FIFTH INSTRUCTION

FROM FRIDAY, JANUARY 21, 1774 At the entrance to the Temple of Solomon there were two equal columns of 18 cubits in height. The right column was named Jak., [27] which means 'he will establish'; the left column was named Bo., which means 'confusion'; the first alluded to man's incorporation within his natural body, the second to woman's. The columns were equal because, the lesser spiritual being of man and of woman having the same origin, the same emanation, they are equal and have the same act to fulfill. They were divided into three parts, to wit: 10-4-4. Which represents through the 10 the correspondence of the lesser with the Divinity, the circumference to the center; through the 4 , the correspondence of the terrestrial surface with the celestial region; and through the other 4 , that of the celestial region to the super-celestial. The work Jak., 'he will establish', proclaims the power of command that was reserved for man in his original state. The word Bo., 'confusion', expresses what has resulted from the disobedience of the first man, which repeated that of the first Spirits, whom he should have contained, harassed, and who alone could have served them with a good intellect, and by communication with them inspired them to repent, and thenceforth to cease from evil; but leading man astray, they are deprived of this unique resource. In spite of his fall, man always has the same task to fulfill, that for which he was destined, and he must therefore work towards Reconciliation, the sole means of reacquiring his three powers over the West, North, and South, which represent the terrestrial, celestial, and supercelestial, and conform himself once again to his quaternary, to harass without cease the wicked spirits, refusing to fall into their traps, ceaselessly destroying their wicked projects, and finally to reclaim the authority over them that was reserved for them, because if the divine mercy ever wishes to work some Good in their favor, it will be solely through man's communication with them that they might be brought to desire such a thing, since man was established for this end and since the immutable decrees of God must be fulfilled. The man who yields his will to them frustrates the designs of the Creator and, as long as he is in them, forsakes his original purpose; by joining his will and action to their chief, he becomes one with him and becomes inferior to him and his subject; he is equipped with a demonic intellect to seduce and pervert his fellow man through his example, and he renders himself more at fault than they themselves and must therefore expect a worse fate than theirs, since he strengthens the part he was charged to destroy. The number of confusion of the second column is designated by the binary rank held by the first letter of the word Boaz in the Hebrew alphabet. These two columns have yet another application: that of the South designated the soul of man or the lesser, that of the North the Good spirit given to him to direct him; if within universal Creation the South is the region to which the wicked spirits were more especially relegated, the Northern region must be inhabited by beings with the ability and charge to contain them, which Holy Scripture often gives us to understand in speaking either of the Demon of Noonday, [28] or of the Holy Spirit, who is always made to come with the North Wind. [29] These things were likewise symbolized by the two columns, the one of stone or brick, which had been raised in the Northern part, the posterity of Seth, the other, the one made of earth, which had been raised in the Southern part, that of Cain. The first announced the strength and subtlety of spiritual works. Good, it resisted the inundations of the Flood and was preserved long after. The other offspring announced the weakness and corruption of works of matter, which was again designated by the number of confusion and its proportions. They were thus totally destroyed by the waters of the flood. It was forbidden the children of God to couple with the children of men. [30] This prohibition must not be understood materially. Men of this time only being able to multiply in accordance with the physical laws of nature to which they, like all other animals, were subject, they should have been free to couple indiscriminately with women of the two races; but it was forbidden to the children of God, that is, to those who observed the laws, precepts, and commandments of God, to couple with women who had forgotten or scorned them, for fear of letting themselves be perverted or led into the same forgetfulness through their example. From Adam until the flood, only two nations were reckoned: that of the Children of Seth, established in the North and called Children of God, since his law was preserved with them, and that of Cain, called the Children of Men and relegated to the South. The two nations, by the places in which they abode, represented the wicked spirits relegated to the South of Creation, and the good spirit in the region of the North. Only two nations were considered to have come from Adam, because Abel, his second son, left no material posterity. He came only to enact through his death the reconciliation of Adam his father, and to be the type of universal Regeneration. Cain and his posterity stand as the type of the evil spirits first emanated from their chiefs; Seth and his posterity stand as the type of the lesser, or of man, second emanated, but become elder in the spiritual order. We should observe that all the spiritual types occurring among men until Noah were transmitted for man's instruction in the posterity of Seth and of Enos his son. In the beginning Adam, temporal father of all his descendents, is seen as the type of the Creator, Abel as that of the Regenerator, and Seth as that of the Spirit who instructs and directs. Although all men have the same task of persecution [of wicked spirits], it does not follow as an absolute necessity for the fulfillment of the Creator's decrees and the good of Creation that all must fulfill it; a small number or even one can suffice, as is proven in several places in Scripture, where, to save a considerable number, it is enough to find ten Righteous, or even one. Man's posterity is saved through Noah, alone found righteous in the eyes of the Creator. Noah, at the time of the flood, of 600 years old, stands as the type of the Creator, floating on the waters and preserving in the ark the seed of all animal reproductions. The dimensions of the ark further have a sensible relationship with universal Creation, which recalls the three spiritual essences from which all bodily forms are derived. In its dimensions of length ( 300 cubits), of width ( 50 cubits), of height ( 30 cubits), one recognizes the number of Creation, and in its total product, that of confusion deriving from two powers in opposition, to sustain on the one hand, and to liberate on the other. In the number 5 , which caused its construction. The Temple of Solomon was 60 cubits long, 20 wide, and 30 high. The ark was 20 cubits in length, width, and height. [31] The Temple was 40 cubits long [32] and 20 wide. In front of the Temple, a vestibule of 20 cubits long by 20 wide. Same relationships in the dimensions of the Temple of Solomon, 20 wide, 60 long, 30 high, divided into three stages or distinct parts, the porch, the Temple, the Sanctuary in which was the Holy of Holies; which announces the correspondence between the divine immensity and the earth, represented by the porch by means of the celestial and... [33] Since Noah, there have been 3 nations, to wit, Ham, Shem, and Japheth. Ham, the eldest, relegated to the region of the South, represents the type of Cain and the corrupt first emanated spirits. Shem, father of the descendents of the Israelites through Abraham, stands as the type of Seth. Japheth is the father of the third nation, that of the Gentiles, to whom the light was carried on account of the contempt the Hebrew descendants of Shem had for it, in punishment of their abandonment of the divine law; and through the pure mercy of the Creator, Christians today, or the Gentiles derived from Japheth, have become the eldest in the order of Grace of the descendents of Shem; but as these descendants of Shem were the people chosen by the Creator to manifest his marvels and his glory, and that his decrees might always be fulfilled, they will recover their rights at the end of time, and, through a complete reconciliation, become again the elders of the Gentiles, who, through the abuse of their light, knowledge, and aid, deserve to be deprived of them in their turn, which already begins to be manifest in the present Century. In all that is recounted concerning them in the Holy Scriptures, the wicked, demonic Spirits and their chief are represented by the Egyptians descended from Ham, along with their King. The land of Egypt represents the part of Creation where they were relegated to work their evil wills, which helps to explain many passages. Deprived of all celestial light, their vision obscured by the dark cloud that hid from them the column of fire illuminating the righteous, in blindness they followed the path cleared before them, they were swallowed up beneath the waters, and the same passage that led the Israelites in surety hurled their enemies into the abyss. The various camps they formed in the wilderness after this passage seem to announce the painful travails of the lesser in the sensible circle. Does not the law they received at the base of Sinai announce their return to their first power in the visual circle? Finally, the entry of the Israelites into the Promised Land announces the entry of the lesser into the place of spiritual Reintegration, or the full exercise of his power within the rational circle. [34]