe, is simply the garment of God _woven from the Deity’s own substance_ (The Impersonal manifesting in the cosmos, in modes to be expressed by the sacred names and otherwise). For although, to reveal himself to us, the Concealed of all the Concealed, sent forth the _Ten Emanations_ (the Ten Sephiroth) called the Form of God, Form of the _Heavenly-Man_, yet since even this luminous form was too dazzling for our vision, it had to assume another form, or had to put on another garment which consists of the _universe_. The universe, therefore, or the visible world, is a further expansion of the Divine Substance, and is called in the Cabbalah, ‘_the Garment of God_.’” (Sohar i, 2 a)—“The whole universe, however, was incomplete, and did not receive its finishing stroke till _man_ was formed, who is the _acme of the creation_, and the macrocosm uniting in himself the totality of beings,—‘the heavenly Adam,’ _i. e._, the Ten Sephiroth, who emanated from the highest primordial obscurity (The Impersonal First Cause), created the _earthly Adam_.” (Sohar ii, 70 b). This is more definitely expressed in another place, where it says:—“Jehovah (for which stands the letter _jod_, or _j or i_) descended on Sinai _in fire_,” the word for which is _a-sh_ fire. Let the _j, or i_, the signature for Jehovah, descend in the midst of this word, and one will have _a i sh_, which is the Hebrew word for _man_ man; thus _man_ became out of the _Divine fire_——“Man is both the import and the highest degree of creation, for which reason he was formed on the sixth day. As soon as man was created every thing was complete, including the upper and nether world, for every thing _is comprised in man_. He unites in himself all forms.” (Sohar iii, 48 a)—“But after he created the form of the Heavenly Man, he used it as a chariot (Mercabah) (wheels, circles) wherein to descend, and wishes to be called by this form, which is the sacred name Jehovah.” (Sohar i, 42 b, 43 a, section AB.)

It is to be observed especially, as to the ground work of the Cabbalah, that the first manifestation was in the “_Ten Sephiroth_,” or Emanations, so called, out of which came the “_Heavenly Man_”; and the human or earth man represented these Ten Sephiroth in himself. “The lower world is made after the pattern of the upper world; everything which exists in the upper world is to be found as it were in a copy on earth; still the whole is one.” (Sohar i, 20 a.)

Thus it is that the compass of the Cabbalah, by Sohar, is idealized in the form of a _man_. This man represented the combination of the Ten Sephiroth, or, as systematically called, _Emanations_, in which as a unity the whole cosmos existed in its segregated detail; and through which all knowledge thereof, physically, psychically and spiritually, was to be had, in passiveness and in activities;—and through which these activities, as of all potencies—as of angels and powers,—had their special existences. These Emanations had names of qualities, as Beauty, Strength, Wisdom, etc., etc., each name being located upon one of nine parts marked out on the form of the man; each of which was called a _Sephira_. The totality of the man being taken as _one_, this added to the nine made ten; and as a number this was the letter _jod_, already spoken of. The locations of these Sephiroth (shown as circles) are united one with another, so that one Emanation may flow into another; one into all, and all into one;—and the 22 letters of the alphabet with the 10 vowel sounds, are found therein, or thereby; and these are called the “_thirty-two ways or canals of Wisdom_”; and as these letters stood also for numbers, there is in this containment every possible mode of expression _by word and number_. The exposition of the Old Testament, especially the Thora, in the secret or esoteric way, is claimed under this statement;—that is, by numbering the letters of words, and by their permutations and changes of positions; so that this is one of the functions of the Emanations or Sephiroth; and a mighty one for disclosing the Wisdom of God.

The Book Jetzirah deals especially with these letters and numbers: “_By thirty-two paths of secret wisdom_, the Eternal, the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, the living God, the King of the Universe, the Merciful and Gracious, the High and Exalted God, He who inhabiteth eternity, Glorious and Holy is His name, hath created the world by means of numbers, phonetic language and writing.”

The Commentary on the Ten Sephiroth, by R. Azariel Ben Menachem, as its name implies, is directly in consonance with the Sohar.

As to the Book Jetzirah, Dr. Ginsburg says: “The _Book Jetzirah_, which the Cabbalists claim is their oldest document, has really nothing in common with the cardinal doctrines of the Cabbalah. There is not a word in it bearing on the En Soph (Impersonal First Cause), the Archetypal Man,” and so on, and so on. But here the doctor is at fault for this reason:—The word “_Sephiroth_” means “_Numbers_,” and the _Ten Sephiroth_ means the Ten Numbers; and in the Cabbalistic way these are composed out of a geometrical shape. The circle is the first _naught_, but out of this naught develops a straight vertical line, viz: the diameter of this circle. This is the first _One_; and having a first one, from it comes 2 and 3 and 4 and 5 and 6 and 7 and 8 and 9,—the circle or naught and its diameter one, the embracement of all together, forming the comprehensive _Ten_, or Ten Numbers, Ten Sephiroth, Ten Emanations, the Heavenly Man, the great Jah, of the ineffable name. Hence the contents of the book Jetzirah are of the very essence of the other two, and all are one.

