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Preface
5 Planes of Existence
Introduction
Five Planes of Manifestation
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DEMIURGE, OR DEMIURGUS
A symbol of the Archetypal Man- the Self
completely immersed in the matter of the lower planes-who is the
World-soul and progenitor of the human race.
"The Self is the maker of all things, and he knows all things. He is
the soul of all and the source of all, the perfect and omniscient
author of time. He is the sustainer of Pradhana, the principium, and
of the migrating souls; the disposer of the primordia, and the
origin of metempsychosis and of liberation, of the preservation of
the world and the implication of the soul. Such is the immortal
Demiurgus (Isvara), residing in the soul, knowing all things, and
present everywhere; the sustainer of the world, who rules over the
world for ever. There is no other principle that is able to rule
over it." - GOUGH, Svetas. Upanishad, VI.
"The Demiurgus is the internal ruler or actuator, the first and
highest manifestation of the Self. He informs and animates the
elements and all living things." - A. E. GOUGH, Phil. of the
Upanishads, p. 166.
“The universal soul is Isvara, the Self in manifestation as the
creative spirit and soul of the world." — Ibid., p. 62.
The Higher Self, or World-soul, descending into matter, becomes
perfected as the Archetypal Man from whom matter drops away. He is
then the potential pattern of humanity to become actual in the
perfected souls of all.
"But the (spiritual) offspring of the Mother Achamoth, whereof she
became pregnant in her contemplation of the Angels which waited on
the Saviour, being of the same substance with the Mother-spiritual,
was unknown even to the Demiurgus. It was secretly lodged in him
without his consciousness, in order that by him having been sown in
the soul which he made, and in this material body, and having
therein, like an unborn babe, received growth, it might be made
ready to admit the perfect Word. That Spiritual Man therefore was
unknown to the Demiurgus, who was sown by Wisdom in the Natural man
at the moment of his breathing into his nostrils " (Gnostic). -
IRENEUS, Against Heresies, Bk. I. p. 18.
The Demiurge--" the Framer of the world "-signifies here the matrix
on the buddhi-manasic plane of all forms and qualities of the
natural order of evolution. In this the seed of the Divine, foreign
(unknown) to it, is placed. Thus it is that the germ of the higher
nature (spiritual man) which proceeds from buddhi (Acha- moth) on
the reception by her of the higher spiritual influences (angels)
from Atma (Saviour), constituting the germ atma-buddhic, is placed
in the lower nature where it is un-perceived by the lower
consciousness. It remains latent in the soul until development
enables it to grow and come forth as the incarcate Self (Word)
working for the perfection of humanity. The spiritual essence
projected into the lower mind by Wisdom, unknown to the lower self (Demiurgus),
constitutes man a responsible being knowing good and evil.
"The Gnostics say that they them-selves are spiritual, because a
certain particle of the Father's entire nature is lodged in their
soul, they having their souls of the same substance as the Framer of
the World (Demiurge); while he, having once for all received the
entire Seed from his Mother, and retaining it in himself, continued
merely animal in his nature, and had no understanding at all of the
higher order of things." - Ibid., Bk. II. p. 148.
The Divine spark, or spiritual ego, from the plane of Atma (Father)
is lodged in the human soul, which has the same astro-mental nature
as the lower World-soul (Demiurge). This lower soul containing
within it the spiritual essence, can never of itself rise, nor can
it understand spiritual things.
"We shall, however, be quite correct in saying that the Demiurge who
made all this universe is also at he same time Father of what has
been brought into existence; while its Mother is the Wisdom of Him
who hath made it,- with whom God united, though not as man with
woman, and implanted the power of genesis. And she, receiving the
Seed of God, brought forth with perfect labour His only beloved Son,
whom all may perceive-this Cosmos." - PHILO JUDEUS, De Ebriet., § 8.
The Higher Self (Demiurge) emanates the Cosmos through the buddhic
(Wisdom) activities, the lower nature being, as it were, a
reflection of the higher.
"When, therefore, the creation received completion, and when after
this there ought to have been the revelation of the sons of God—that
is of the Demiurge, which up to this had been concealed, and in
which obscurity the natural man was hid, and had a veil upon the
heart; when it was time, then, that the veil should be taken away,
and that these mysteries should be seen, Jesus was born of Mary the
virgin, according to the declaration in Scripture, "The Holy Ghost
will come upon thee -Sophia is the Spirit-and the power of the
Highest will overshadow thee,' the Highest is the Demiurge, where.
New fore that which shall be born of thee shall be called holy.' For
he has been generated not from the highest alone, as those created
in the likeness of Adam have been created from the highest alone
that is from Sophia and the Demiurge. Jesus, however, the man, has
been generated from the Holy Spirit that is, Sophia and the
Demiurge, -in order that the Demiurge may complete the conformation
and constitution of his body, and that the Holy Spirit may supply
his essence, and that a celestial Logos may proceed from the Ogdoad
being born of Mary" (Valentinus). - HIPPOLYTUS, Refutation, etc.,
Bk. VI. 30.
When involution of all things had received completion, and when
subsequently in course of evolution the spiritual egos (sons of God)
had incarnated, then the indwelling Self (Demiurge), who up to this
period had been unmanifest, should be revealed in the soul. Humanity
(natural man) up to this time had been obscured in primitive human
forms, and a veil was over the higher affections (heart). It was
time, then, that this veil should be removed, and that the higher
nature should manifest; therefore the Christ-soul (Jesus) was born
of the purified lower nature (Mary). This birth was brought about
through the brooding of Buddhi (Sophia) and Atma (Demiurge) in the
purified and receptive portion of the emotion nature. The
Christ-soul, the new man," is generated in order that the "body of
Christ may be completed in human souls by means of the functioning
of Buddhi (Holy Spirit); so that ultimately a celestial expression
of the Divine may proceed from the reality of the Highest (Ogdoad)
being born of the purified lower (Mary).
"For Christ is, in a manner, the demiurge, to whom the Father says,
'Let there be light,' and 'Let there be a firmament.' But Christ is
demiurge as a beginning (arche) inasmuch as he is Wisdom. It is in
virtue of His being Wisdom that He is called arche.” - ORIGEN, Comm.
on John, § 22. Bk. I.
"A new idea has got into the air, so to speak-new in emphasis,
anyhow. It is that the universal and eternal substance, whatever it
is, is itself in process of becoming, and never can be anything
else. It is a sort of push drive towards betterment. The eternal
something-I cannot think of a better name at the moment-which has
produced everything that is, including ourselves, is unceasingly
trying to express itself in fuller and more adequate forms, and will
go on doing so for ever and ever. It cannot help it; it is its
nature to do, though it does not know it is doing it. It does not
begin to know till it evolves human consciousness it knows in us,
and in no other way. . . . The average human mind is coming more and
more to feel a difficulty in believing in the existence of a divine
being, or indeed, a being of any sort, who is eternally perfect
without the trouble of becoming So. Men to-day are so habituated to
the thought of growth, development, the slow and toilsome
acquirement of fuller knowledge and power, that they simply cannot
imagine an ideal excellence which does not involve such a process of
becoming. . . . All the same, there is that within us which forbids
us to rest contented with this, either as an explanation of things
as they are, or an incentive to action on the plane of our own
highest. It seems to me that if we dig down deep enough into the
motives of our best efforts, if we penetrate far enough into our
noblest feelings, we shall find that we know in a way that all the
good we strive after already is, and we would not strive if we did
not know." - R. J. CAMPBELL, Serm., Being and Becoming.
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