The Monistic Theory has used many kinds of languages to express some of its ideas. These are the mythological, the metaphorical, the numerical, the literal, the symbolical, the astrological, and the artistic language etc.

A) The Mythological Language

Mythological language: This world is created from the dismemberment of God or from the Primeval Man. In other words, the Many proceed from the One, or One is All.

The three Gods, Odin, Vill and Ve killed Ymir, the giant... They carried his body into the middle of the great void. They made sea and lakes of his blood, earth of his flesh and the sky of his skull, placing a dwarf under each of the four corners, as if to hold it up. The clouds were made of Ymir's brains and stars and heavenly bodies from sparks which flew from Muspell. The Gods ordered their movements and thus established days and years.

The earth was circular and, on the outside, was a mighty ocean. By its shores the Gods established a dwelling place for the giants. Within, they built Midgard, the world of men, fortified as it seems, with a fence made of Ymir's eyelashes. (See Ib. p. 293, 275, 276) In the South, there was another world, blazing hot, and it was called Muspell. (see ib. p. 275)

Four dwarfs, Austrri, Vestri, Sudri, Nordri were said to uphold the four corners of the sky, and several allusions to this myth are found in early poetry. (See ib. p. 234)

Iranian tradition also has striking parallels with the Norse creation myth. The creation, as Norse heathens saw it, was a natural evolutionary process, arising from the fusion of polarities, heat and cold, light and dark. Many variants of the Iranian creationist myth are recorded, and they too contain such dualist explanations of the cosmos, the "hot and moist, bright, sweet smelling and light" on one hand, with the "cold and dry, heavy dark and stinking" on the other. The two are separated by a void, as it were, a mighty gap. The first giant Ymir, also finds his counterparts in Iranian and, to some extent, in Indian myth. Ymir, as was seen, was at once father and mother of the giants and was, in other words, bisexual. A myth like this one appears in variant forms in Iranian records. According to one of them, the god Zurvan existed before ages, He conceived twins, one "light and fragrant", the other "dark and stinking". The fair one created heaven and earth, and everything beautiful and good, but the other created demons and everything evil. The formation of the cosmos, as described in some Iranian sources, is also rather like that described in the Norse sources. It was made from the body of the first anthropomorphic figure. The sky was his head, the earth his feet, the water his tears, plants his hair. This form of the creation myth is said to derive from India. [2]

Ymir, the name of the first anthropomorphic figure in Norse myth, could formerly mean the roarer, which is not a suitable name for a giant, but it has often been associated with the Iranian Yima (Sanskrit Yama) which means "twin" and is the name given to the first man. As they are recorded, the Norse and Oriental myths of creation, are created by many centuries and thousands of miles. They differ fundamentally, but details such as those about the cow and the hermaphroditic progenitor, as well as the cosmos created from the body of a primeval being, resemble each other in ways which make it impossible to think of independent development. [3]

Variant: The three gods took the corpse of Yimir, carried it into the middle of Ginnungagap, and made the world from it. From his flesh, they molded the earth. From the blood that poured from his wounds, they made the salty sea and laid it around the earth. From his mighty bones, they fashioned the mountains and from his smaller bones, jaws, and teeth they formed rocks and pebbles. From his hair they created the forests. [4]

When Uranus became ruler of the world, his son, Chronus, dismembered him, just as priestesses of the great Goddess or Mother Goddess in the female- oriented religion, dismembered the sacred king. They used his blood, which they considered to be a prime source of fertility, to fertilize the ground so that it would produce an abundance of crops. Uranus's blood, too, produces "crops", in the form of monstrous offsprings. [5]

A late Rig Vedic hymn describes another kind of creation. A cosmic man, Purusha, was dismembered in a primeval sacrifice and, from the parts of his body, were made the cosmos and the four classes of the social order (priest, warriors, populace and servants). [6]

According to Lu-Shih-Chun Chui (Lã Thị Xuân Thu), Heaven, Earth and all things are like the body of one man, and this man is called "the Great Unity" (Ta Tung, Đại Đồng) [7]

So Pangu (Bàn Cổ) laid down and fell asleep. He died in his sleep, and his body gave shape and substance to the universe. Pangu's head formed the mountain of the East, while his feet formed the mountain of the West. His torso formed the mountain of the Center, his left arm formed the mountain of the South, and his right arm, the mountain of the North. These five sacred mountains defined the four corners of the square earth and its Center. Each stood firmly upon the earth like a giant stone column and did its part to hold up the heavens.

