CHAPTER XXXVI.

The Number 18 (continued)

"Initiation comprises two different but united sections. The Theory of the resources and necessities of his enterprise, which the Neophyte always receives as an inheritance which leaves him absolute liberty of thought,-and Practice in which he exercises, under the direction of his masters, the physical, intellectual and moral self-control which will render him an Initiate."-The Tarot of the Bohemians, Papus, 256.

As we explained in number 8, the original presentation of 8 was in a horizontal position (oo) in which one circle represents man, the other woman and when joined they symbolize a balanced life. To manifest life in its fullness the two circles must add the straight line or must individually take up the Rod of Power. While number 8 carries the idea of the two perfect circles touching and working out their evolution together, only the 1 standing at the right hand of the 8 can bring them to this Second Initiation. In 8 man and woman are joined by the senses, in 18 by the One Life. Number 8 in the horizontal position is called the symbol of life, i. e., that which has brought forth all life, or evolution. But while the 8 unopened is a symbol of physical life, each circle must eventually be unfolded into 9, i. e., man and woman must receive their First Initiation individually, but later must stand upright side by side, as symbolized by the two pillars of Jakin and Boas, and receive their Second Initiation together as 9+918; for every multiple of 9 brings about an Initiation. This must be accomplished ere either can pass on to the completion of the cycle and say "I and my Father are one." Thus standing side by side they have completed the balance (∞), because each has individually equilibrated the forces within and together they can go on to the Third Initiation.

In the Sepher Yetzirah number 18 is referred to equilibrium and it is called the "Kingdom of the restored world" or the Bride of the Microprosopus. It also frequently refers to man and woman as the "Book of Concealed Mystery." The deepest mystery given to this planet to solve is conceded to be the mystery of the equilibrium of sex that a balanced humanity may result and thus restore the world to its Edenic purity. "Equilibrium is that harmony which results from the analogy of contraries. . . It is the living synthesis of counterbalanced power. Thus form may be described as the equilibrium of light and shade; take away either factor and form is viewless."1 For the Aspirant there is a difference between equilibrium and balance; equilibrium is the equalizing of all the forces in himself, while balance is a perfect adjustment of the positive and negative forces of two perfectly equalized factors at each end of a scale.

Number 18 is the Second Initiation because 8, the number of Saturn, stands beside and is subservient to the 1, the number of the positive Sun. The tests of Saturn the Initiator then are here illumined by the Sun and overcome by the Magic Wand of the One Life now held in the Initiate's right hand. Once having passed this Second Initiation, he can go no more back, although his temptations are great and he may fail and pervert his powers, for eventually the Sun of his double Initiation (9+9=18=9) will inevitably bring him to the third 9. If we have thus blended the Sun and Saturn, we find Saturn no longer in his malign aspect of the Tester, but as he appears to one who has passed the Second Initiation, namely, as the Star of the Morning. Saturn the grim skeleton whose path passes over the dread valley, he who tears from us every earthly thing we have clung to, has now been fearlessly faced, and as the Initiate looks upon him he sees the radiance of the Sun illuminating him. Hence

1 The Kaballah Unveiled, Mathers, 16.

2 See "A Message from Saturn," in "Realms of the Living Dead," Curtiss, 273-8.

forth glamour has no more power to deceive, even the glamour of the astral world no longer affrights or seduces him; for he has dared to enter it carrying the Rod of Power with him and has proved to himself his supremacy over it. Heretofore he may have explored its many regions, but always under the care and guidance of his Master who has shielded him from all harm. But now he must face the insidious glamour of flattery, temptation and promised power alone and conquer by the aid of his Rod. Here he will be tempted to the utmost and only as he lifts high his Rod can he come off victor Thus he is able to pass through the Valley of the Shadow of Death and fear no evil, for just as a valley is a depression between two mountains, so here the Initiate, having left behind the height of spiritual exaltation resulting from his balancing of earth conditions, must pass through this valley ere he is ready to climb the greater height of Spiritual Attainment beyond.

