A similar transmission of esoteric knowledge is seen in the seemingly peculiar division of the Hebrew alphabet of twenty-two letters into the three mother letters, the seven double letters and the twelve single letters. Esoteric knowledge is always multi-layered as shown by the observation that each of the Hebrew letters can be represented by a visual form or photoneme, a numerical value or quantaneme and a unique sound or phoneme.
It is interesting to note that several other esoteric schools have formulated teaching methods to transmit some of this knowledge. For example, the ancient developers of the Tarot deck, which eventually lead to the modern 52 card deck, utilized 78 cards made up of four suits of 14 cards each together with 22 trumps, or major arcana, which tell the story of the soul. Each suit equates to one of the four Kabbalistic worlds: Atziluth–wands or diamonds, Briah–cups or hearts, Yetzirah–swords or spades, and Assiah–pentacles or clubs.
The Sufi masters describe a scheme of five worlds or five presences which is consistent with the other esoteric schools. The lowest Sufi world is the alam-i-ajsam, the world comprised of material bodies, causal laws, the false personality, the animal self; the next world is the alam-i-arvah, the world of spirits, formative energies, psychic phenomena, the essence, the personal self; the third world is the alam-i-imkan, the world of possibilities, actual and potential, what is beyond time and space, true individuality, expression of will, the God-self; the fourth world is the lahut, the boundless or not measurable, ultimate actuality, the Void, which includes Atziluth and the Negative Existence; and the fifth world represents as always the Unfathomable Source. Except for inclusion of the Negative Existence in the upper Kabbalistic world, the Sufi and Kabbalistic schema are the same.
Referring again to the scheme shown in figure 9, we notice that each principle energy category is further sub-divided into a tetrad composed of four distinct subcategories arranged by ascending complexity, i.e., from lower to higher vibratory rates. In the modern parlance introduced by Gurdjieff’s student, J. G. Bennett, each tetrad is composed of a dispersed form of energy, a directed form of energy, a cohesive form of energy and an adaptive form of energy. Although not shown, each subcategory was again divided into triads, such that a total of 144 energy levels make up all of Creation (we discuss this later when we look at the modern periodic table of the chemical elements).
For example, the alchemists transmitted this knowledge using the scheme of the four orders of Elementals, or nature spirits: (1) the spirits of the air, the sylphs, represented the dispersed energies, (2) the spirits of the earth, the gnomes, represented the directed energies, (3) the spirits of the water, the undines, represented the cohesive energies and (4) the spirits of the fire, the salamanders, represented the adaptive energies.
The Kabbalists spoke of the Cherubim, the living Powers of the Tetragrammaton on the material plane, the Presidents of the four elements which operated through the fixed signs of the Zodiac: Aquarius as air, Taurus as earth, Scorpio as water and Leo as fire.
The manifestation of energies making up creation was well-known to the ancient Egyptian forebears of the Rosicrucians. This particular mystery school taught that underlying all Creation was an universal energy or universal substance that came to be called Nous (meaning mind) by the pre-Socratic philosophers of Greece. A schematic showing how this cosmic, creative substance enters into the physical universe is shown in Figures 14 and 15.
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Figure 14
The Schematic for Nous
Figure 15
The Manifestations of Nous
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For the purpose of explaining Nous, we utilize the first six worlds of the Kabbalistic Tree of Life : the Unfathomable Source, the Negative Existence, Atziluth, Briah, Yetzirah and Assiah. The Unitary Will of the Unfathomable Source emanates as the transcendent energy E1 (called World 1 because it is a law onto Itself) causing Itself to manifest as the undifferentiated Sacred Triad of Will or Ain, Nous or Being or Ain Soph, and Law or Ain Soph Aur. This emanation is called World 3 because the One has become Three; this the Holy Triad of Father, Son, and Mother, or Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. In this world Divine Love is the unifying energy E2. The next world, Atziluth, is the world of creative energies and represents the recombination of the three forces sustaining all creative endeavors, the active or inseminating force RA, the passive or receiving force MA and the neutral or reconciling force AUM. This is World 6 because it functions with six laws: involution, evolution, interaction, order, freedom and identity.1,2
In the world, Nous represents the energies available for differentiation into material, living and conscious entities. Nous is the receiving force for Cosmic Will working under the limitations of Cosmic Law. This situation was explained by the ancient Rosicrucians when they taught, “Do what thou WILL, for LOVE is the whole of the LAW”. Contained within this aphorism is the Lost Word of Creation sought by the Rosicrucians and the Philosophers Stone of the Alchemists.