The hair of Pangu's head and his eyebrows formed the planets and the stars. His left eye formed the sun and his right eye the moon. His flesh formed the soil of the earth and his blood the oceans and rivers. His teeth and bones formed rocks, minerals and gems. His breath formed the clouds and the wind, while his voice became lightning and thunder. His perspiration formed rain and the dew. The hair on his body formed trees, plants, and flowers, while parasites, living on his skin became animals and fish. [8]

Once Marduk had subdued all his enemies, he returned to Tiamat, stamped on her legs and crushed her skull with his mace. When he had severed her arteries, the North wind bore her blood to the secret places. Marduk then divided Tiamat's body into two parts like a shellfish. Half of Tiamat, he set up as the sky; the other half he formed into the earth. From Tiamat's saliva, he created the clouds and filled them with water... He put Tiamat's head into position to form the mountains of the earth, and he caused the Tigris and the Euphrate rivers to flow from her eyes...[9]

Quetzalcoaltl, the light one, and Tezcatlipoca, the dark one looked down from the sky and saw only water below. A monstrous goddess floated upon the water, eating whatever she could find with her many mouths, for every joint in her body contained eyes sharp enough to spot any source of food, and mouths that bit like wild animals. "We must find some way to stop that goddess from devouring whatever we create," they said to one another. So it came to pass that the two great gods transformed themselves into two huge serpents. One of them quickly grabbed her by her arms, while the other quickly grabbed her by the feet. Then before she could resist, they pulled until she broke apart in the middle. Her head and shoulders became the earth, while the lower part of her body rose into the sky and became the heavens.

The other gods were angry at what Quetzalcoaltl and Tezcatlipoca had done to the goddess. They came down to earth and decided to give her gifts that would compensate for her mutilation. They decreed that whatsoever human beings needed for survival, she would provide. They created trees, tall grass, and flowers from her hair, fine grasses and tiny flowers from her skins, small caves, fountains, and wells from her eyes, large caves and rivers from her mouth, hills and valleys from her nose, and mountains from her shoulders. [10]

According to the creation myth of the Bakuba (in Zaire), Mbombo the white god, ruled when the earth was nothing but water shrouded in darkness. One day, he felt a terrible pain in his stomach, and he vomited the sun, the moon and the stars. The sun shone so fiercely that the water steamed up in clouds and dry hills gradually appeared. Mbombo vomited again, and, out of his stomach came animals and people and many other things: the first woman, the leopard, the eagle, the falling star, the anvil, the monkey Fumu, the first man, the razor, medicine and lightning. [11]

B) The Metaphorical Language

Idea to be conveyed in ordinary language: All creations are emanations from the Imperishable Soul.

Metaphorical Language: In the beginning this world was merely non-being. It was existent. It developed. It turned into an egg. It lay for a period of one year. It was split asunder. One of the two egg-shell-parts became silver, one gold.

That which was of silver is this earth. That which was of gold is the sky. What was the outer membrane is the mountains. What is the inner membrane is cloud and mist. What were the veins are the rivers. What was the fluid within is the ocean. (Chandogya Upanishad, 3. 19. 1-2)

As a spider might come out with his thread, as small sparks come forth from the fire, even so from this Soul come forth all vital energies, all worlds, all gods, all beings. The mystic meaning (Upanishad) thereof is the Real of the Real. Vital energies, verily, are the Real. He is their Real. (Brihah-Aranyaka Upanishad 2. 20)

As a spider emits and draws in (its thread), as herb arise on earth, as the hairs of the head and body from a living person, so from the Imperishable arises everything here. (Mundaka Upanishad, 1. 7)

This is the truth: as from a well-blazing fire, sparks by the thousand issue forth of like form, so from the Imperishable, my friend, beings manifold are produced, and thither also go. (Mundaka Upa. 2.1)

The Soul (Atman) which pervades all things as butter is contained in cream, which is rooted in self-knowledge and austerity. This is Brahma, the higher mystic doctrine (Upanishad). (Svetasvatara Upa.1. 16)

C) The numerical language

Idea to be conveyed: All is one, one is all. Or from the One proceed the Many.

In the Yi Jing, there are two sets of numbers, one is called He Tu (Hà Đồ), another is called Luo Shu (Lạc Thư), the meaning of them, I will try to give as follows:

We see in these two sets of numbers, some are in the middle, and some are in the periphery. The number 15 (5+10) and the number 5 in the middle represent the bisexual Tai Ji (Thái Cực) (Please note that 15 = 6+9; and 5 = 2+3. 6 and 2 are Yin numbers ; 9 and 3 are Yang numbers, therefore the Tai Ji in the middle englobes both Yin and Yang numbers, and is called bisexual numbers). The Tai Ji represents the One.

Numbers in the periphery represent the Many, and derive from the Tai Ji (Thái Cực) in the middle. We see that 3 and 2 = 5; 1 and 4 = 5; 8 and 7 = 15; 9 and 6 = 15. In the Luo Shu (Lạc Thư), if we add all the numbers horizontally, vertically, and diagonally, we have always 15. If we add the numbers horizontally, vertically and diagonally without the number 5, we always has the total of 10, or twice the number 5. It means that all the beings in the periphery equal 15 or 5, or the Tai Ji (Thái Cực). Therefore the Many equal the One.

