Theosophy - The Five and Six Pointed Stars by H.P.Blavatsky
The
Five and Six pointed Stars
H.P.Blavatsky
Our authorities
for representing the pentagram or the five-pointed star
as the microcosm,
and the six-pointed double triangle as the macrocosm, are
all the best known Western Kabalists mediaeval and
modern. Éliphas Lévi
(Abbé Constant) and, we believe, Kunrath, one of the
greatest occultists of the past ages, give their reasons
for it. In Hargrave Jennings Rosicrucians
the correct cut of the microcosm with man in the
centre of the pentagram is given. There is no objection
whatever to publish their speculations save one the
lack of space in our journal, as it would necessitate an
enormous amount of explanations to make their esoteric meaning
clear. But room will always be found to correct a few natural
misconceptions which may arise in the minds of some of our
readers, owing to the necessary brevity of our editorial
notes. So long as the question raised provokes no discussion
to show the interest taken in the subject, these notes touch
but superficially upon every question. The excellence of
the above-published paper ["The Six-pointed and Five-pointed
Stars," by Krishna Shankar Lalshankar], and the many
valuable remarks contained in it, afford us now an opportunity
for correcting such errors in the authors
mind.
As understood
in the West by the
real Kabalists, Spirit and Matter have their chief
symbolical meaning
in the respective colours of the two interlaced triangles,
and relate in no way to any of the lines which bind the
figures themselves. To the Kabalist and Hermetic philosopher,
everything in nature appears under a triune aspect; everything
is a multiplicity and trinity in unity, and is so represented
by him symbolically in various geometrical figures. "God
geometrizes",
says Plato. The "Three Kabalistic Faces" are the "Three
Lights"
and the "Three Lives" of Ain-Suph (the Parabrahman
of the Westerns), which is also called the "Central
Invisible Sun". "The Universe
is his Spirit, Soul and Body," his "Three Emanations". This
triune nature the purely Spiritual, the purely Material,
and the Middle nature (or imponderable matter, of which
mans astral soul is composed) is
represented by the equilateral triangle, whose three sides
are equal because these three principles are diffused throughout
the universe in equal proportions, and the one law
in nature being perfect equilibrium are eternal and
coexistent. The Western symbology then, with a trifling
variation, is identically the same as that of the Âryans.
Names may vary, and trifling details may be added, but the
fundamental ideas are the same. The double triangle, representing
symbolically the macrocosm, or great universe, contains
in itself the ideas of Unity, of Duality (as shown in the
two colours, and two triangles the
universe of Spirit and that of Matter), of Trinity, of the
Pythagorean Tetraktys, the perfect Square, up to the Dodekagon
and the Dodekahedron. The ancient Chaldaean
Kabalists the masters and inspirers of the Jewish
Kabalah were
neither the Anthropomorphizers of the Old Testament, nor
those of the present day. Their Ain-Suph the Endless
and the Boundless "has a form and then has
no form", says the Zohar, [The Book
of Splendour, written by Simeon Ben Lochai, in the first
century B.C.;according
to others in the year A.D. 80 ] and
forthwith explains the riddle by adding: "The Invisible
assumed a Form when he called the Universe into existence". That
is to say, the Deity can only be seen and conceived of in
objective nature pure pantheism. The
three sides of the triangles represent to the Occultists
as they do to the Âryans Spirit,
Matter, and the Middle nature (the latter identical in its
meaning with "Space");
hence also the creative, preservative and destructive energies,
typified in the "Three Lights". The first Light
infuses intelligent, conscious life throughout the universe,
thus answering to the creative energy.
The second Light incessantly produces forms out of pre-existent
cosmic matter within the cosmic circle, and hence is the preservative energy.
The third Light produces the whole universe of gross physical
matter. As the latter keeps gradually receding from the
central spiritual Light, its brightness wanes, and it becomes
Darkness or Evil, leading to Death. Hence it becomes the destructive
energy, which we find ever at work on forms and shapes the
temporary and the changing. The "Three Kabalistic Faces" of
the "Ancient
of the Ancient" who "has no face" are
the Âryan
deities called respectively Brahmâ, Vishnu and Rudra
or Shiva. The double triangle of the Kabalists is enclosed
within a circle represented by a serpent swallowing its
own tail (the Egyptian emblem of the eternity), and sometimes
by a simple circle (see the theosophical seal). The only
difference we can see between the Aryan and the Western
symbology of the double triangle according
to the authors explanation lies in his omission
to notice the profound and special meaning in that which,
if we understand him rightly, he terms "the
zenith and the zero". With the Western Kabalists, the
apex of the white triangle loses itself in the zenith, [The
meaning is the same in the Egyptian pyramid. A French archaeologist
of some renown, Dr. Rebold, shows the great culture of the
Egyptians, 5,000 B.C., by stating upon various authorities
that there were at that time no less than " thirty
or forty colleges of the initiated priests who studied occult
sciences and practical magic" ] the
world of pure immateriality or unalloyed Spirit, while the
lower angle of the black triangle pointing downward towards
the nadir shows to use a very prosaic phrase
of the mediaeval Hermetists pure, or rather "impure
matter",
as the "gross purgations of the celestial fire" (Spirit)
drawn into the vortex of annihilation, that lower world,
where forms and shapes and conscious life disappear to be
dispersed and return to the mother fount (Cosmic Matter).
