Magic, White and Black

At the foot of the picture is a sleeping Sphinx, whose upper part (representing the higher principles) is human; while the lower parts (symbolizing the lower principles) are of an animal nature. She is dreaming of the solution of the great problem of the construction of the Universe and of the nature and destiny of Man, and her dream takes the shape of the figure above her, representing the Macrocosm and the Microcosm and their mutual interaction. Above, around, and within all, without beginning and without an end, penetrating and pervading all, from the endless and unimaginable periphery to the invisible and incomprehensible centre, the " Father " of All, the supreme source of every power that ever manifested or may in the future manifest itself, and by whose activity the world was thrown into existence, being projected by the power of His own will and assuming form in His imagination. The Omega (and the Alpha in the centre) represent the " Son," the Absolute having become manifest as the Universal Logos or The Christ, the cause of the beginning and the end of every created thing. It is One with the " Father," being manifested as a Trinity in a Unity, the cause of what we call Space, Motion, and Substance . The " regenerated " spiritual man, whose matrix is his own physical body, draws his nutriment from this universal spiritual principle as the physical foetus is nourished by means of the womb of the mother, his soul being formed from the astral influences or the soul of the world. Out of the Universal Logos proceeds the il invisible Light " of the Spirit, the Truth, the Law, and the Life, embracing and penetrating the Cosmos, while the visible light of Nature is only its most material aspect or mode of manifestation, in the same sense as the visible sun is the reflex of its divine prototype, the invisible centre of power or the great spiritual Sun* The circle with the twelve signs of the Zodiac, enclosing the space in which the planets belonging to our solar system are represented, symbolizes the Cosmos, filled with the planetary influences pervading the Astral Light . Here is the store-house of Life, the Lliaster of Paracelsus, in which the Mysterium magnum (the Spirit) is active. The activity in the Cosmos is represented by the ...