We remark also that in the He Tu (Hà Đồ), we have two layers of numbers. The inside layer contains 1, 2, 3, 4 representing the 4 elements: water, fire, wood (air) and metal. It stands then for all beings. As for the 7 and 8, and the 6 and the 9, in the outside layer, they represents the two ways of change in our life, the extrovertive way (6 and 9), and the introvertive way (7 and 8).

It is worth noting that Chinese people called their Elected men Tzu (Tử), or the Man who has realized the One, and we have Confucius (Kong Tzu; Khổng Tử), Mencius (Meng Tzu; Mạnh Tử), Lao Tzu (Lão Tử), Chuang Tzu (Trang Tử), Lie Tzu (Liệt Tử) etc.

D) The literal language

Idea to be conveyed: This world come from the dismemberment of the One, or is made with the same material of the One.

Idea to be conveyed: The Eternal Om (Aum) englobes all the states of a man. Literal Language:

	A (The waking state)
Om (AUM) =	U (The dreaming state)
	M (The deep-sleep state)

E) The symbolical language

One of the most famous symbolical languages, common to East and West is the Center and the Circle.

The Center stands for the One, immobile in the midst of everything. The circle represents the Many, or all the phenomena ever changing outside.

We see this meaning in all oldest civilizations and literature of the world (Egypt, Chaldea, Veda, Pythagoras, Zoroaster, Confucius, Chuang Tzu etc.). The Center represents, then, God, and the Circle, all the creatures. The Isvara's symbol (God's symbol) is the Circle with the point in the Center. We read in Chuang Tzu (Trang Tử), Chapter 2, C that: "The Point which is the pivot of the norm is the immobile Center of a circumference, on the periphery of which rolled all contingence, all distinctions and individualities." [12]

We know also that: "the Signet of Zoroaster, - the wise man of the East - the Point within the Circle... was hailed among all the nations as the Beginning and the End, the Cause and Effect, the Principle of Life and Action which pervades, animates and governs the universe... [13]

According to Vedantic texts, there was none before the creation except Brahman, the pure Being, the non-manifested, the undifferentiated Maha Bindu, the Supreme Point, the Conscience-Energy-Potentiality...From this Supreme Point, Source of all Creations, emanate rays in all direction. This Point can be assimilated to the Center of the Zodiac, from which emanate the twelve signs in 12 directions.

This Point can be compared with the Void in the Veda (Shunya), having no forms while it is not yet surrounded by the Maya. It can be called also as the Nothing of J. Boehme. [14]

This Center and this Circumference, besides, express the relation between liberty and necessity. If man identified oneself with the manifested and transitory world, then he will undergo the fate of this world. But if he withdraws his Energy, his Self-Consciousness in his Center, he will become a pilgrim of the Middle Way, and this Middle Way itself, he will withdraw from necessity, which reigns in the Circumference, and what happens in the Circumference could no more attain him. Living in the Essence, he is free to participate or not to the changes in the substance outside. [15]

Instead of talking directly of the Point and the Circumference, the Ancients can use the Compass and the Square, as seen in the picture of Chinese Fu Xi (Phục Hi) holding the Compass, and Nu Wa (Nữ Oa) holding the Square, meaning that we can find God in the Center of everything. [16]

The Freemasonry takes as their symbol, the Compass and the Square with the letter G, representing God, in the Center. They explain it as follows:

...The letter G then has in Freemasonry the same force and signification that the letter Yod had among the Cabalists. It is only a symbol of the Hebrew letter and, as that, is a symbol of God. [18]

The Symbol of the Rosicrucians, is a Rose (the Circle), put on the Cross (the Square). René Guénon and C. G. Jung said the all the rose-windows seen in Europa's cathedrals have also the meaning of the Circumference and the Center. [20]

In the Esoteric Alchemy East and West, they used also the Point and the Circle to sum up their method, their technics to liberate men and to sanctify them. The Center represent the Essence, the Immortality's Pill, the Mercurius, the "Lapis Philosophorum", the Tai Ji, the Golden Pill. The circumference represents all the phenomena, and all the vessels necessary for making the pill. [21]

C. G. Jung, after 30 years of study on all the Mandalas, concluded that the Center in them represented the Real Self in Man, and not the Ego. He wrote: "Unless everything deceives us, they (the Mandalas) signify nothing less than a psychic center of the personality, not to be identified with the ego." [22].

He also said: "I may define "self" as the totality of the conscious and unconscious psyche, but this totality transcends our vision; it is a veritable lapis invisibilitatis..." [23]

In sum, the Center always suggests the One, the Eternal in the midst of everything. And the Circle around, depicts all changes (Evolution and Involution) happened to men, and also the descending of God among men, to promote the ascension of men to God ("Suo nobis descensu ac salubrem dedicavit ascensum". Saint Bernard).