SUFISM,

OR THEOSOPHY FROM THE STANDPOINT OF MOHAMMEDANISM.

_A Chapter from a MS. work designed as a text book for Students in Mysticism._

BY C. H. A. BJERREGAARD, _Stud. Theos._

In Two Parts:—Part I, Texts; Part II, Symbols.

The spirit of Sufism is best expressed in the couplet of Katebi:

“Last night a nightingale sung his song, perched on a high cypress, when the rose, on hearing his plaintive warbling, shed tears in the garden, soft as the dews of heaven.”

(CONTINUED.)

NOTES ON _JELALUDDIN RUMI_—Continued:

—Space forbids us to dwell any longer upon the miracles of this wonderful man of whom _Shems Tebreez_ once asserted, in Jelal’s College, that “whosoever wished to see again the prophets, had only to look on Jelal, who possessed all their qualifications; more especially of those to whom revelations were made, whether by angelic communications, or whether in visions; the chief of such qualities being serenity of mind with perfect inward confidence and consciousness of being one of God’s elect. Go and look upon Jelal, if thou wish to comprehend the signification of that saying ‘_the learned are the heirs of the prophets_,’ together with something beyond that, which I will not here specify.”

We must add a few passages from Jelal’s lectures, &c. These were his last instructions, “_the best of mankind is he who benefiteth men_” and, “_the best of speech is that which is short and to the purpose_.” Jelal once at a funeral spoke thus: “The ordinary reciters, by their services, bear witness that the deceased lived a Muslim. My singers, however, testify that he was a Muslim, a believer, and a lover of God.” He added: “Besides that; when the human spirit, after years of imprisonment in the cage and dungeon of the body, is at length set free, and wings its flight to the source whence it came, is not this an occasion for rejoicings, thanks, and dancings? The soul in ecstacy, soars to the presence of the Eternal; and stirs up others to make proof of courage and self sacrifice. If a prisoner be released from a dungeon and be clothed with honour, who would doubt that rejoicings are proper? So, too, the death of a saint is an exactly parallel case.” Once, when requested to give a lecture to men of science, he answered: “A tree laden with fruit, had its branches bowed down to the earth therewith. At the time, doubts and gainsayings prevented the gardeners from gathering and enjoying the fruit. The tree has now raised its head to the skies, and beyond. Can they hope, then, to pluck and eat of its fruit?”—

Jelal’s chief work, and the reference-book of Sufism, is the _Mesnevi_ (_Mathnawi_) usually known as the _Mesneviyi Sherif, or Holy Mesnevi_. It is truly one of the most famous books of the East, studied and commented upon wherever dogmatic religion has been abandoned for esoteric truth.

From the preface we quote the following:

“This is the book of the Rhymed Couplets (Mathnawi, Mesnevi). It contains the roots of the roots of the roots of the one (one true) Religion (of Islam); and treats of the discovery of the mysteries of reunion and sure knowledge. It is the Grand Jurisprudence of God, the most glorious Law of the Deity, the most manifest Evidence of the Divine Being. The refulgence thereof “is like that of a lantern in which is a lamp”[92] that scatters beams more bright than the morn. It is the paradise of the heart, with springs and foliage. One of these springs is “the fount named Salsabil”[93] by the brethren of this religious order;[94] but, by saints and those miraculously endowed, it is called “the Good Station,”[95] and “the Best Resting place.”[96] The just shall eat and drink therein, and the righteous shall rejoice and be glad thereof. Like the Egyptian Nile, it is a beverage for the patient, but a delusion to the people of Pharaoh and to blasphemers; even as God, whose name be glorified, hath said: “He misleads therewith many, and He guides therewith many; but He misleads not therewith (any), save the wicked.”[97]

“It is a comfort to man’s breast, an expeller of cares. It is an exposition of the Quran, an amplification of spiritual aliments, and a dulcifier of the disposition; written “by the hands of honorable scribes”[98] who inscribed theron the prohibition: “Let none touch it save the purified.”[99] It is (a revelation) “sent down (from on high) by the Lord of (all) the worlds,[100] which vanity approacheth not from before, nor from behind,”[101] which God watches over and observes, He being “the best of a Preserver,”[102] and “The Most Compassionate of the merciful ones,”[103] unto whom pertain (many) titles, his utmost title being God, whose name be exalted.”

Further on he says: “I have exerted myself to enlarge this book of poetry in rhyming couplets, which contains strange and rare narratives, beautiful sayings, and recondite indications, a path for the devout, and a garden for the pious, short in its expressions, numerous in their applications.”—

The Mesnevi is said to contain twenty-six thousand six hundred and sixty couplets and a large part of them ought to be cited here, but space forbids. We offer a few selections entirely at random.