So with the central point and the central cavity, which,
according to the Paurânik
teaching, "is considered to be the seat of the Avyakta
Brahma, or Unmanifested Deity".
The Occultists, who generally draw
the figure thus, instead of a simple central geometrical point (which, having
neither length, breadth nor thickness, represents the invisible Central Sun,"
the Light of the "Unmanifested Deity"), often place the Crux Ansata
(the "handled cross," or the Egyptian Tau), at the zenith of which,
instead of a mere upright line, they substitute a circle, the symbol of limitless,
uncreated Space. Thus modified, this cross has nearly the same significance
as the "Mundane Cross" of the ancient Egyptian Hermetists, a cross
within a circle .
Therefore, it is erroneous to say
that the editorial note stated that the double triangle represented "Spirit
and Matter only," for it represents so many emblems that a volume
would not suffice to explain them. Says our critic:
If, as you say,
the double triangle is made to represent universal spirit
and matter only, the objection that two sides or
any two thingscannot form a triangle, or that atriangle cannot be made to represent one spirit
alone, or matter alone as you appear to have done
by the distinction of white and
black remains unexplained.
Believing that
we have now sufficiently explained some of the difficulties,
and shown that the Western Kabalists always had regard
to the "trinity in unity" and vice versa, we
may add that the Pythagoraeans explained away the "objection" especially
insisted upon by the writer of the above words about 2,500
years ago. The sacred numbers of that school whose
cardinal idea was that there existed a permanent principle
of Unity beneath all the forces and phenomenal changes
of the universe did
not include the number two or the Duad among the others.
The Pythagoræans
refused to recognize that number, even as an abstract idea,
precisely on the ground that in geometry it was impossible
to construct a figure with only two straight lines. It is
obvious that for symbolical purposes the number cannot be
identified with any circumscribed figure, whether a plane
or a solid, geometric figure; and thus, as it could not
be made to represent a unity in a multiplicity as any other
polygonal figure can, it could not be regarded as a sacred
number. The number two, represented in geometry by
a double horizontal line ==,
and in the Roman numerals by a double perpendicular line ||,
and, a line having length, but not breadth or thickness,
another numeral had to be added to it before it could be
accepted. It is only in conjunction with number one,
thus becoming the equilateral triangle, that it can be called
a figure. It thus becomes evident why, in symbolizing Spirit
and Matter (the Alpha and Omega in the Kosmos), the Hermetists
had to use two triangles interlaced (both a "trinity
in unity"), making the one typifying Spirit white
with chalk, and the other typifying Matter black with
charcoal.
To the question,
what do the two other angles of the white triangle signify,
if the one "white point ascending
heavenward symbolizes Spirit" we answer that,
according to the Kabalists; the two lower points signify "Spirit
falling into generation", i.e.,
the pure divine Spark already mixed with the Matter of the
phenomenal world. The same explanation holds good for the
two base angles of the black triangle; the third points
showing respectively the progressive purification of Spirit,
and the progressive grossness of Matter. Again, to say that "any
thought of upward or downward" in "the sublime
idea of the Kosmos" seems
"not only revolting but unreal," is to object to
anything abstract being symbolized in a concrete image.
Then why not make away with all the signs altogether, including
that of Vishnu and with all the learned Paurânik
explanations thereof given by the writer? And why should
the Kabalistic idea be more revolting than that of "Death,
Devourer, Time", the latter
word being a synonym of Endless Eternity represented
by a circle surrounding the double triangle? Strange inconsistency,
and one, moreover, which clashes entirely with the rest
of the article! If the writer has not met "anywhere
with the idea of one triangle being white and the other
black", it is simply
because he has never studied, nor probably even seen the
writings and illustrations of Western Kabalists.