The Center is then the Absolute, the Essence from which emanates everything. One can call it Ether, Akasha, Brahma, Sunya, Chakravarti, the Golden Pill, the Immobile Motor of everything, Mercurius, Prima Materia, Archetype of the Divine Child, Anthropos, Hermes, Philosophical Gold, Quintessence, Unum, Unica Res, Monad, Rebis, The Drug of Immortality etc [24]

The Center is also The Coincidentia Oppositorum, where opposites meet. It is then the Anima Mundi, guide of Mankind, herself guided by God. It is then the Red and White - Hermaphrodic-Double Eagle. It is called also the Mystic Vessel where the two natures unite - sol et luna caduceus - to produce the Filius Hermaphroditus. It is called also The Fountain of Life as Fons Mercurialis, or the Symbolic City as center of the Earth, or the Lapis Sanctuary, or the Golden Fleece [25]

In this case, the Alchemists try only to help people find their own Essence, their own identity, and use time, their body, and their ego to reach their Essence.

C.G. Jung says also that everything derives from God. "Res ex qua sunt res, est Deus invisibilis et immobilis." (That from which things arise is the invisible and immovable God.) [26]

Egyptians called God as the Center of everything, or Tem, the pivot of all stars. [27]

In one drawing of the Tarot, we see in the middle the Tetragram Yod, He, Vau, He, meaning God or Yahwe. [29]

As for the Circle outside the Center, one is unanimous to consider it as a place where everything transitory evolves.

Jean Chabosseu wrote: "The Wheel is a symbol of the world. The Circumference represent the manifestation produced by all the spokes emanating from the center.

Regeneration, realization of the universal harmony, Evolution and Karma are interpretations given to the Circumference, especially if one consider the two figures, one prepared by successions of conscious and rational existences, is the Elected, who is coming near to the final elevation; the other still close to matter, and attached to it, by all terrestrial benefits, fails and must begin again. The image of Samsara is imperative: In the midts of the turning around rises the hope of a purified being who ascends to Brahma and live there... [30]

The Wheel of Brahma (Hinduism) (See Svetasvatara Up. 1-6; 6-1.Brih. 6. 2. 15-16. Chand. 5. 10; Bhagavad Gita 8, 24-26)

In sum, the Center stands for what is unchanging, and eternal, while the Circumference symbolizes all the changing phenomena. It is suggested that man must find what is Eternal, and not the transitory. The Bible teaches that we must construct on rock and not on sand. (Mat. 7:24-27)

F) Astrological Language

Idea to be conveyed: The One, the Eternal is in the Center. The Many, the Transitory is in the periphery.

Ancients East and West have written their creeds in the Monistic Theory in the sky. We will study its Center, and the Circle around it, called Zodiac, (Zoo = life; Diakos = Wheel) and the meaning of the Zodiac.

We know that Babylon, Egypt, Israel, Persia, India, Tibet, China, America North and South, and Islamic countries have their own Zodiac.

When we look at Celestial Atlas, East and West, we see that it has a Center located in the Pole-Star. Western people don't give to the Pole- Star any special significance. But Oriental people think that God has his residence there. Most of them consider this star as immobile in the midst of all stars. It is said in the Confucian Analects: "He who exercises government by means of his virtue, may be compared to the North Polar Star, which keeps its place and all the stars turn towards it." (Confucian Analects, Book II, chap. I)

Orientals called this star the Central Palace of the Sky, or Tian Ji Xing, where the Summum Unum resides. [31]

I can't accept that the Polar Star, being a star, that means - being a visible phenomenon - can be unchanged and immobile. And from a study of Chinese Astronomy, I found out soon that Chinese Astronomers don't accept that the Polar Star is immobile. Zu Heng Zhi (Tổ Hằng Chi; 430-501) discovered that the Polar Star turned around the middle of the sky about 1^o. Chen Kuo (Trầm Quát), astronomer under the reign of Song Shen Zong (Tống Thần Tông; 1068-1077) also found out that the Polar Star turned around the middle of the Sky or the North Pole, 3^o. [32]

Therefore, the Celestial Pole is always an empty spot. And after every 25920 years, period of time needed for the Sun to make a tour of the twelve signs of the Zodiac - he is now in Aquarius - there will be a new Polar Star.

If the Sky has its Center close to the Pole Star, the Circumference is then the Zodiac. The Western Zodiac has 12 signs or 12 constellations: Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces, Aries, Taurus, Gemini.

The Primeval Energy, impregnates itself, goes from virtuality to actuality, from unity to multiplicity, from imponderable to ponderable, from Spirit to Matter, from the realm of informal to the world of forms which becomes denser and denser. In the gradual descent of Energy into the ultimate density, the pure conscience wraps itself and has stolen away behind veils more and more compact until the term of its involution.

