Imago Templi / 6.17

by Athos A. Altomonte

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Seven, the Number of the Hierarchy in the Human Kingdom

Whilst the Cloth of the Initiate is represented by the number 6, as we have seen in the previous chapter, when we include the presence of the Point of Light where everything originates from, the One, the Number 7 appears.
This is how the Hexagram for the Hebrew Kabbalah appears.

The letters J H W H of the Tetragrammaton placed at the center of the Hexagram manifest the presence of the One in the Matter.
Hebraism places vowels in between,J e H o WaH, a combination of letters that means AdamEvè, both male and female, meaning the androgyny or contemporariness of those elements with their God. Otherwise expressed for the people, adding the letters e-o-a as in Adonais, Hè-do-na-i.
This is the threshold that introduces the Initiate to the formation of the Ineffable Name and the consequent Lost Word. Although stating that it is not difficult to conceive them geometrically, emitting them deviates from conceptual realization and it is necessary to carry out a “physiologically real” realization and a “metaphysical mutation”. We need requirementswhich are now beyond the Form, whose fundamental postulates are, although fragmentarily, continuously enunciated and highlighted in all parts of this work.

As usual we will put at the center of the Hexagram the "radiating Point", because it is a symbol with the same meaning but lacking the religious characteristics which in profane interpretations separate brotherly people rather than unite them.
Before continuing I would like to stop and observe and recognize in this Symbol the presence of the Two in the circumference that contains and restrains, of the Three in the twofold manifest and immanifestForm of the two triangles and the One, the Point that by irradiatinggives life to the whole System of manifestation.

Considering as “fixed” the generating Triangle formed by 1, 2 and 3, the Initiate, once truly reached the operative stage, will be able to combine to his own discretion the four remaining Aspects (IV, V, VI, VII) depending on the goals to reach if the work involves only himself and the quality of the materials (the Brothers) that offer themselves to it, if the work involves a Group of several initiates.

In the image it is shown a rather high "standard" both for the individual and the group. Therefore at the center there is the IV Aspectas polarizing and balancing energy, whose prerogative is to absorb conflictgenerated by the joining of several elements and reduce them to harmony, since it follows the Law of Balance.
The Four has the value of reflecting the Model; the fact that it is a double Two offers the researcher the opportunity to revisit that number and better understand, based on this last statement, the conflict between several "opposites". The latter, with the calming work of the Psyche, become harmoniously "complementary" and allied of the Man who dominates them. In the example given, the V energetic Aspect, called of the Science, is matched with the VI energetic Aspect, called of Idealism.
The combination with the VI Aspect is ideal to add value to the researcher’s work, also through the full recognition of the metaphysical values present in that area. Whilst idealism is led to manifest itself into the work or the research through the VI Aspect, matching it with the V Aspect of Science creates the conditions that will conclude through projects that are concretely structured and carried out in a balanced way.

At the top of the lower Triangle we have the VII Aspect, in order for everything to continue in the right rhythms with precise cadences and for the cycles to overlap harmoniously, so that it can go up as a spiral.
The Master Mason must learn first to manage in himself these conflicts of forces, which is present in everybody, although they might be latent. He needs to shape them into a unique vortex (the spearhead in the mind of the Initiate)to be directed consciously in order to pierce the hard mental forms of Chaos and, by changing their characteristics, work towards the desired goals.
This is a diminished example of the Act of Will.

The same conflicts that the mason discovers in himself, he will find on the outside, in the group where he works, multiplied by the number of associates, with added the complication of the turbulence (of character) of the interaction between them.
The mason who wishes to manage himselfas well as a plan shared with other Brothers (i.e. a Lodge) without the knowledge and control of those internal elements, is destined to certain failure, like a boat in the instability of the elements without a helm. Unless he just wants to role play in the initiatory Freemasonry of “Titles and Licenses” without ever detaching himself from the safety of the Earth Element but in words.

Seven Brothers who impersonally interpret in the Temple the 7 characteristics (Lower Mental) and the 7 Qualities (higher Mental) of the Logoi, the 7 Sacred Planets of the Solar System (expressed in the Menorah) will give life to a “Just” but not yet perfect Lodge, because Seven is the Number of relative perfection. In order to reach that perfection it is necessary to reach the Number 9; this is also true for the number of Masons necessary for the creation of a perfect Lodge.

The Septenary that we learnt to recognize in the Masonic Lodge, in the Solar System, in man, in energies, sounds and colors, is covered by many meanings all harmonious among them, even in the many lesser initiatory languages.

Let’s look together at the following Tables that will allow us quick comparisons between the languages in the so called lesser Catechisms.

Table A

Masonic Degree	Esoteric Age	Percussion Sound	Intervals Sound	W.M. steps of the Throne	Liberal Arts learning
1 Apprentice	1 year 2 years 3 years	3	2	3	grammar rhetorics dialecticts
2 Fellow	4 years 5 years	5	3	5	arithmetic music
3 Master	6 years 7 years	9 / 7	8 / 6	7	astronomy geometry

Table B

Divine Plan
1 Spiritual plane	Will	Being	1st Great Aura	Monad
2 Plane of Individuality	Wisdom	Can Do	2nd Great Aura	Triad
3 Plane of thought	Intellectual Activity	Be able to do	3rd Great Aura	Intuitive
4 Plane of the Mind	Concrete Science	Be aware of	Psychic Aura	Abstract M.
5 Plane of Personality	Conflict and Harmony	Know	Mental Aura	Concrete M.
6 Emotional Plane	Idealism and Devotion	Believe	Astral Aura	Astral B.
7 Planeof Instinct	Materialistic	Superstition	Ethereal Aura	Double Ethereal

