Part 50 (1/2)
The Chaldean Triad consisted of Bel, [the Persian Zervana Akherana], Oromasdes, and Ahriman; the Good and Evil Principle alike outflowing from the Father, by their equilibrium and alternating preponderance to produce harmony. Each was to rule, in turn, for equal periods, until finally the Evil Principle should itself become good.
The Chaldean and Persian oracles of Zoroaster give us the Triad, Fire, Light, and Ether.
Orpheus celebrates the Triad of Phanes, Ouranos, and Kronos. Corry says the Orphic Trinity consisted of Metis, Phanes, and Ericapaeus; Will, Light or Love, and Life. Acusilaus makes it consist of Metis, Eros, and aether: Will, Love, and Ether. Phereycides of Syros, of Fire, Water, and Air or Spirit. In the two former we readily recognize Osiris and Isis, the Sun and the Nile.
The first three of the Persian Amshaspands were BAHMAN, the Lord of LIGHT; Ardibehest, the Lord of FIRE; and Shariver, the Lord of SPLENDOR.
These at once lead us back to the Kabala.
Plutarch says: ”The better and diviner nature consists of three; the Intelligible (_i.e._ that which exists within the Intellect only as yet), and Matter; [Greek: t? ???t??] and [Greek: ???], and that which proceeds from these, which the Greeks call Kosmos: of which Plato calls the Intelligible, the Idea, the Exemplar, the Father: Matter, the Mother, the Nurse, and the receptacle and place of generation: and the issue of these two, the Offspring and Genesis.”
The Pythagorean fragments say: ”Therefore, before the Heaven was made, there existed Idea and Matter, and G.o.d the Demiourgos [workman or active instrument], of the former. He made the world out of matter, perfect, only-begotten, with a soul and intellect, and const.i.tuted it a divinity.”
Plato gives us Thought, the Father; Primitive Matter, the Mother; and KOSMOS, the Son, the issue of the two Principles. Kosmos is the ensouled Universe.
With the later Platonists, the Triad was Potence, Intellect, and Spirit, Philo represents Sanchoniathon's as Fire, Light, and Flame, the three Sons of Genos; but this is the Alexandrian, not the Phnician idea.
Aurelius says the Demiourgos or Creator is triple, and the three Intellects are the three Kings: He who exists; He who possesses; He who beholds. The first is that which exists by its essence; the second exists in the first, and contains or possesses in itself the Universal of things; all that afterward becomes: the third beholds this Universal, formed and fas.h.i.+oned intellectually, and so having a separate existence.
The Third exists in the Second, and the Second in the First.
The most ancient Trinitarian doctrine on record is that of the Brahmins.
The Eternal Supreme Essence, called PARABRAHMA, BRAHM, PARATMA, produced the Universe by self-reflection, and first revealed himself as BRAHMA, the _Creating_ Power, then as VISHNU, the Preserving Power, and lastly as SIVA, the _Destroying_ and _Renovating_ Power; the three Modes in which the Supreme Essence reveals himself in the material Universe; but which soon came to be regarded as three distinct Deities. These three Deities they styled the TRIMURTI, or TRIAD.
The Persians received from the Indians the doctrine of the three principles, and changed it to that of a principle of Life, which was individualized by the Sun, and a principle of Death, which was symbolized by cold and darkness; parallel of the moral world; and in which the continual and alternating struggle between light and darkness, life and death, seemed but a phase of the great struggle between the good and evil principles, embodied in the legend of ORMUZD and AHRIMAN.
MITHRAS, a Median reformer, was deified after his death, and invested with the attributes of the Sun; the different astronomical phenomena being figuratively detailed as actual incidents of his life; in the same manner as the history of BUDDHA was invented among the Hindus.