Then arriving at the lowest point of the cycle, Energy goes back in the ascending arc. It takes forms more and more subtle, associated with states of consciousness more and more vast and penetrating, toward the realm of intangible and non manifested, while multiplicity tends to reintegrate in the One. This is the cosmic sense of the Zodiac revealed by the study of its elements.[33]

It means that the cycle of change has two senses: from God to Creatures, and from Creatures to God. Denys Aréopagite calls the first movement, the Creative one which proceeds from God, and the second movement the Conversive one which goes back to God. [34]

In the Zodiac, its circle is also divided into two parts: From Cancer (Cự Giải) to Sagittarius (Thiên Yết) (from God to Man), and from Capricorn (Ma Yết) to Gemini (Song Tử) (from Man to God) [35]

According to the Ancients, men have to pass through two Gates. The Gate of Men, in Cancer (Cự Giải), and the Gate of the Gods in Capricorn (Ma Yết). "One, "Macrobius says, in his dream of Scipio, "was styled the Gate of Men; and the other, the Gate of the Gods. Cancer was the former, because souls descended by it to the earth; and Capricorn the latter, because by it they reascended to their seats of immortality, and became God." [36]

So from Cancer to Sagittarius is the Gate and the Way of Man. This can be called also the Extroversion way, where man is deeper and deeper engaged in mundane affairs, and become denser and denser, like Matter that is and surrounds him. From Capricorn to Gemini is the Gate of Gods, and the Way of Gods. This can be called the Introversion way, where man try to disentangle from mundane affairs, and become more and more subtle, finer and finer, like the Energy that surrounds him.

"To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted. A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to get and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love and a time to hate; a time of war and a time of peace...[37]

Cancer and Capricorn are also the two Gates of the Sun. The Sun is at the Summer's Solstice when he is in Cancer. He is at the Winter's Solstice when he is in Capricorn. When the sun is in Capricorn, he is reborn, he is resuscitated. The 25th of December of each year, the Winter's solstice day, is therefore chosen first to represent the birth of Mithra or of the Sun in the Mediterranean area, and afterward to commemorate the unknown birthday of Jesus Christ.

Now we must know how to connect these two Gates with God. Father Theophile Moreux said: At the origin of all substances there is the Prima Materia (God), an indestructible substance serving as the stuff of everything. From this matter, derive two principles: the philosophical Sulfur and Mercury, which by combination produced the four Elements" Earth, Fire, Water and Air. We must know that these appellations have nothing in common with all the vulgar substances bearing these names. They are only philosophical symbols. [38]

The Oriental Zodiac has 28 constellations, but occupy the same place as the Occidental Zodiac. We can also divide the Oriental Zodiac into two part: East and West. Jing, Gui (Cancer), Liu, Xing, Zhang (Leo), Yi, Zhen (Virgo). Jue, Gang (Libra), Ti, Fang, Xin (Scorpio), Wei, Ji (Sagittarius) (Tỉnh, Quỷ, Liễu, Tinh, Trương, Dực, Chẩn, Giác, Cang, Đê, Phòng, Tâm, Vĩ, Cơ).

Can, Zui (Gemini), Bi, Mao, Wei (Taurus), Lou, Gui (Aries). Bi, Shi (Pisces), Wei, Xu, Nu (Aquarius), Niu, Dau (Capricorn) (Sâm, Chủy, Tất, Mão, Vị, Lâu, Khuê, Bích, Thất, Nguy, Hư, Nử, Ngưu, Đẩu) .

The Gate of Man is then in Niu, Dau (Ngưu, Đẩu). The Gate of Gods is in Jing, Gui (Tỉnh, Quỷ).

The Galaxy crosses the Zodiac in two opposite points, Cancer and Capricorn, the tropical points in the sun's course, ordinarily called the Gates of the Sun, and the Milky Way (The Silver River) crosses at the signs Cancer and Capricorn. It means that it is very hard for a man to find the Gates of Gods. Fortunately, Ancient Chinese astronomers have named one star in the constellations Niu, Dau (Ngưu, Đẩu; Capricorn), the Ford of the Sky (Tian Jin, Thiên Tân), where one can cross the Milky Way by foot. [39]

To enter the Gate of Gods, is then a rare privilege reserved only for a very few men. "For many are called, but few are chosen" (Mat. 20: 16 and 22: 14)

The Yi Jing has also a picture representing the 64 hexagrams disposed in a circle. This Circle can also be divided into two halves: The right one has 32 hexagrams disposed from top to bottom, in a an increased order of density, from the less dense to the densest, from the hexagram Kou, (Cấu) Meeting, or Coming to Meet, or Meeting with the Mundane (See R. Wilheim, The I Ching, p. 170), to the densest hexagram The Receptive or the Earth (Khôn). These 32 hexagrams represent the Way of Man, or the Mundane Way. They are the extrovertive way.

The 32 hexagrams of the left half disposed from bottom to top, according to a decreased order of density, from the less pure to the purest, from the Hexagram Fu (Phục), Return or Conversion to God (See Wilheim, the I Ching, p. 97) to the hexagram Ch'ien (Kiền), The Creative or the Heaven.