The strength of strongest man can merely split a stone;
The Power that informs man’s soul can cleave the moon.
If man’s heart but untie the mouth of mystery’s sack,
His soul soon soars aloft beyond the starry track.
If heaven’s mystery divulged should, ‘haps become,
The whole world ‘twould burn up, as fire doth wood consume.—
Saints’ ecstacy springs from a glimpse of God, his pride.
His station’s that of intimate. He’s bridegroom; God is bride.
A bride’s veiled graces are not seen by groom alone;
Her unveiled charms solely to him in private shown.
In state she first appears before the people all;
Her veil removed, the groom alone is at her call.—
Who’s not received the gift of knowledge from above,
Will ne’er believe a stock could sigh and moan for love.
He may pretend to acquiesce; not from belief;
He says: “Tis so,” to scape a name much worse than thief.
All they who’re not convinced that God’s “Be” is enough,
Will turn away their face; this tale they’ll treat as “stuff.”
If he (man) from _esse_, reach not _posse’s_ state, he’s _nil_.—
(God) Himself He’s veiled in man, as sun behind a cloud.
This seek to comprehend. God knows what mysteries shroud.
The sun He is;—the sun of spirit, not of sky;
By light from Him man lives;—and angels eke, forby.—
The soul it is originates all vital force.—
The Prophet hath assureth us God’s the soul of all.—
The world’s renewed each moment, though we still remain
In ignorance that permanence can change sustain.
Life, like a river, ceaselessly, is still renewed.—
Each night Thou settest free the soul from trap of flesh,
To scan and learn the hidden records of Thy wish.
Each night the soul is like a bird from cage set free,
To wander. Judge and judgment, then, it does not see.
By night the pris’ner loses sense of bars, of chains;
By night the monarch knows no state, no pomp retains;
The merchant counts no more, in sleep, his gains and loss;
The prince and peasant, equal, on their couches toss.
The Gnostic is so e’en by day, when wide awake;
For God hath said: “Let quietude care of him take.”
Asleep to all the things of earth by night, by day,
As pen in writer’s hand he doth his guide obey.—
Of this, the Gnostic’s privilege, a trace’d suffice
To rob of sleep and reason vulgar souls of ice.
His spirit wanders in the groves of th’ absolute.
His soul is easy; body, still, calm, quiet, mute.—
In sleep thou bearest no burden; borne thou art, instead.

* * * * *

Know then, thy sleep’s a foretaste of what is to come,
From the rapt state of saints arriving at their home.
The saints were well prefigured by the “Sleeper’s Seven,”
“Their sleep,” “their stretchings,” “their awaking” lead to
heaven.—
Each night, in profound sleep our consciousness sinks,
Becomes non-existent;—waves on seashore’s brinks.—
The body’s a cage and a thorn to the soul.
Hence, seldom are body and soul wholly whole.—
Both men and fairies pris’ners are in earthly cage.—
If lifted could be from our souls the dark veil,
Each word of each soul would with miracles trail.—
The soul unto the flesh is joined, by God’s decree,
That it may be afflicted,—trials made to see.—
Th’ Infinites’ lovers finite’s worshippers are not
Who seek the finite lose th’ Infinite, as we wot,
When finite with the finite falls in love, perforce,
His loved one soon returns to her infinite source.—
In non-existence mirrored, being we may see;—
Annihilate thy darksome self,—thy being’s pall.
Let thy existence in God’s essence be enrolled,
As copper in alchemists’ bath is turned to gold.
Quit “I” and “We,” which o’er thy heart exert control.
’Tis egotism, estranged from God, that clogs thy soul.—
Discharge thyself of every particle of self;
So shalt thou see thyself pure, free from soil of pelf.
Within thy heart thou’lt see the wisdom of the saints,
Without a book, a teacher, or professor’s plaints.—
Thyself * * purge of self. Abstraction thou shalt gain.—
Both love and soul are occult, hidden and concealed.—
A lover’s whole life is but self-sacrifice;
He wins not a heart, save his own heart’s the price.—
When love for God is lighted in the human heart,
It fiercely burns; it suffers not effects’ dull smart;
—— love is love’s own sign, giv’n from the highest sphere.—
The heart’s with God,—the heart is God,—boundless, immense!
From all eternity, the figures of all things,
Unnumbered, multitudinous, gleam in hearts’ wings.
To all eternity each new-created form
In heart of saint reflected is, most multiform.—
Have patience, thou too, brother, with thy needle’s smart.
So shalt thou, ‘scape the sting of conscience in thy heart.
They who have conquered,—freed themselves from body’s thrall,
Are worshipped in the spheres, the sun, the moon, stars, all.
Whoever’s killed pride’s demon in his earthly frame,
The sun and clouds are slaves, to do his bidding, tame.
His heart can lessons give of flaming to the lamp;
The very sun not equals him in ardent vamp.—
The inward hymn that’s sung by all the hearts of saints
Commences: “O component parts of that thing _Not_.”
Now since they take their rise in this _Not_, negative,
They put aside the hollow phantom where we live.
Ideas and essences become “things” at His word.—
This world’s a negative; the positive seek thou.
All outward forms are cyphers; search, the sense to know.—
Mankind the songs of fairies never hear at all,
They are not versed in fairies’ ways, their voices small.—
“Allah, Allah!”[104] cried the sick man, racked with pain the long
night through;
Till with prayer his heart grew tender, till his lips like honey grew.
But at morning came the Tempter; said “Call louder, child of Pain!
See if Allah ever hear or answers ‘Here am I,’ again.”
Like a stab, the cruel cavil through his brain and pulses went;
To his heart an icy coldness, to his brain a darkness sent.
Then before him stands Elias; says, “My child, why thus dismayed?
Dost repent thy former fervor? Is thy soul of prayer afraid?”
“Ah!” he cried, “I’ve called so often; never heard the ‘Here am I;’
And I thought, God will not pity; will not turn on me his eye.”
Then the grave Elias answered, “God said, Rise, Elias, go
Speak to him, the sorely tempted; lift him from his gulf of woe.
Tell him that his very longing is itself an answering cry;
That his prayer, ‘Come, gracious Allah!’ is my answer ‘Here am I.’”
..When thy mind is dazed by colour’s magic round,
All colour’s lost in one bright light diffused around.
Those colours, too, all vanish from our view by night.
We learn from this, that colour’s only seen through light.
The sense of colour-seeing’s not from light distinct.
So, too, the sudden rainbow of our mind’s instinct.
From sunlight, and the like, all outer colours rise;
The inward tints that mark our minds, from God’s sunrise.
The light that lights the eye’s the light that’s in the heart.
Eye’s light is but derived from what illumes that part.
The light that lights the heart’s the light that comes of God,
Which lies beyond the reach of sense and reason, clod!
By night we have no light; no colour can we see.
Thus, light we learn by darkness, its converse. Agree!
A seeing of the light, perception is of tints;
And these distinguished are through darkness gloomy hints.
Our griefs and sorrows were by God first introduced,
That joy to sense apparent thence should be reduced
Occult things, thus, by converse, grow apparent, all.
Since God has no converse, apparent He can’t fall.
Sight first saw light, and then the colours saw,
From converse converse stands forth, as Frank from Negro.
By converse of the light, distinguish we the light;
A converse ‘tis that converse shows unto our sight.
The light of God no converse has in being’s bound;
By converse, then, man has not its distinction found.
Our eyes cannot distinguish God, decidedly;
Though He distinguish Moses and the Mount from thee.—

