The Golden Star

VISION 10

The Great Light

“The allegorical sentence ‘Fiat Lux’—let there be Light—is esoterically rendered: ‘Let there be the Sons of Light.’ They are called that because they emanate from, and are self-generated in, that infinite Ocean of Light, whose one pole is pure Spirit, lost in the absoluteness of Non-Being, and the other pole the Matter in which it condenses, crystallizing into a more and more gross type as it descends into manifestation. The hosts of these Sons of Light, the Mind-born Sons of the first manifested Ray of the Unknown Deity, are the very Root of Spiritual Man; these seven Sons are also called Stars.

“There are three kinds of Light in Occultism, as in the Kabala. The first is the Abstract and Absolute Light, which is Darkness to humanity, and the most sublime manifestation of the Unknown first Lord.

“The second is the Light of the first and hidden Logos; that which lights up the Astral Regions.

“The third is the latter light reflected in the minor Logoi, who in their turn shed it upon the objective Universe.

“The Kabalists of the thirteenth Century adjusted these three Lights in order to fit them in with the Christian tenets, and they describe them as the clear penetrating light of Jehovah; the reflected light; and the light in the abstract. This light, taken in the abstract sense, or in a metaphysical or symbolical sense is Elohim—God; while the clear penetrating light is Jehovah. The light of Elohim belongs to the world in general, in its allness and general fullness, but the light of Jehovah is that which penetrates to the chief production of Elohim, which is man, whom this light penetrated and made.

“The Eastern Occultists call this Light Daiviprakriti, the light of the All-Logos, the direct reflection of the ever unknowable on the plane of universal manifestation.

“There is neither Light nor Darkness in the Realms of Truth, for both are twins, the progeny of Space and Time under the sway of Illusion. Neither can exist without the other, since each has been generated and created out of the other in order to come into being, and both must be known and appreciated before becoming objects of perception; hence, in mortal mind, they must be divided.

“The Zohar speaks of Black Fire, which is Absolute Light, or Wisdom. Were it solely Light, inactive and absolute, the human mind could not appreciate nor even realize it. Therefore, there is also Shadow, which is that which enables Light to manifest itself and gives it objective reality. For this reason Shadow is not evil, but is the necessary and indispensable corollary which completes Light, or Good; it is its creator on Earth. The Gnostics called it 'immutable Light and Shadow,' or Good and Evil, which are virtually One; and, having existed through all Eternity, they will ever continue to exist so long as there are manifested worlds—which will be for ever!

“The Dutch Philosopher Moleschott once said that without phosphorus there could be no thought; he referred here to the Astral Fire and Light, burning in the fierce flames of terrestrial passions, which must be overcome before the true light can be discerned.

“Before the ray of divine reason had enlightened the slumbering mind of man he lived in ignorance and was called mindless. Then the Sons of Wisdom lit up a Light within the sons of men and they SAW! They left the animal stage, and from that moment man’s progress towards God commenced.

“It has been said that mental perception, to become physical perception, must have the Cosmic Principle of Light—and, by this, our mental circle must become visible through light; or, for its complete manifestation, the circle must be that of physical visibility or light itself; this applies to psychical perception in the same manner.

“Things visible are but the shadow and delineation of things that we cannot see. ‘All that is on earth,’ said the Lord, ‘is the shadow of something that is in the superior spheres. Such luminous objects as light and fire are the shadows of that which is still more luminous than itself, and so on till it reaches me, who am the light of lights,’ as we can read in the Dasatir.

“Not until man has become ‘twice-born,’ or initiated, shall he behold that great luminosity.

“When the Elohim are referred to as the Sons of Darkness, it is done to form a philosophical and logical contrast to the Light Immutable and Eternal. The earliest Zoroastrians did not believe that Darkness (or Evil) was coeternal with Light (or Good); and they give the same interpretation. Ahriman is the manifested Shadow of Ahura Mazda, who himself issued from the Boundless Circle of Time, or the Unknown Cause. They say that this Cause is the ‘glory too exalted, its light too resplendent for either human intellect or mortal eye to grasp and see.’

“It is from that Light that the Forms of the ‘Lords of Being’ condense into existence; the first and highest being the Logos of the Greek Philosophers. From these downwards—formed from the ever-consolidating waves of that Light, which becomes gross matter on the objective plane—proceed the numerous Hierarchies of the Creative Forces; some formless, others having their own distinctive form; others again, the lowest Elementals, having no form of their own, but assuming every form according to the surrounding conditions. So they descend from the Light of every light, that is in the boundless Lights.

“Jesus says, in the Pistis Sophia: ‘Do ye seek after these mysteries? No mystery is more excellent than they: which shall bring your souls unto the Light of Lights, unto the place of Truth and Goodness, unto the place where is neither male nor female, neither form in that place but Light, everlasting, not to be uttered. And no Name is more excellent than all these, a Name wherein be contained all Names, and all Lights, and all the (forty-nine) Powers.’

“This Light and Name are the Light of Initiation and the name of the ‘Fire-Self,’ which is no name, no action, but a Spiritual, Ever-Living Power.

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