Shao Kang Jie (Thiệu Khang Tiết) says that everything comes from the Center and ends up in the Center. In that case our great circle of Change starts from the Center, passes by the hexagram Kou (Cấu) and the hexagram Earth (Khôn) (this is the extroversion way, with the Material Civilization). After that it passes by the Hexagram Fu (Phục), and Heaven (Kiền) and ends up in the Center. It means that we must return to God. Chuang Tzu called it "resting in God" (See Léon Wieger, Chuang Tzu, Chapter 2, C, p. 218). The second half is called the introvertive way.

The time for man to Return to God is approximately from 34 to 36, but it can be sooner or later. It is then time for Illumination. Dr. Richard Maurice Bucke says that it is time for man to go from Self to Cosmic Consciousness. In his book Cosmic Consciousness, on p. 81, he has given a list of 43 Elected, and we can see that Gautama, Jesus, Paul, Dante, Behmen etc attain illumination at 35. [40]

The Yi Jing said: at the time of Fu, or of the Return to God, one will see his Real Self, and will have self-knowledge. [42]

Shao Kang Jie (Thiệu Khang Tiết) has written a poem saying roughly that: as an intelligent man, and having the Creator, in our heart, we are not poor. In the first half of our live, we should devote ourselves to study materialistic and pragmatic things, while in the second half of our life, we must study to know our Cosmic Origin. In that case, we will have a happy life.[43]

"It is in searching to transfigure the limited and to render it worthy of immortality... that a man can find out the profound sense of life and escape from spiritual sterility. [44]

G) The Artistic Language

The most famous beautiful art form is seen in Mandalas, or Yantras of the world. Mandalas and Yantras are symbols of cosmic unity.

Mahu Khanna said: in the Brhadaranyaka Upanishah (2,1,19) there is the metaphor of a spider sitting at the center of its web, issuing and reabsorbing its threads in concentric circles, all held at one point: This image occurs in several Upanishads since it points to the basis of the Indian world-view: Unity in diversity. The spider's threads symmetrically expands into a visible circumference, and though there are divergent lines in between and varying distances to be spanned they can all be traced back to the central point of the web.

This apparently simple metaphor also condenses the essence of Indian thought: All existence is governed by a single principle, and the point of origin of the supreme consciousness is simultaneously an infinite reservoir of collective energy, from which everything issues and into which everything returns. This Center is the One, the potential All-point, which not only serves as a bridge, but is Cosmic Unity underlying the physical diversity of the world. The metaphor also alludes to the Indian vision of the structure of the cosmos, which is conceived as a 'holon', growing and expanding in concentric circles, and then contracting, dissolving into a single principle... Like a spider in its web, the bindu (point) at the center of the yantra is a center of every creation, the radiating source of energy that generates all forms.

The Central quest of Indian thought is to achieve total experience of the One. Man is a spiritual traveler whose main aim, in Indian tradition is to intuit the unity of the One. The traveler, whether he is driven directly to the summit, whether he pauses for a while, whether he stumbles on the path or turn away, knows intuitively that all his movements inevitably lead him back to the starting point, the All-point, the origin and the end of all existence. [47]

The Yantra, therefore, depicts the evolution and the involution of the cosmos. The expanding and contracting currents of vibration symbolized by the Sanskrit letters form a web-like image, as the cosmos emanates and returns again to the primordial center, the One. [48]

Mandala, in Sanskrit literally means Circle and Center. To Westerners, the popular reintroduction of the Mandala concept can be traced to the work of Carl G. Jung, who rediscovered the Mandala as a basic structural device in the alchemical tradition of the West, and as a therapeutic, integrative art form created by patients in their own search for individuation. [49]

The aim of Yantra and Mandala is to arrive back at the primordial point where man can exclaim: I am That! or in the worlds of the ancient Vedic seers: That art Thou - Tat Tvam Asi. To understand the divine nature of things is to become rooted in the heart of the divine. This is the privilege of man. The Ancient Mexicans described the artist/seer as a Yolteotl, one whose heart is rooted in God. [50]

Mandala and Yantra, with its Center and Circle, not only depict for us the way this world of diversity is made, but also show us our way of return to the One, to the Center. In their first step, they are scientific, and in their second step, they are religious.

Some one compare them to the eyes. Ralph Metsner and Timothy Leary said: "The mechanism of the mandala can also be understood in term of the neurophysiology of the eye...[as] the mandala is a depiction of the structure of the eye, the center of the mandala corresponds to the foveal "blind spot". Since the "blind spot" is the exit from the eye to the visual system of the brain, by going "out" through the Center, you are going to the brain. The Yogi finds the mandala in his own body. The mandala is an instrument for transcending the world of visually perceived phenomena by first centering them and turning them inward.".[52]

The Center of the Mandala shows us then the Center, the true city of Brahman in us. It is said in the Chandogya Upanishad (VIII, I, 1-3): "Within the city of Brahman, which is the body, there is the Heart, and within the heart there is a little house. This house has a shape of a lotus, and within it dwells that which is to be sought after, inquired about, and realized.

