Gad—Sagittarius, the trooper. The sign of Jupiter or “Gad.”
Asher—Capricornus.
Napthali—Aquarius, associated with the Tree, “who yieldeth goodly branches.” Here the “hind let loose” should be “the spreading oak.”
Joseph—Pisces, “the fruitful vine by the well.”
Benjamin—Aries, “the wolf,” connected with Anubis of the Egyptian symbology.
Thus the Hebraic system is found to be duodecimal also, and we follow suit in keeping our standards on this basis, counting twelve inches to the foot, and twelve pence to the shilling. Indeed, there can be little doubt that the ancients modelled their conceptions and established their standards “after the pattern of things in the heavens.” By common consent they instituted the Four Quarters arising out of the apparent motion of the Sun, in its daily rising, culminating, setting and decumbiture, and its apparent transit of the equinoxes and solstices. By common consent also they had regard to the twelve signs of the zodiac, and their corresponding months, the lunar asterisms or stations arising out of the mean diurnal motion of the moon, and other points and divisions of time, such as the syzyges and quadratures of the moon. All these became standards from which all calculations were made, and hence all kabalism, as derived from these cosmic phenomena, has a basis in fact which can only be appreciated when the cosmical factors employed are fully understood and appreciated. Hence I say that the time factor, in Kabalism is of the utmost importance.
CHAPTER XII
INVOLUTION AND EVOLUTION
The symbolism of astronomy lends itself in a most interesting manner to the great problem of human evolution. In my opening chapter it was shown that evolution is the natural reaction to the process of involution. Logically we cannot speak of evolution without taking into consideration the fact of a preceding involution. Ex nihilo nihil fit. The potential of matter is measured by its latent energy, and this latency is static Spirit Force. Matter is the ultimate expression of Spirit, as form is that of force. The material forms of the visible universe are therefore nothing but concrete spiritual forces.
But it would appear that there are two processes going on simultaneously in any cycle of cosmic life, and these are a downward spiritual involution and an upward physical evolution. The two processes are complementary, and possibly may be regarded as taking place simultaneously, although in the Chaldean account they are spoken of as distinct in point of time. Jacob’s vision of the Ladder of Life depicted angels ascending and descending simultaneously, and these are the spiritual forces that are in continual play between pure spirit and gross matter. The great tidal influx of spirit towards the plane of materiality admits of a constant ebb and flow of the life-wave, so that, although at the present stage of the Great Cycle the tide has set back and is at its ebb, carrying its burden of detached souls along with it towards the region of spirituality, may yet mark periodic incursions of the spirit towards the material plane, such incursions being in the nature of abnormal phenomena.
Thus we have from the beginning of the Great Cycle a double influx involving an interplay of Spirit and Matter. In the process of manifestation by means of differentiation, Spirit (the positive or male potency) may be regarded as taking a downward plunge on the left-hand side, while Substance (the negative or female potency) will in the same scheme take the right-hand side in its progress towards manifestation on the material plane. The Paramatma or Universal Spirit first appears as Purusha, while Mulaprakriti or Root Substance manifests as Prakriti. The ultimate expression of Purusha is Prana (Life force) while that of Prakriti is Prithivi (Matter). We thus have the Father Spirit on the one hand, and the Mother Substance on the other, manifesting eventually in the multitude of forms of Living Matter. Spirit Substance thus invests and is at the root of all physical life, Force and Matter standing always in the same undivided relations as do Spirit and Substance in the Archetypal World.