29 The Meeting of EXTREMES
What we just said about the relationship between the initiatic elite and the people still seems to call for further explanations of a complementary nature so as not to leave room for any ambiguity; and first of all it is necessary that no mistake be made as to the meaning of the word 'vulgarity' that we have employed in this connection. Indeed, if the word 'vulgar', taken in its original sense as in our discussion, is basically synonymous with 'popular', there is also an altogether different kind of vulgarity that corresponds more closely to the pejorative meaning usually attached to it in ordinary language, and the truth is that this latter meaning applies especially to the 'middle class'. To make what we are talking about immediately comprehensible, let us consider all the difference which A. K. Coomaraswamy [1] has so well noted between 'popular' art and 'bourgeois' art, [2] or again, regarding things intended for everyday use, between the products of artisans of former times and those of modern industry.
This remark leads us back to the Malàmatiyah, whose name derives from the word malàmah, meaning 'blame'; [3] but what must we understand by this? From the traditional point of view their actions are not actually blameworthy in themselves, which is all the more inconceivable given that, far from neglecting the prescriptions of the shart'ah, they on the contrary apply themselves especially to teaching those around them by example as well as by words. However, because their way of acting is not in any way distinguishable from that of the people, [4] it appears blameworthy in the eyes of a certain 'opinion', which is above all precisely that of the 'middle class', or of persons who consider themselves 'cultured', according to the expression so much in vogue today. The concept of profane 'culture', on which we have often made our position clear, [5] is indeed very characteristic of the mentality of this 'middle class', to which, by its wholly superficial and illusory 'brilliance', it gives the means of concealing its true intellectual nullity, and this same class is also that which enjoys invoking 'custom' in every circumstance. It goes without saying that the Malàmatiyah, or those in other traditions who behave similarly, are hardly disposed to take into account this 'custom', which lacks any significance or spiritual value, nor consequently to worry themselves over an 'opinion' that esteems only empty appearance. [6] It is certainly not here that the 'spirit', or the elite who represent it, can find a point of support, for all these things reflect absolutely nothing spiritual, being much rather the negation of all spirituality. On the contrary, where the reflection of the spirit is found-even if it be inverted, as every reflection necessarily must be-there also is its normal 'support', whether it be the body in the individual order, or the people in the social order.
As we have pointed out, it is precisely because the highest point is reflected in the lowest that it can be said that extremes meet; in this connection we have recalled the comparison that can be made with what occurs at the end of a cycle, and this too is a matter requiring more explanation. Indeed, it must be carefully noted that the 'rectification' by which the return from the lowest to the highest point is accomplished is properly speaking 'instantaneous', which is to say that in reality it is intemporal, or, better still-so as not to restrict ourselves to the consideration of the particular conditions of our world-outside of all duration, which implies a passage through the non-manifested; this constitutes the 'interval' (sandhya), which, according to the Hindu tradition, always exists between two cycles or two states of manifestation. If it were otherwise, the beginning and the end could not coincide in the Principle, when it is a question of the totality of manifestation, or could not correspond to one another, when only particular cycles are under consideration. Moreover, by reason of its 'instantaneity', there is really no interruption in this passage, which is just what allows one to speak of a true meeting of extremes, although the meeting point necessarily escapes all more or less exterior means of investigation because it lies outside the series of successive modifications that constitute manifestation. [7]
For this reason it is said that any change of state can only be accomplished in darkness, [8] the color black in its superior sense being the symbol of the non-manifested; but in its inferior sense this same color also symbolizes the indistinction of pure potentiality or the materia prima; [9] and here again these two aspects, although they must in no way be confused, nevertheless correspond analogically and are associated in a certain way, according to one's point of view. All 'transformation' appears as a 'destruction' when considered from the point of view of manifestation; and what is in reality a return to the principial state seems to be, if seen from without and from the 'substantial' side, a 'return to chaos', just as from the same point of view the origin, although proceeding directly from the Principle, takes on the appearance of 'emerging from chaos. [10] Moreover, since every reflection is necessarily an image of what is reflected, the inferior aspect may be considered as representing the superior aspect in its own relative order, on condition of course that we not forget the principle of 'inversion'; and this, which is true of the relationships between spirit and body, is no less true of those between the elite and the people.
The existence of the people, or of those confused with it in appearance, is, in current language itself, an 'obscure' existence; and even though those who use it are doubtless unaware of this, the term in fact expresses the 'substantial' character inherent to the role that belongs to it in the social order; from this point of view it has, we will not say the total indistinction of materia prima, but at least the relative indistinction of what fulfills the function of materia at a certain level. It is an entirely different matter for the initiate who lives among the people without being outwardly distinct from them. Like one who hides his wisdom under the no less 'obscure' appearance of madness, he can, in addition to the various advantages he may find therein, see in this very obscurity an image as it were of the 'higher darkness. [11] One can draw from this yet another consequence: if initiates occupying the highest ranks of the spiritual hierarchy take no visible part in the events that unfold in this world, this is above all because such 'peripheral' action would be incompatible with their 'central' position; if they hold themselves entirely aloof from every 'mundane' distinction, this is obviously because they know the emptiness of such things; but it can also be said that if they were to consent thus to emerge from their obscurity, their exterior would by this very fact no longer really correspond to their interior, so that if this were possible the result would be a sort of disharmony in their very being. However, since the spiritual degree they have attained necessarily excludes such a supposition, it also excludes the possibility of their effectively consenting to this. [12] Moreover, it goes without saying that what is involved here has nothing in common with 'humility', and that the beings of whom we speak are well beyond the sentimental domain to which the latter essentially belongs; but here again is a case where things outwardly similar may in reality proceed from entirely different causes. [13]
To return to the point that particularly concerns us at present, we will say this: the 'black blacker than black' (nigrum nigro nigrius), according to the Hermeticists' expression, is assuredly, when taken in its most immediate and most literal sense, indeed the obscurity of chaos or of the 'lower darkness'; but it is also, and by this very fact, a natural symbol of the 'higher darkness', as we have just explained. [14] Just as 'non-action' is really the fullness of activity, or as 'silence' contains within itself all sounds in their pārā, or non-manifested, modality, this 'higher darkness' is in reality the Light that surpasses all light, that is, beyond all manifestation and every contingency, the principial aspect of light itself; and it is here, and here only, that the true meeting of extremes is finally accomplished.