The doctrine, which Jelal was most emphatic about was the extinguishment of Self, and his teachings are quite characteristic for him, though the general doctrine is a common one among the Sufis. _He argues for simplicity._ He tells us a story about a dispute between Chinamen and Greeks before the Sultan, as to who is the more skilful of the two nations, in the art of decoration. The Chinese ask for and get thousands of colours and work hard, while the Greeks ask for no color; they only polish their front,

“Effacing every hue with nicest care,”

and when the Sultan came to examine the relative merit of Chinese gorgeousness and Greek simplicity,

“Down glides a sunbeam through the rifted clouds,
And, lo the colours of that rainbow house
Shine, all reflected on those glassy walls
That face them, rivalling: The sun hath painted
With lovelier blending, on that stony mirror
The colours spread by man so artfully.—
Know them, O friend! such Greeks the Sufis are,
Having one sole and simple task,—to make
Their hearts a stainless mirror for their God.—”

(_To be continued._)

THE SINGING SILENCES.

Theosophists may be interested in an experience which I have named as above; “Singing”—because of a peculiar resonance which I then hear; “Silences”—because this resonance only reaches me in moments of retirement and silence.

Occurring throughout a lifetime, at infrequent and remote intervals, they have, since I became a Theosophist, increased until they embrace all isolated moments. They consist of a resonance difficult to describe, but resembling the vibrant note of a distant locomotive, resounding in the night atmosphere of a mountain gorge, and partaking somewhat of that melodious wail caused by running the moistened finger around the rim of a glass. Sometimes, though rarely, a low orchestral harmony unites briefly with this monotone. Unable to find any word which conveyed this cadence, I now discover that the word “_Aum_,” (hitherto unknown to me,) does so exactly, the A sound being the opening note, which prolongs itself into the M, or closing sound, when the keynote is then struck over again. Thus the “Singing Silences” mainly consist of innumerable repetitions of the word “Aum,” distinctly and musically uttered, having a resonant or vibrant quality, and a measured rise and fall, such as all sound assumes if one alternately closes and uncloses the ear. If the analyst will alternately inhale air with the mouth and expel it with the nostrils, he will gain a fair idea of this sound minus its musical vibration.