The above explanations
contain the key to the Pythagoraean general formula
of unity in multiplicity, the One evolving the many, and
pervading the many and the whole. Their mystic Dekad (1
+ 2 + 3 + 4 = 10), expresses the entire idea; it is not
only far from being
"revolting" but it is positively sublime. The One
is the Deity; the Two Matter the figure so despised
by them as Matter per se can never
be a conscious unity [Compare
Kapilas Sânkhya Purusha and Prakriti;
only the two combined when forming a unity can manifest themselves
in this world of the senses ] the Three
(or Triangle), combining Monad and Duad, partaking of the
nature of both, becomes the Triad or the phenomenal world.
The Tetrad or sacred Tetraktys, the form of perfection with
the Pythagoræans,
expresses at the same time the emptiness of all Mâyâ.
While the Dekad, or sum of all, involves the entire Kosmos. "The
universe is the combination of a thousand elements, and
yet the expression of a single element absolute
harmony or spirit a chaos to the sense, a perfect
kosmos to reason",
we say in Isis Unveiled.
Pythagoras learned
his philosophy in India. Hence, the similarity in the
fundamental ideas of the ancient Brâhmanical
Initiates and the Pythagorists. And when in defining the
Shatkon, the writer says it "represents the great
universe (Brahmânda) the whole
endless Mahâkâsha with all the planetary
and stellar worlds contained in it", he only repeats
in other words the explanation given by Pythagoras and the
Hermetic philosophers of the hexagonal star or the "double
triangle", as shown above.
Nor do we find
it very difficult to fill up the gap left in our brief
note in the August number as to the "remaining
three points of the two triangles", and the three sides
of each element of the "double triangle" or of
the circle surrounding the figure. As the Hermetists symbolized
everything visible and invisible they could not fail to
symbolize the macrocosm in its completeness.
The Pythagoreans
who included in their Dekad the entire Kosmos, held the
number twelve in still higher reverence as it represented
the sacred Tetraktys multiplied by three, which gave a
trinity of perfect squares called tetrads. The Hermetic
philosophers or Occultists following in their steps represented
this number twelve in the "double triangle" the
great universe or the macrocosm as shown in this figure and
included in it the pentagram, or the microcosm, called
by them the little universe.
Dividing the twelve
letters of the outer angles into four groups of triads,
or three groups of tetrads, they obtained
the Dodekagon, a regular geometric polygon, bounded by twelve equal
sides and containing twelve equal angles, which symbolized
with the ancient Chaldæans the twelve "great gods", [According
to Haugs Aitareya Bráhmana, the Hindu
Manas (Mind) or Bhagavân
creates no more than the Pythagoræan Monas. He enters
the Egg of the World and emanates from it as Brahmâ,
as itself (Bhagavân) has
no first cause (Apûrva). Brahma, as Prajâpatî,
manifests himself (as the androgyne Sephira and the ten Sephiroth)
as twelve bodies or attributes which are represented by the
twelve Gods symbolizing (1) Fire, (2) the Sun, (3) Soma,
(4) all living Beings, (5) Vâyu, (6) Death Shiva,
(7) Earth, (8) Heaven, (9) Agni, (10) Âditya,
(11) Mind, (12) the great Infinite Cycle which is not to
be stopped. This, with a few variations, is purely the Kabalistic
idea of the Sephiroth ]and
with the Hebrew Kabalists the ten Sephiroth, or creative
powers of nature, emanated
from Sephira (Divine Light), herself the chief Sephiroth
and emanation from Hakoma, the Supreme (or Unmanifested)
Wisdom, and Ain-Suph the Endless; viz.,
three groups of triads of the Sephiroth and a fourth triad,
composed of Sephira, Ain-Suph and Hakoma, the Supreme Wisdom
which "cannot be understood by
reflection", and which "lies concealed within and without
the cranium of Long Face, [Idra
Rabba, vi.58. ]the uppermost
head of the upper triangle forming the "Three Kabalistic
Faces", making up
the twelve.Moreover, the twelve figures give
two squares or the double Tetraktys, representing in the
Pythagoræan symbology the
two worlds the
spiritual and the physical. The eighteen inner and six central
angles yield, besides twenty-four, twice the sacred macrocosmic
number, also the twenty-four
"divine unmanifested powers." These it would be
impossible to enumerate in so short a space. Besides, it
is far more reasonable in our days of scepticism
to follow the hint of Iamblichus, who says, that "the
divine powers always felt indignant with those who rendered
manifest the composition of the Icosahedron",
viz., those who delivered the method of inscribing in a sphere
the Dodekahedron, one of the five solid figures in
geometry, contained by twelve equal
and regular pentagons the secret Kabalistic
meaning of which our opponents would do well to study.