Table C

Divine Plane
1 Monadic Body	Plane of the Being	Atomic Plane
2 Animic Body	Plane of Knowledge	Subatomic Plane
3 Causal Body	Plane of Comprehension	Super-ethereal Plane
4 Higher Mental Body	Plane of Thought	Ethereal Plane
5 Lower Mental Body	Plane of Learning	Gaseous Plane
6 Astral Body	Plane of Desire	Liquid Plane
7 World of Shadows	Plane of Heat	Dense Plane

Table D

	The Great Masonic Work	The Great Alchemic Work
1	at the 33rd degree	Fixation
2	at the 32nd degree	Unification
3	at the 31st degree	Sublimation
4	at the 30th from the 19th degree	Distillation
5	at the 18th from the 10thdegree	Solutions
6	at the 9th from the 5th degree	Putrefaction
7	at the 4th from the degrees of the Order	Calcination

Divine Plane or Unclothed (lacking attributes recognizable in the microcosm)

In the geometric transposition of the seven levels, from the Monad to the physical vehicle, the Brother Mason can recognize many elements, such as the occult meaning of the "Z", the Sign of the Secret Masters.

To more open and demanding Brothers I would like to propose two more tables with 7 levels;
the first of a middle-Eastern culture, the second one of the Far East.

Table E

Divine Plan

(I am Who I am)

'Ehjeh 'As^er 'Ehjeh

in Hebrew:		(not this and not that)	Ain Soph Aur	0
Aziluth	First World		Ye Hi Dah	1
Briah	Second World		Hay Yah	2
Yezirah	Third World	Nesh^amah	Nesh^amah	3
Assiah	Fourth World	Ru^ah	Mahshabah	4
		Nephesh	Tzelem	5
			Dyugnah	6
			Zurath	7
			D ' Muth	0

First World:	of Emanation	Aziluth
Second World:	of Creation	Briah
Third World:	of Formation	Yezirah
Fourth World:	of Action	Assiah

Table F

In Sanskrit, Rule Veda and Rig-Veda:

Divine Plan	0	Unclothed
Anupadaca	1	Spirit
A^tm^a	2	Soul
Buddhi	3	Intellect
Manas	4	Mind
Kama-Manas	5	Physical Mind
Kama-Rupa	6	Instinct and desire
Linga Scharira	7	Bioenergy
	0 Sth^ula Scharira	Solid

To the Brother who is keener to rediscover the Ancient Wisdom of the Tradition is offered the opportunity to grasp the occult meaning of certain fundamental elements among those stated by Hermes Trismegistus in his Secret Doctrine.

Accessible elements of the "Great Secret" if they are compared with all the Tables of this paragraph.
«To the Children of the Doctrine...
of several things made 2 to 3 and 3 to 1, 1 with 3 is 4 and then 3, 2 and 1.
From 4 to 3 there is 1; from 3 to 4 there is 1, then 1 and 1, 3 and 4; from 3 to 1 there is 2, from 1 to 3 there is 2,
from 3 to 2, 1, 2, 3. And 1, 2 from 2 and 1, 1 from 1 to 2, 1 then 1, I have told you everything... »

You will now have some previews that will allow us to go from the 7 to the Numbers 9 and 10.

You might have noticed the presence of two further levels in the Tables E and F. Well, those levels refer to: the first one to the higher sphere, the Hierarchic Pyramid of the Human Kingdom; the second one to the sphere below it. Obviously we are indicating the presence of two Hierarchies. A Hierarchy above the Human Kingdom on which it depends and a Hierarchy below it on which it depends; nevertheless, very few men are aware of this.
This is a first indication to conceive the wider panorama that contains the 9 and the 10.

In order to better visualize the system of Will-Motion-Cause-Effect, which interacts in the manifestation of the Pyramid of the Human Kingdom, between 1, 2, 3 and the 7 levels of manifestation (value 10) I would like to show you a last diagram.

The real reason why I have explained the septenary at great lengths in a long yet incomplete theory of comparative Tables, is that we could reach the reassuring conclusion that, independently from the languages used by the Lesser Catechisms to communicate with all kinds of Apprentices in any Nation, the septenary as a System has always been recognized and used by everyone as a parameter to make visible to the mind of the Novice as well the concept – otherwise abstract and immensurable – of the Hierarchic Pyramid in the Human Kingdom and the desirable quick ascent of any man into it.
The ascent in the Hierarchy, though, is accessible and measurable only through a progressive but real acquisition of the levels of the septenary and the contents kept in them by the wisdom of Tradition.
Perhaps it is unnecessary to highlight that that Hierarchic ascent is called "Initiation"; nevertheless I will never tire of adding "real" to it, in order not to make the mistake of confusing it with others or different nature, sometimes the malignant result of two heresies.
The first heresy is based on the concept of seniority or time of permanence in the degree, without evaluating the real depth of the acquired profits; the second heresy is based on the idea of "gracious donation" given from above.

We can conclude by stating that the researcher who overcomes the need to refer to the chaos of languages and their interpretations, but only trusts the recognition of the Initiatory System based on its prime expressions, sacred Geometry and metaphysical Numerology, will not have to worry of losing the Way of Masterhood where the Increase of Light has always been recognized and pursued as a natural event that takes place inside the Initiate, in his Psyche.

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