The Trinity of the Hindus became among the Ethiopians and Abyssinians NEPH-AMON, PHTHA, and NEITH--the G.o.d CREATOR, whose emblem was a ram--MATTER, or the primitive mud, symbolized by a globe or an egg, and THOUGHT, or the LIGHT which contains the germ of everything; triple manifestation of one and the same G.o.d (ATHOM), considered in three aspects, as the _creative power, goodness_, and _wisdom_. Other Deities were speedily invented; and among them OSIRIS, represented by the Sun, ISIS, his wife, by the Moon or Earth, TYPHON, his Brother, the Principle of Evil and Darkness, who was the son of Osiris and Isis. And the Trinity of OSIRIS, ISIS, and HORUS became subsequently the Chief G.o.ds and objects of wors.h.i.+p of the Egyptians.
The ancient Etruscans (a race that emigrated from the Rhaetian Alps into Italy, along whose route evidences of their migration have been discovered, and whose language none have yet succeeded in reading) acknowledged only one Supreme G.o.d; but they had images for His different attributes, and temples to these images. Each town had one National Temple, dedicated to the three great attributes of G.o.d, STRENGTH, RICHES, and WISDOM, or _Tina, Talna_, and _Minerva_. The National Deity was always a Triad under one roof; and it was the same in Egypt, where one Supreme G.o.d alone was acknowledged, but was wors.h.i.+pped as a Triad, with different names in each different home. Each city in Etruria might have as many G.o.ds and gates and temples as it pleased; but three sacred gates, and one Temple to three Divine Attributes were obligatory, wherever the laws of Tages (or Taunt or Thoth) were received. The only gate that remains in Italy, of the olden time, undestroyed, is the Porta del Circo at Volterra; and it has upon it the three heads of the three National Divinities, one upon the keystone of its magnificent arch, and one above each side-pillar.
The Buddhists hold that the G.o.d SAKYA of the Hindus, called in Ceylon, GAUTAMA, in India beyond the Ganges, SOMONAKODOM, and in China, CHY-KIA, or Fo, const.i.tuted a Trinity [TRIRATNA], of BUDDHA, DHARMA, and SANGA,--_Intelligence, Law_, and _Union_ or _Harmony_.
The Chinese Sabaeans represented the Supreme Deity as composed of CHANG-TI, the _Supreme Sovereign_; TIEN, the _Heavens_; and TAO, the _Universal Supreme Reason_ and _Principle of Faith_; and that from Chaos, an immense silence, an immeasurable void without perceptible forms, alone, infinite, immutable, moving in a circle in illimitable s.p.a.ce, without change or alteration, when vivified by the Principle of Truth, issued all Beings, under the influence of TAO, Principle of Faith, who produced one, one produced two, two produced three, and three produced all that is.
The Sclavono-Vendes typified the Trinity by the three heads of the G.o.d TRICLAV; and the Pruczi or Prussians by the Tri-une G.o.d PERKOUN, PIKOLLOS, and POTRIMPOS, the Deities of _Light_ and _Thunder_, of _h.e.l.l_ and the _Earth_, its fruits and animals: and the Scandinavians by ODIN, FREA, and THOR.
In the KABALAH, or the Hebrew traditional philosophy, the Infinite Deity, beyond the reach of the Human Intellect, and without Name, Form, or Limitation, was represented as developing Himself, in order to create, and by self-limitation, in ten emanations or out-flowings, called SEPHIROTH, or _rays_. The first of these, in the world AZILUTH, that is, within the Deity, was KETHER, or the _Crown_, by which we understand the Divine Will or Potency. Next came, as a pair, HAKEMAH and BAINAH, ordinarily translated ”Wisdom” and ”Intelligence,” the former termed the FATHER, and the latter the MOTHER. HAKEMAH is the active _Power_ or _Energy_ of Deity, by which He produces within Himself Intellection or Thinking: and BAINAH, the pa.s.sive _Capacity_, from which, acted on by the Power, the Intellection flows. This Intellection is called DAATH: and it is the ”WORD,” of Plato and the Gnostics; the _unuttered_ word, _within_ the Deity. Here is the origin of the Trinity of the Father, the Mother or Holy Spirit, and the Son or Word.