In addition to all this, as shown
in the "double triangle" above, the pentagram in the centre gives
the key to the meaning of the Hermetic philosophers and Kabalists. So well known
and widespread is this double sign that it may be found over the entrance door
of the Lhakhang (temples containing Buddhist images and statues), in every Gong-pa
(lamasery), and often over the relic-cupboard, called in Tibet Doong-ting.
The mediaeval
Kabalists give us in their writings the key to its meaning. "Man
is a little world inside the great universe" Paracelsus
teaches. And again: "A microcosm,
within the macrocosm, like a foetus, he is suspended
by his three principal spirits in the matrix of the universe". These
three spirits are described as double: (I) the spirit of
the elements (terrestrial body and vital principle); (2)
the spirit of the stars (sidereal or astral body and the
will governing it); (3) the spirits of the spiritual world
(the animal and the spiritual souls); the seventh principle
being an almost immaterial spirit or the
divine Augoeides, Âtmâ, represented by the central
point, which corresponds to the human navel. This seventh
principle is the personal God
of every man, say the old Western and Eastern Occultists.
Therefore it is
that the explanations given by our critic of the Shatkon
and Panchkon rather corroborate than destroy our theory.
Speaking of the five triangles composed of "five times
five"
or twenty-five points, he remarks of the pentagram that it
is a "number
otherwise corresponding with the twenty-five elements making
a living human creature". Now we suppose that by "elements" the
writer means just what the Kabalists say when they teach
that the emanations of the twenty-four divine "unmanifested
powers" the "unexisting"
or "central point" being the twenty-fifth make
a perfect human being. But without disputing upon the relative
value of the words element
and "emanation", and strengthened moreover as
we find the above sentence by the authors additional
remark that "the entire figure" of
the microcosm, "the inner world of individual living
being," is "a
figure which is the sign of Brahma, the deified creative energy" in
what respect, we ask, does the above sentence so much clash
with our statement that some proficients in Hermetic philosophy
and Kabalists regard the five points of the pentagram as
representing the five cardinal limbs of the human body?
We are no ardent disciple or follower of the Western Kabalists,
yet we maintain that in this they are right. If the twenty-five
elements represented by the five-pointed star make up a "living
human creature" then these
elements are all vital, whether mental or physical, and the
figure symbolizing
"creative energy" gives the more force to
the Kabalistic idea. Every one of the five gross elements earth,
water, fire, air (or "wind")
and ether enters into the composition of man, and
whether we say "five
organs of action" or the "five limbs" or even
the "five
senses," it means all one and the same thing, if we
would refrain from hair-splitting.
Most undoubtedly
the "proficients"
could explain their claim at least as satisfactorily
as the writer who controverts and denies it, in explaining
his own. In the Codex Nazaræeus,
the most Kabalistic of books the Supreme King
of Light and the chief
Æon, Mano, emanates the five Aeons he
himself with the Lord Ferho (the "Unknown Formless Life" of
which he is an emanation) making up the seven, which
typify again the seven principles in man; the five being
purely material and semi-material, and the higher two almost
immaterial and spiritual. Five refulgent rays of light proceed
from each of the seven Aeons,
five of these shooting through the head, the two extended
hands, and the two feet of man represented in the five-pointed
star, one enveloping him as with a mist and the seventh
settling like a bright star over his head. The illustration
may be seen in several old books upon the Codex Nazaræus and
the Kabalah. What wonder, then, that since electricity
or animal magnetism streams most powerfully from the five
cardinal limbs of man, and since the phenomena of what
is now called "mesmeric" force had been studied
in the temples of ancient Egypt and Greece, and mastered
as it may never hope to be mastered in our age of idiotic
and à priori denial, the old Kabalists and
philosophers who symbolized every power in nature, should,
for reasons perfectly evident for those who know anything
of the arcane sciences and the mysterious relations which
exist between numbers, figures and ideas, have chosen to
represent
"the five cardinal limbs of man" the head,
the two arms and the two legs in the five points
of the pentagram? Éliphas Lévi,
the modern Kabalist, goes as far, if not farther, than his
ancient and mediaeval brethren, for, he says in his Dogme
et Rituel de la Haute Magie (p.175):
The Kabalistic use of the pentagram
can determine the countenance of unborn infants, and an initiated woman might
give to her son the features of Nereus or Achilles, or those of Louis XIV
or Napoleon.
The Astral Light
of the Western Occultists is the Âkâsha of
the Hindus. Many of the latter will not study its mysterious
correlations, either under the guidance of initiated Kabalists
or that of their own initiated Brâhmans, preferring
to Prajnâ Pâramitâ their
own conceit. And yet both exist and are identical.