It is, moreover, invariably accompanied by a sensation of physical repose, even peace, and a perfect mental quiescence which falls about me like an enfolding mantle. The frequency of these moments has greatly increased since my attention has been specifically turned to them. Hitherto, beyond a momentary curiosity as to their nature, I attached no importance to their occurrence; the very rarity caused them to be easily forgotten in the whirl of every day life; I admitted to myself with surprise, however, that my innumerable pleasures, my keen enjoyments, shrank to nothing before the deep delight of these brief but peculiar moments, and I applied to them the opening lines of Faber’s hymn to music.

Reading the article on “Aum” in the April “PATH,” I was startled by such passages as this: “There is, pervading the whole universe, a homogeneous resonance, sound, or tone, which acts, so to speak, as the awakener or vivifying power, stirring all the molecules into action.” I then called to mind various facts connected with Sound, as for instance, that a regiment marching over a bridge is ordered to “break step,” lest the regular footfall strike the “coefficient of vibration,” which would destroy the bridge: also that the measured trot of the smallest dog will cause a perceptible vibration in a wire bridge, no matter what its size. Moreover, the monotonous sound of the railroad, in time changes the texture of the car wheels and axles from fibrous into crystalline, with consequent fracture.

In Reichenbach’s “Researches on Magnetism,” we find this statement. * * * “The following laws prevail in nature. _A._ There resides in matter a peculiar force, hitherto overlooked, which, when the crystalline form has been assumed, is found acting in the line of the axes.”

Since then, the homogeneous tone acts upon all the molecules of creation, may not this singing resonance cause such a transformation of brain energy as to vivify or awaken it, in time, to the True, or Central Idea? We have seen that Sound, so to speak, polarises certain particles of matter attracting them to the earth, the great magnet, from which they came; it confers upon other particles this same magnetic power, as in the case of crystallisation; it awakens similar tones, as when several untouched harps vibrate in harmony when the musical key note is struck upon one alone. Why then may not the thought awakened by a fixed musical sound be in time attracted to the real source of that sound, of all sound? And as thought causes a disturbance among the molecules of the brain, some sound, however aerial, must accompany this vibration; does not my brain then answer this singing resonance with the note homogeneous to all the ethereal space?

In the article from “THE PATH” before quoted, I find the following lines. “Having taken the Bow, the great weapon (Om), let him place on it the arrow (the Self), sharpened by devotion; * * * Brahman is called the aim. It is to be hit by a man who is not thoughtless.” The “Singing Silences” are superinduced by meditation, thought, devotion: the closest imitation of them possible to the human voice consists in chanting, half aloud, the word “Aum,” over and over, as heretofore described. Do those Yogees who repeat “Aum” thousands of times daily, follow this practice in order to produce the resonance, or homogeneous tone, and to calm the mind, (as they claim to do,) by means of the harmonious monotony thus engendered? True, it fails to lead them to the higher knowledge, but is this not because the mental condition is self induced, like the delusive trances of self mesmerization? On the other hand, if (as they claim again,) it throws them into a trance like state or crystallisation of thought, is not this because it is after all, in some measure, akin to the natural resonance? The idea herein advanced would thus seem to be further supported, since this mechanical repetition of “Aum,” and its sedative power, is as the power of the microcosm, faintly outlining that of the macrocosm, (or real resonance,) to lead towards the calm which incubates the dawning thought and leads towards the true Illuminated State. “THE PATH” goes on to state that we are “led by the resonance, which is not the Divine Light itself, towards that Radiance which is Divine; the resonance is only the outbreathing of the first sound of the entire Aum.”

This constant and peculiar singing, provocative as it is of a peaceful abstraction so great as to exclude all outer things and thoughts, seems to induce a state which draws the hearer into the border lands of Spirit. Works on eastern travel and foreign witnesses, alike affirm that many faquirs repeat “Aum,” and also “Rama,” thousands of times, merely because they are told that such a thing is useful, while others do it with the mind fixed on realizing the True. Studious investigation always reveals a deep philosophy underlying religious forms, from which there is no reason to suppose this one to be exempt.

Listening attentively to the “Singing Silence,” I fall, after a brief space, into an unbroken and dreamless sleep which lasts for hours; hearing, without listening, I experience a sensation of physical refreshment and mental placidity. It came to me uncalled for, unnoticed, unrecognized; when finally a sense of pleasure fastened upon my mind, I idly accepted it, but without questioning, as a curious personal peculiarity. It was only when, giving myself up to thoughts of higher things, I met it upon the threshold of meditation, found it daily recurring, daily growing in distinctness and power, that I recognized it as a possible psychical experience. As I never strove to produce it at the outset, so I never attempt to increase or evoke it now; I should not know how to set about doing so. _It influenced me_; I have no control whatever over it. It comes as it wills, and is not subject to my command.