Even so large as the universe outside is the universe within the lotus of the heart. Within it are heaven and earth, the sun, the moon, the lightning and the stars. Whatever is in macrocosm is in this microcosm... Though old age comes to the body, the lotus of the heart does not grow old. It does not die with the death of the body. The lotus of the heart, where Brahman resides with all his glory - that, and not the body is the true city of Brahman."

Where we can find this Center in our body? As I have said many times in this book, this Center can be found in the middle of our brain and it is called Ni Wan Gong (Nê Hoàn Cung), or the Third Ventricle.

If the Third Ventricle is the immobile Center in our body, and is the residence of the One, where is then the Zodiac, where all the phenomena roll in our body? Chinese people called it the Ren Channel (Nhâm), an imaginary Channel in the mid-section of the thorax and the abdomen, and the Du Channel (Đốc Mạch) running through the spinal column.

The Ren Channel (Nhâm Mạch) starts at Chengjiang (Thừa Tương), in the depression in the center of the mentolabial groove. It corresponds to Cancer. It finishes at the point Huiyin (Hội Âm), in the Center of the perineum and corresponds to Sagittarius.

The Du Channel (Đốc Mạch) starts at the point Changqiang (Trường Cường), midway between the coccyx and the anus. It corresponds to Capricorn. It finishes at Mouth-Yinjiao (Khẩu Ngận Giao), between the upper lip and the upper labial gingiva, in the frenulum of the upper lip. It corresponds to Gemini.

Taoists and Indian Yogi used these two channels to practice the medullar respiration (respiration through the spinal column), where expiration passes through Ren Channel (Nhâm Mạch), and inspiration passes through the spinal column (Đốc Mạch). Indian Yogis called this practice the opening of the Kundalini.

Once we know the meaning of Yantras and Mandalas, we do not worry as to their structure. We don't care if they are made of triangles, spheres, or circles, or lotuses. We have to note anyhow, that "at the periphery of the figure are four T-Shaped portals at the four cardinal directions and known as cosmic doors because it is through them that the aspirant symbolically enters the cosmic force-field. Pointers directing towards the interior of a yantra, the portals are an initiatory threshold which simultaneously opposes the phenomenal and embraces the Noumenal." [53]

Besides Mandalas and Yantras, the Four Elements are frequently used in the Artistic Language.

As we have seen, that the Four Elements in the West are Fire, Water, Air and Earth, and are represented by four stars or four beasts (Taurus: Aldebaran, Man or Aquarius = Fomalhaut, Leo = Regulus, Scorpio or Eagle = Antares).

The Four Elements can be fused in One Sphinx, as seen in Ezekiel. Ezekiel in the vision that he had by the river Chebar, saw four sphinxes, each of them with four faces: "As for the likeness of their faces, they four had the faces of a man, and the face of a lion, on the right side: and they four had the face of an ox on the left side; they four also had the face of one eagle." (Ezekiel. 1:4-15).

The Four Elements appear again in Revelation, 4:6: "And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast has a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle."

The Yi Jing disposes the Tai Ji (Thái Cực) or the Summum Unum in the Center, the Yin and the Yang also called the Moon and the Sun in the second layer, and the Four Elements in the third layer. Now, if we like to reach the Tai Ji (Thái Cực), we must go from the outer layer to the innermost. Strangely enough, the Revelation talked about the Breaking of the Seven Seals, and the order of these seals are as follows (Rev. 6: 1-17):

In the first Seal, we see a White horse; in the second, a Red horse; in the third, a Black horse; in the fourth, a Pale horse; in the sixth, we see crisis in the Sun and the Moon; in the seventh, we see the coming of God... In Zechariah, we see again the vision of the Four Chariots driven by for kinds of horses: Red, Black, White and Bay. (Zek. 6: 3,4)

The Four Elements or the Four Beasts are fused in one to form the Egyptian Sphinx (Gizeh Sphinx), the Greek Sphinx and especially the Assyrian Sphinx.

The Four Beasts used by Oriental people are the Green Dragon (Thanh Long), the Red Pheasant (Chu Tước), the White Tiger (Bạch Hổ) and the Black Warrior (Huyền Vũ) They can be also: Dragon (Long), Unicorn (Ly), Eagle (Phụng), Tortoise (Qui).

In Indian physiology, we see that Chakras are disposed in the spinal column, from the densest to the less dense:

6. the Ajna (Chakra in the middle of the eyebrows). It equates to the third Eye.

7. the last Chakra is called the Shahasrara, at the top of the head. It is called the seat of Shiva, or of the Yang Deity. [54]

The Tarot, used mostly in divination, has 78 cards. 22 are considered as major arcana. 56 remaining cards are called minor arcana or People Cards and are divided in four suits or elements: 16 are called the Swords (Air) suit. 16 are called the Wands (fire) suit. 16 are called the Cups (Water) suit. 16 are called the Discs (Earth) suit.

