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SPEAK of the Tree and of its meaning. Of this the Hindûs understand more than you, for they represent their gods with many arms. This is because they recognise the fact that the type of all existence is a Tree, and that God's universal symbol is that of the vegetable kingdom. It is for this reason that the Tree was planted in the midst of the garden, forasmuch
as it was and is the type of all existence, the centre from which radiates the whole of creation. Let the insight of the Hindûs instruct you on this matter.
"You have demanded also the origin of Evil. This is a great subject, and we would have withheld it from you longer, but that it seems to us now that you are in need of it. Understand, then, that evil is the result of creation. For creation is the projection of spirit into matter; and with this projection came the first germ of evil. We would have you know that there is no such thing as purely spiritual evil, but that evil is the result of the materialisation of spirit. If you examine carefully all we have said to you concerning the various forms of evil, you will see that every one is the result of the limitations of matter. Falsehood is the limitation of the faculty of perception; selfishness is the result of the limitation of the power to perceive that the whole universe is but the larger Self; and so of all the rest. It is, then, true that God created evil; but yet it is true that God is Spirit, and being Spirit, is incapable of evil. Evil is then, purely and solely, the result of the materialisation of God. This is a great mystery. We can but indicate it to-night."
I see a lake, vast and deep and bright. I am not certain whether it is lake or sea. It has no borders that I can perceive. Its waters are so clear that I could see the pebbles shining at the bottom, if it had one. It is overspread by a flood of nebulous light, evenly diffused in all parts; and now, as I look, the light has become concentrated into flowers, and between them are spaces of darkness caused by the withdrawal of the light into the flowers. It is a vast floating garden of flowers, and in the midst of the garden is a Tree. The tree spreads out its arms everywhere. The garden is creation, the tree is God. And the tree seems in some way to be the flowers, and the flowers belong to the tree. I cannot discern the material of the tree; it evades me as I look. It is not matter; it is the substance of matter, the divinity underlying it. God is not light, but that of which light itself is the manifestation. God willed it to be. Light is the result of God's will. God said, "Let light be"; and it was. Matter is the intensification of Idea. 1 All things are made of God's
thought. God is Spirit, and the substance of things. I see two forces ever in operation. They are the centrifugal and the centripetal. And they are one; yes, one and the same, for, I see the force rebound back to God. Creation is ever being projected from God as from a luminous centre; it is always being drawn back again also. Some parts refuse to return; they go into outer space; they are lost. Let me see,--can it be that they pass beyond the sphere of the Divine attraction? Yes; I see that it is so, and oh! they are lost. The Spirit is withdrawn; it is as if it were sucked out of them, and they wander away into darkness, and expend themselves. The rest, who approach God, develop the Spirit in them, becoming more and more like God. God is the richer for them. They continue to exist. They return, but do not become lost in God.
I thought I was describing orbs in space, projected from a central sun around which they circled; but, looking closer, I see them as individuals. They have become persons. It must be that the method of creation is the same for all.
God subsisted prior to creation; there was a time when God did not create; it was God's Sabbath of rest. Such Sabbaths recur,--when there is no material universe. This is when the Divine mind ceases from thinking. For God to think is to create. Matter itself is a result of the Divine thought; it was first produced by the intensification of Idea. It appears to me that its first form was like water-fluidic. Spirit is Divinity itself. God is dual. I see, on looking closer, that through this duality God produces creation. Evil is caused by creation, or the projection of spirit into matter; that is, it is spirit which, by being projected far enough from the Divine centre, 1 becomes matter. Perception is one; the senses are specialised modes of perception. God is perception itself. God is universal percipience. God is both that which sees and that which is seen. If we all could see all, hear all, touch all, and so forth, there would be no evil, for evil comes of the limitation of perception. Such limitation was necessary, if God was to produce aught other than God. Aught other than God must be less than God. Without evil, therefore, God would have remained alone. All things are God, according to the measure of the spirit in them. And now I see that the nearest of all to God is a woman. 2
52:2 Paris, July 21, 1877. This part was written down by the seeress herself while in trance. Part 2 was spoken in the same condition immediately afterwards. E. M.
Referred to in Life of Anna Kingsford, vol. i, pp. 181-182.
53:1 Compare No. XXXI.
54:1 The centre, that is, of the Divine operation, not of the Divine Being. E. M.
54:2 As type of the feminine or love aspect of the Divine Nature. E. M.