On the Nature of Man
By Jules Doinel
Each one of us, for we are Eons, may become the Simon to a Helen or, reversing the parts, a Helen to a Simon. In order to fulfil our mission of Saviour, we, the initiates of the Gnosis, must appear to the profane as similar in form to them but their superior in spirit. Simon and Helen have taught us, and we in our turn must teach, the liberating power of the Gnosis, the illuminating science, the law or the lost Word of the Rosicrucians. We will deliver our brothers and our sisters from the yoke of ignorance and superstition, of gross materialism and haughty scepticism. We will dress them in the white robes of Initiation. No matter where the seed is sown, so long as it is sown; saved by the Gnosis we become saviours, happy if we possess, perhaps not the genius of Simon Magus, but his great heart and wide charity.
Man comprises all three principles; the principle of darkness or fire, from which originates his soul; the principle of light, from which his spirit originates; and the third principle, which is the basic element of his body.
In the life of man there are three states to be distinguished from each other — first, the innermost, that is to say, God being eternally hidden within the fire; secondly, the middle part, which from eternity has stood as an image or likeness in the wonders of God, comparable to a person seeing himself in a mirror; thirdly, has this living image received still another mirror in creation, wherein to behold itself, namely the spirit of the eternal world, or the third principle, which is also a form (state) of the eternal.
(From La Revue Théosophique, 1890.)
Trans. by Thos. William, in ‘Theosophical Siftings’ Vol. 3, pg.14
Each one of us, for we are Eons, may become the Simon to a Helen or, reversing the parts, a Helen to a Simon. In order to fulfil our mission of Saviour, we, the initiates of the Gnosis, must appear to the profane as similar in form to them but their superior in spirit. Simon and Helen have taught us, and we in our turn must teach, the liberating power of the Gnosis, the illuminating science, the law or the lost Word of the Rosicrucians. We will deliver our brothers and our sisters from the yoke of ignorance and superstition, of gross materialism and haughty scepticism. We will dress them in the white robes of Initiation. No matter where the seed is sown, so long as it is sown; saved by the Gnosis we become saviours, happy if we possess, perhaps not the genius of Simon Magus, but his great heart and wide charity.
Man comprises all three principles; the principle of darkness or fire, from which originates his soul; the principle of light, from which his spirit originates; and the third principle, which is the basic element of his body.
In the life of man there are three states to be distinguished from each other — first, the innermost, that is to say, God being eternally hidden within the fire; secondly, the middle part, which from eternity has stood as an image or likeness in the wonders of God, comparable to a person seeing himself in a mirror; thirdly, has this living image received still another mirror in creation, wherein to behold itself, namely the spirit of the eternal world, or the third principle, which is also a form (state) of the eternal.
(From La Revue Théosophique, 1890.)
Trans. by Thos. William, in ‘Theosophical Siftings’ Vol. 3, pg.14