There are many earnest travellers on this Path who because they thought they had reached the first stage of Completion in 10 by the road of celibacy, now find that something was lacking. They now realize that 18 can only express its fullness when the two circles of the 8 stand together as the Book of Concealed Mystery, now to be opened, read and inwardly digested. They found it impossible to pass through the Valley to its further end alone hence must reincarnate in number 11 to learn the vital lesson of cooperation with their complementary mate. And no matter how objectionable the lesson is to them, they will reincarnate again and again until they have laboriously retraveled the Path of Evolution and learned. their lesson. As we saw in our study of number 9, this is but the straightening out of the curved line in 8. And it is the Angel of the Great Law, who with the golden reed, is forever measuring, straightening, and calling with love-notes too persistent to resist: "Come back, come back," who gives to man that power to accomplish which carries him through suffering, hardship and deaths innumerable, yet gives him no rest until he listens to the Voice and obeys. And it is through

this action and reaction of 1 and 8 that man can ultimately complete the second cycle of 10 and manifest all that 18 stands for.

Many who treat of numbers look upon 18 as wholly evil. Others label it the Path of the Senses, but from the foregoing it should be fully understood that it is the Path of the Purified Senses, under the control of the One Life.

Among the thirty-two Paths of Wisdom, "the Eighteenth Path is called the House of Influence (by the greatness of whose abundance the influx of good things upon created beings is increased), and from the midst of the investigation the arcana and hidden senses are drawn forth, which dwell in its shade and which cling to it, from the cause of all causes." 3 Kabalistically number 18 is called the Stella of Light, and is sacred to Mercury.

The symbol of the eighteenth degree of the Rosicroix is an aquatic bird, sometimes a swan and sometimes a pelican, but always floating on the waters, as the Spirit or Dove moves upon the waters of space or the Great Deep in the creation story. This Swan or Pelican issues periodically from the waters to give birth to 7 young ones (the seven-fold Elohim). Later, however, this symbol was represented by a pelican tearing open her bosom to feed her 7 young, which carries out the same idea and expresses all that 18 signifies.

We must also consider 18 from the standpoint of 666 (6+6 +6=18=9), the Number of the Beast, representing the struggle of the Christos or the Great Creative Force we call the Christ-force (number 6) through the opposition of the three worlds. In this sense the interpretation is quite different from that of 18, for 18 represents the individual overcoming his opposition to the Divine and passing his Second Initiation and becoming the Super-man, while the summing up of 666 represents all that the Christ must overcome in the three

3 Sepher Yetzirah, 30.

The Key to the Universe, Curtiss, 195.

worlds. This opposition (the Beast) is the controlling power of this world at the present stage of evolution. It stands black and terrible, with his mark in every hand or in the forehead, confronting the Neophyte at each step. The mark in the hand indicates the power of the Beast to prevent us from accomplishing except according to its methods, "that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name." This power we see exemplified in the business world today. The mark in the forehead indicates those who cannot think save in the terms of the Beast, whose very faces proclaim "the shrewd (avaricious) business man."

While the Beast has been personalized by many writers and assigned to various persons and institutions which seemed opposed to true Christianity, and while many such persons and institutions may have been channels for the expression of the Beast, they could not have been the Beast itself, for the Beast includes all the forces which oppose the perfect manifestation of the Christ, from the mere inertia of matter and the accumulated evil of mankind and evil astral entities, to the conscious opposition of black magicians and the utterly selfish materialists who look upon the principles of the spiritual life as something opposed to the free indulgence of their desires, hence work against all spiritual expressions. And since man reaches his final 9 or Great Initiation only when he has conquered all opposition to the Christ within himself, so humanity and the globe itself will reach their Great Initiation only when the Christ-force vanquishes the force of the Beast or manifests without opposition through man and the planet. In the early days, through the inertia and selfishness of man, the Beast was allowed to establish his dominion over the earth, therefore through the conscious efforts of enlightened and unselfish man must the Beast be vanquished and the reign of the Christ be established.

18 considered as 6+6+6 shows plainly that it refers to the Second Initiation, not of the individual but of humanity.