Is this then one of the practical significances or uses of “the word Om, as expressed in tone?” Does this bell-like resonance have such an effect upon the molecules of the human body, (including those of the brain,) as to polarize them in time to The Spirit? If there are those who doubt the existence of a great undercurrent of universal tone, described by “THE PATH” as Nada Brahma,—“the divine resonance upon which depends the evolution of the visible from the invisible,”—they will at least grant its probability when they consider that this has been admitted by some of the greatest intellects of the world, many of whom firmly believed in the “music of the spheres.” Plato taught it. Maximus Tyrius says that “the mere proper motion of the planets must create sounds, and as the planets move at regular intervals, these sounds must be harmonious.” The Cyclopœdia Britanica says, “the origin of musical sounds consists in the regular, periodic vibration of some surface in contact with the air, whereby motion is imparted to the air. The loudness or intensity of the note depends on the magnitude of the motion or pitch.” The regular motions of the planets of our system, as well as those of known moving stars, such as Sirius, may well be accompanied by a rythmical sound arising from the ether waves thus set in motion. That we do not hear it, may be due to the density of our atmosphere, yet it may be none the less transmitted along the ether waves and heard by the inner ear of those whose sense is developed. Pythagoras was the first philosopher to suggest this idea, which is mentioned by Shakespear:

“There’s not the smallest orb which thou behold’st
But his motion like an angel sings,
Still quiring to the young eyed cherubims:
_Such harmony is in immortal souls_;
But while this muddy vesture of decay
Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it.”

He also speaks of it again in Pericles.

“Keppler’s idea of the universe was essentially Pythagorean and Platonic. He thought that the planetary movements were related to musical intervals.” (Cyclo. Brit.) Montaigne, Milton, Donne, Pope, Newton, Tycho-Brahe and others believed in the “music of the spheres.” Faber beautifully attributed it to the vibration caused by the shooting rays of light on their journey earthward:

“Thou art fugitive splendors made vocal
As they glanced from that shining sea.”

All are agreed that the idea has come down to us from the earliest times.

Finally, if this resonance exists as the great undertone of nature, it is probable, natural and consistent that it should be a stepping stone towards reaching Spirit, since harmony and accord are vitally necessary to our progress in either the physical or the psychical world. The effect of harmonious sound on the moral nature of man has received much scientific attention in relation to its influence over the insane. The Rev. R. H. Haweis speaks of it in “Music and Morals,” as “the much neglected study of Musical Psychology.” His remarks are greatly to our present point. “What has Nature done for the musician? She has given him sound. * * Thoughts are but wandering spirits that depend for their vitality upon the magnetic current of feeling. * * * Emotion is often weakened by association with thought, whereas thoughts are always strengthened by emotion. I have endeavored to * * * * to show that there is a region of abstract emotion in human nature; * * * * that, this region of emotion consisted of infinite varieties of mental temperature that upon these temperatures or atmospheres of the soul depended the degree, and often the kind of actions of which at different times we were capable. * * Who will deny that the experience of such soul-atmospheres must leave a definite impress upon the character? * * * But if, as we have maintained, music has the power of actually creating and manipulating these mental atmospheres, what vast capacities, for good or evil must music possess!” * * * The Bible itself pays a tribute to the emotional effect and power of changing the soul’s atmosphere possessed by even such a primitive instrument as David’s Harp. “When the evil Spirit from God was upon Saul, then David took an harp, and played with his hand. So Saul was refreshed, and was well, and the evil Spirit departed from him.” (1 Sam. xvi, 23.) I have no doubt whatever that the acknowledged influence of music over the insane might be far more extensively used; indeed if applied judiciously to a disorganized mind, it might be as powerful an agent as galvanism in restoring healthy and pleasurable activity to the emotional regions. Who can deny then, if such a mysterious command as this is possessed by music over the realm of abstract emotion, that music itself must be held responsible for the manner in which it deals with that realm, and the kind of succession, proportion and degrees of the various emotional atmospheres it has the power of generating.

Testimony upon these various points might be multiplied, but is not the above sufficient to indicate a possibility at least that these “Singing Silences” are closely allied to “Nada Brahma,” the omnipresent sound, the vibration caused perhaps by the speeding of Light, (which is the first Divine Thought,) from the Central Sun, and in the mighty harmony of its coming, awakening and vivifying all things?

“I guess, by the stir of this music
What raptures in heaven can be,
Where the sound is Thy marvellous stillness,
And the music is light out of Thee.”
JULIUS.

ON THE SOUL OF MAN.

BEING THE REPLIES TO TWO OUT OF FORTY QUESTIONS, BY _Jacob Behmen_, IN THE YEAR 1620. FROM THE TRANSLATION MADE IN 1647.

TO THE EIGHTH QUESTION:

_After what manner doth the soule come into the Body of Man?_

MY BELOVED FRIEND: I understand this question to be meant concerning its propagation; for Moses telleth you how it came into Adam, and we have declared that before; but if you ask concerning its propagation, how it cometh into a childe in the mother’s wombe, we must put on another habit.

2. You know what is written in our third booke very punctually and at large, with many circumstances concerning its propagation; how Adam was created one Image, he was both man and woman before Eve; he had (within him) both Tincture of the Fire, and of the Water; that is soule and spirit; he should have brought his similitude out of himself, an image of himself, out of himself by his imagination and his owne Love, and that he was able to do without rending of the body.

