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Preface
5 Planes of Existence
Introduction
Five Planes of Manifestation
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SEAL, GREAT SACRED
A symbol of the Higher Self as the Archetypal
Man, the Prototype of Humanity.
"Atzeel-ooth is the Great Sacred Seal, by means of which all the
worlds are copied which have impressed on themselves the image on
the Seal; and as this Great Seal comprehends three stages, which are
three prototypes of Nephesh (the vital spirit or soul), Rua'h (the
ethical and reasoning spirit) and the Neshamah (the Highest Soul of
man), so the Sealed have also received three prototypes, namely,
B'ree-ah, Ye'tzeer-ah, and A'seey-ah, and these three prototypes are
only One in the Seal." - I. MYER, Qabbalah, p. 321.
Atma-buddhi-manas, organised by the process of Involution, is the
Archetypal Man, or Divine Image, from and by means of which all
human souls (worlds) are produced as potential copies having
impressed on their very nature the image of their Divine Progenitor.
And as the Great Archetypal Soul comprehends in Itself three
prototypal co-ordinated states of being, which are the astral body
of desire (Nephesh), the mental body of thought and moral rule (Rua'h),
and the causal-body as the vehicle of the Individuality—atma- buddhi-(Neshamah),
so the emanated souls are also possessed of three potential states,
namely, the mental-nature (B'ree-ah), the desire-nature (Ye-tzeer-ah),
and the physical-nature (A'seey-ah); and these three natures
constitute the Personality, which is the imperfect image below of
the perfect Individuality above. The Personality when perfected
becomes one with the Individuality on the higher planes.
“Philo, however vague and uncertain some of his thoughts may be, is
quite distinct and definite when he speaks of the Logos as the
Divine Thought which like a Seal is stamped upon matter and likewise
on the mortal soul. Nothing in the whole world is to him more
Godlike than man, who was formed ccording to the image of God, for,
as the Logos is an image of God, human reason is the image of the
Logos. But we must distinguish here, too, between man as part of the
intelligible, and man as part of the visible world. The former is
the Perfect Seal, the perfect idea or ideal of manhood, the latter
its more or less imperfect multiplication in each individual man." –
MAX MÜLLER, Theosophy, etc., p. 409.
"As there was a previously existing idea of the particular mind, and
also of the indivisible minds, to serve archetype and model for
either; and also a pre-existent idea of particular sensation, being,
so to say, a sort of Seal which gave impressions of forms, so before
particular things perceptible by the intellect had any existence,
there was a pre-existent abstract idea." - PHILO, Works, Yonge, Vol.
IV. p. 57.
"The bone and flesh which possess no writing are wretched, but,
behold, the writing of Unas is under the Great Seal, and behold it
is not under the little seal." - BUDGE, Egyptian Magic, p. 124.
The personalities who are without the inner guidance of the Spirit
are in wretched plight. But, observe, the perfected soul is under
the guidance of the Higher Self, and not under that of the lower
self.
"The seal shall be restored as clay, and shall stand as a garment'
(Job xxxviii. 14). For the Lord made man, whom He fashioned after
His own likeness, as a kind of seal of His power. But yet it shall
be restored as clay; because . . . he is condemned by the death of
the flesh, in punishment of the pride he has committed. For man, who
has been formed from clay and adorned with the likeness of the
Divine image, having received the gift of reason, forgets, when
swelling with pride of heart, that he was formed of the basest
materials. . . . And because he lost the likeness of God by sin, but
returns by death to his own clay, it is rightly said, 'The seal
shall be restored as clay.' For our clay to stand as a garment is
for it to remain empty and stripped off, even till the time of the
resurrection." "And having been 'seal,' it appeared as 'clay' in the
eyes of the Truth, when it lost, through the wickedness of impiety,
the mysteries of the Word which it had received, and chose to savour
only of the things of earth, which pollute." - ST. GREGORY, Morals
on the Book of Job, Vol. III. pp. 316, 307.
"The true ground of certainty lies in this, that you have the Spirit
in your heart, operating its own likeness, and moulding you, sealing
you, after its own stamp and image." - A. MACLAREN, Sermons, 1st
Series, p. 47.
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