Another Trinity was composed of the fourth Sephirah, GEDULAH or KHASED, _Benignity_ or _Mercy_, also termed FATHER (_Aba_); the fifth, GEBURAH, _Severity_ or Strict _Justice_, also termed the MOTHER (_Imma_); and the sixth, the SON or _Issue_ of these, TIPHARETH, _Beauty_ or _Harmony_.
”Everything,” says the SOHAR, ”proceeds according to the Mystery of the Balance”--that is, by the equilibrium of Opposites: and thus from the Infinite Mercy and the Infinite Justice, in equilibrium, flows the perfect Harmony of the Universe. Infinite POWER, which is Lawless, and Infinite WISDOM, in Equilibrium, also produce BEAUTY or HARMONY, as Son, Issue, or Result--the Word, or utterance of the Thought of G.o.d. Power and Justice or Severity are the _same_: Wisdom and Mercy or Benignity are the same;--in the Infinite Divine Nature.
According to Philo of Alexandria, the Supreme Being, Primitive Light or Archetype of Light, uniting with WISDOM [S???a], the mother of Creation, forms in Himself the types of all things, and acts upon the Universe through the WORD [????? ... Logos], who dwells in G.o.d, and in whom all His powers and attributes develop themselves; a doctrine borrowed by him from Plato.
Simon Magus and his disciples taught that the Supreme Being or Centre of Light produced first of all, three couples of united Existences, of both s.e.xes, [[Greek: S?????a?] ...Suzugias], which were the origins of all things: REASON and INVENTIVENESS; SPEECH and THOUGHT; CALCULATION and REFLECTION: [[Greek: ????] and [Greek: ?p????a, F???] and [Greek: ?????a, ????s??] and [Greek: ?????s??] ... Nous and Epinoia, Phone and Ennoia, Logismos and Enthumesis]; of which Ennoia or WISDOM was the first produced, and Mother of all that exists.
Other Disciples of Simon, and with them most of the Gnostics, adopting and modifying the doctrine, taught that the [Greek: ?????a] .. Pleroma, or PLENITUDE of Superior Intelligences, having the Supreme Being at their head, was composed of eight Eons [[Greek: ??????] .. Aiones] of different s.e.xes;.. PROFUNDITY and SILENCE; SPIRIT and TRUTH; the WORD and LIFE; MAN and the CHURCH: [[Greek: ?????] and [Greek: S???; ??e?a]
and [Greek: ????e?a; ?????] and [Greek: ???; ?????p??] and [Greek: ?????s?a] ... Buthos and Sige; Pneuma and Aletheia; Logos and Zoe; Anthropos and Ekklesia].
Bardesanes, whose doctrines the Syrian Christians long embraced, taught that the unknown Father, happy in the Plenitude of His Life and Perfections, first produced a Companion for Himself [[Greek: S??????]
... Suzugos], whom He placed in the Celestial Paradise and who became, by Him, the Mother of CHRISTOS, Son of the Living G.o.d: _i.e._ (laying aside the allegory), that the Eternal conceived, in the silence of His decrees, the Thought of revealing Himself by a Being who should be His image or His Son: that to the Son succeeded his Sister and Spouse, the Holy Spirit, and they produced four Spirits of the elements, male and female, Maio and Jabseho, Nouro and Rucho; then Seven Mystic Couples of Spirits, and Heaven and Earth, and all that is; then seven spirits governing the planets, twelve governing the Constellations of the Zodiac, and thirty-six Starry Intelligences whom he called Deacons: while the Holy Spirit [_Sophia Achamoth_], being both the Holy Intelligence and the Soul of the physical world, went from the Pleroma into that material world and there mourned her degradation, until CHRISTOS, her former spouse, coming to her with his Divine Light and Love, guided her in the way to purification, and she again united herself with him as his primitive Companion.