3. For, as we have mentioned before, the soule had power to change the body into another forme, and so also it had power to bring forth a twig out of itself, according to its property, if Adam had stood out in the Triall.

4. But when he imagined according to the Omnipotence, and let in the spirit of this world into the soule, and the serpent into the Tincture, and tooke a longing in himself after the earthly fruite, to eate of evill and good, then also his Tincture conceived such an image as was half earthly; viz: a monster, into which also the Turba (the gross lower elements), then instantly insinuated itself and sought the limit (that is, filled it as far as possible).

5. And so the noble image was found in the earthly, and then destruction and death began, and Adam could not bring forth, for his omnipotence was lost.

6. And should indeed have ever been lost, if the heart of God had not instantly turned itself with the word of promise, into Adam’s soule; which did so preserve it, that its image must perish and the soule must sinke downe with the heavenly body through death into the new life, where its spirit will be renewed againe.

7. And thus Adam in impotence fell asleep; and then the second creation began, for God tooke the Tincture of the Water, as a twig out of Adam’s soule, and a rib out of Adam, and halfe of the crosse that was in Adam, and made a woman of them.

8. As you know that the woman hath the one halfe crosse in her head, and the man the other, for the spirit of the soule dwelleth in the head, in the braine, out of which spirit God hath taken a twig (_viz_: a childe out of the spirit of the soule of Adam) and hath given it to the woman.

9. And hath given the tincture of the water to her, that she should not bring forth Devills, and the man hath the tincture of fire, _viz_: the true Originall of Life.

10. And therefore the woman hath gotten the matrix, _viz_: the tincture of Venus, and the man hath the tincture of fire: understand, the woman hath the tincture of Light, which cannot awaken Life—the Life ariseth in the tincture of fire.

11. And so it cannot be otherwise now, but that they must propagate as beasts doe, in two seeds: the man soweth soule, and the woman soweth spirit; and being sowne in an earthly field, it is also brought forth after the manner of all beasts.

12. Yet nevertheless all the three principles are in the seed, but the inward cannot be knowne by the outward, for in the seed the soule is not living: but when the two tinctures are brought together, then it is a whole essence; for the soule is essentiall in the seed, and in the conception becometh substantiall.

13. For so soon as the fire is struck upon by Vulcan, the soule is wholly perfect in the essence and the spirit goeth instantly out of the soule into the tincture, and attracteth the outward dominion to itself, _viz_: the Starres together with the Aire.

14. And then it is an eternall childe, and hath the corruptible spirit also with the _Turba_ cleaving to it, which Adam tooke in by his imagination.

15. Then instantly the Turba seeketh the limit in the spirit of this world, and will enter into the limit, and so soone as the soule hath its life, the body is old enough to die: and thus, many a soule perisheth in the Essence,[105] while it is in the sulphur in the seed.

16. But that you may perceive that the man hath the tincture of the fire, and the woman the tincture of the light in the water, _viz_: the tincture of Venus; you must observe the eager imagination of both towards one another: for the seed in the essence eagerly seeketh the life, the masculine in the woman in Venus, and the feminine in the fire, in the originall of life in the man: as we have very cleerly demonstrated in the third Booke, and therefore we refer the reader thither.

17. And we answer here, that soule cometh not at all into the body, or is breathed into it from without, but the three principles have each of them its own artificer: one worketh with fire in the centre, and the other maketh tincture and water, and the third maketh the earthly _Mysterium Magnum_.[106]

18. And yet it (soule) is not any new thing, but the seed of man and woman, and is onely conceived in the mixture, and so onely a twig groweth out of the tree.[107]

TO THE ELEVENTH QUESTION:

_How and where is it seated in Man?_

A thing which is unsearchable, and yet seeketh and maketh a ground in itself; that hath its originall, and seat in its first conception, where it conceiveth itself in itself: therein is its limit, _viz_: in the most innermost, and it goeth forth out of itself, and seeketh forward, where then it always maketh one glasse according to the other, untill it finds the first again, _viz_: the unsearchable limit.

2. Thus also is the soule, it is in God conceived in the heart, and the word which conceived it was in the heart, _viz_: in the centre; and so it continueth in the figure and in the seat, as it was comprehended by the _fiat_; and so it is still at this day.

3. It dwelleth in three principles: but the heart is its originall; it is the inward fire in the heart, in the inward blood of the heart; and the spirit of it which hath a glance from the fire is in the tincture: for it is cloathed with the tincture, and burneth in the heart.

4. And the spirit moveth upon the heart in the bosom of the heart, where both principles part themselves, and it burneth in the tincture in a brimstony light: and diffuseth itself abroad into all the members of the whole body: for the tincture goeth through all the members.

5. But the true Firesmith in the centre—master workman—sitteth in the heart, and governeth with the spirit in the head where it hath its counsell house, _viz_: the mind and senses, also the five chief counsellors, _viz_: the five senses, which arise from the five spirits of understanding, as we have declared in our third booke; and in our second, and in our first.[108]

6. The soule is indeed seated in the inward principle, but it moveth even in the outward, _viz_: in the starres and elements, and if it be not an ape, and suffer itself to be captivated, it hath power enough to rule them, and if the soule plungeth itself into God, the outward must be obedient to it.

7. And if it cometh againe into the outward, riding upon the chariot of the bride, and so have the Holy Ghost for an assistant, no assault of the Devill is of any consequence, it destroyeth his nest, and driveth him out, and he must stand in scorne and shame.

8. And this is our answer to this question; but it must not be so understood as that if a man be beheaded, and so his blood gush out and the outward life perishes, this reacheth the soule and killeth that; no, it loseth one principle indeed thereby, but not even the essence of that principle, for that essence followeth it in the tincture, in the spirit, as a shadow.

9. For the outward essence reacheth not the inward in the soule, but onely by the imagination; there is nothing else in this world, no fire, nor sword, that can touch the soule, or put it to death,[109] but onely the imagination; that is its poyson.

10. For it originally proceeded from the imagination, and remaineth in it eternally.

LIVING THE HIGHER LIFE.

[_Concluded from July Number._]

Needless to say, that such vows were conscientiously kept, and that those who were not really able to do so never made such promises nor retired from the side of their family, but chose to belong to the first class of married people. This second class of persons who thus retired into the forest and became hermits, were called Vanaprasthas. They always obtained the full consent[110] of their near relatives and renounced “pleasures” and material prosperity (money making, etc.).

The fourth highest order of life was complete renunciation (Sannyasis). These were the blessed few who had, then and there, in each incarnation, got out of family defects. Only those _were_ admitted into this order whom the defects of no family could affect. Long before their admission into this order, they had, by fulfilling family duties, successively, incarnation after incarnation gone far beyond the reach of family defects. Brahmacharis and Kannikas could, after they had discharged family duties, become Sannyasis. All except those belonging to the second order of life, were called upon and did take a vow to give up one or more of their dearest and strongest defects.

Such, my friends, were the Laws of Manu. If any of you could establish a community on a better foundation, I should be happy to give up my allegiance to the great Sage, Saviour, and Legislator. As every Manu establishes the same Manava Dharma again and again, and as the Manus are higher than Buddha and other founders of religions, I should call upon you to pay all possible attention to this subject. Manu is higher, because he overshadows a Buddha.

I must request the readers, to study every word and the whole of this paper (if it deserves to be so called) and not tear it piece-meal or interpret passages and phrases in it, as they please. I must add, that by “family duties” I do not at all mean sacrificing your duty or conviction and Truth, to gratify the whims or selfish nature or sectarian views of any of your “relatives.” But I use the expression “family duties” in a peculiar sense, namely “that course and _only that course_ of action, speech and thoughts by which you can not only get rid of your family defects in this very incarnation, but also strengthen in yourself all the noble qualities of your family, and which will at the same time enable your relatives (parents, brothers, sisters, wife, children, etc.,) also to get rid of _the same_ defects and strengthen in themselves _the same_ good qualities—so that you might be born again and again in the same family.” “Patriotism” is used in a similar manner; and the article “Elixir of Life” (see _Theosophist_) should be read in the light of this paper.

The question is asked, “Has the dweller of the threshold an objective form; upon what does its objective form depend; does it always appear to every one in the same form as it did to Glyndon in Bulwer’s story?”

It is objective to those who have gone very far.

It depends upon (1) a certain thing I shall not here name; (2) the stage of development to which the chela or occultist has attained or is near attaining; (3) the mode of regarding elementals and the Dweller, peculiar to the chela or occultist, to his family and to his nation, or rather to the national and family legends or religion; (4) which form, more or less monstrous or incongruous, would be most frightful and overpowering to him at the critical period. Subject to the above four conditions, the Dweller assumes a form according to the manner in which the chela or occultist _has or has not fulfilled his threefold duties_, and according to the manner in which the sevenfold elements of the Dweller assert themselves upon him. The better he has fulfilled the threefold duties, the less does the Dweller affect him. Of course the form is not necessarily the same for every one.

Why did the Dweller appear to Glyndon’s sister, who was not undergoing probation, and why in the same form?

Because she was sympathetic and sensitive enough. The principle involved in this case is the same as in obsession.

The Dweller might either be but one elemental, or a group or several groups of elementals assuming one collective form. It is one elemental, when the crisis comes at the very commencement of the chela’s or occultist’s attempt to elevate his lower nature. This is the case when he has the least (Karmic) stamina for the “uphill path.” The later on his path is waylaid the more numerous are the elementals of which the Dweller is composed.

It need not be imagined that this appearance or influence confronts the chela only once until he reaches the first initiation, and an initiate only once during the interval between two initiations. It appears as often as the stock of his Karmic stamina falls below the minimum limit.