Robert Wang, author of the Cabalistic Tarot, wrote: "The chances are good that most readers of this book are disillusioned with both organized religion and science. Neither seems to provide the insight into our human condition demanded by an increased and world-wide sophistication. We have learned so much through the wonders of technology and modern communications, that the explanations of our fathers appear more placebo than panacea.... Esoteric tradition, as represented by the Tarot, makes some very basic statement about man and the nature of the Universe which is his ultimate environment. It says that there is a perfect order which one has the capacity to perceive, and that there is no such things as an accident. For every movement of every leaf on every tree is a reason, and every movement of everything is inter-related. Separateness is a myth. We are all part of one great unity.

These principles have been expressed for thousands of years, and in thousands of way. And somehow, as expressed, they are always so simple. The concept that All is One, and we are All has a certain poetry in this. It may strike a deep-rooted chord and then be quickly forgotten..." [55]

Tarot teaches people to develop a conscious awareness of, and contact with, an innermost spiritual nature which is the essence of God. And Tarot, then, become a means of self-exploration, and can lead us to a mystical life...[56]

Lévi (Éliphas) was among the first to declare that the Tarot was more than merely a quaint device for telling fortune, and that it was virtually the key to all occult science. [57]

These four fundamental properties, are mingled with each other to produce properties of everything in the world.

The Four Elements show that East and West have the same conception about the creation of the world, and of man. We must restore these antique notions and the uniqueness of our own culture.

The Four Elements lead us to talk about the Swastika and the Cross: We see that the Swastika has four wings that can be rotated. It represents the world rotating around a fixed point in the middle. The Swastika was not only the symbol of Buddhism, but it was much more ancient than Buddhism. We see it in the digging of Mohenjo-Daro in West-Pakistan, or in Samarra, north of Bagdad. We find it also in many Catholic cathedrals and in many Catholic pieces of Art. We find it for instance in the Nativity Basilic of Bethlehem, in the napkin covering the altar of Heilegen-Grabe church (Germany), in the church Sainte Marie des Champs, in Soest (Germany), in a painting in a church at Dalby (South Swede), or in a bell in the Church Utterslev, Denmark[58]

The Swastika appears frequently in the catacombs signifying Christ as the power of the world. In Greece, it is an attribute of Zeus. Among Asian Moslems, the Swastika denotes the four cardinal directions and control of the four seasons by angels. In Rome, it is the symbol of Jupiter Tonans and Pluvius...

There are two forms of Swastikas, one having four corners turning to the left, and one having four corners turning to the right. One is clockwise, and the other is anti-clockwise, one is lucky and the other is unlucky.

The Cross is also an universal symbol. The oldest Cross is now kept in the British Museum under the No 89.128. It is made in the dynasty of Kassite, in Babylone, around 1746 B.C. and 1171 B.C. It is a world center and therefore a point of communication between heaven and earth and a cosmic axis, thus sharing the symbolism of the cosmic tree, mountain, pillar, ladder etc It is dualism in nature and the union of opposites and represents spiritual union and the integration of man's soul in the horizontal- vertical aspects necessary to full life. It is Supreme Identity. The Cross is the figure of man at full stretch. It represents also the four rivers of Paradise flowing from the root of the Tree of Life. It comprises the cardinal axes; the quaternary under its dynamic aspects; the quincunx, the four elements of the world united at the fifth point, the Center.

The four branches of the Cross symbolize four directions of the sky (North, South, East, West), the four angles of the astrological theme (AS, DS, FC, MC), the four sunny seasons, the four Royal Stars that marks in ancient Egypt, the commencement of the four seasons: Aldebaran (The Taurus's Eye), Regulus (The Lion's Heart), Antares (The Scorpio's Heart) and Fomalhaut (The Mouth of the Southern Fish - Aquarius). The Christ's message is transmitted through four Evangelists John, Matthew, Mark and Luke, with difference in nature symbolized by The Eagle, The Man, The Leo, and the Ox. St Irenaeus first established this correspondence, and connects them to the four regions of the world, and to the four principal winds. [59]

We see that in the Cross, in the Swastika, or in the Four Elements, a Center is always implied. This Center is the Summum Unum, or the Eternal around which everything evolves. This Center is called the Quintessence, in the Four Elements.

The Four Elements, and their quintessence can be erected into temples, such as the temple of Koumboum in Gyantse (Tibet) [60]

Louis Lallement thus wrote about the Quintessence: "One can observe that all the ancient cosmogonies present the world as made up of four Elements: fire, air, water and earth. They considered "the Quintessence" not as a fifth element, but as something belonging to an order of subtle reality intermediary between spirit and matter, or as something like the immaterial matter of the Creation, containing united in an original indistinction the principles of the four elements.

Generally speaking, the Quintessence symbolizes the pure spiritual reality in relation to its quaternary translation tarnished by expression or incarnation. The Quintessence is similar to the Word, the Logos in comparison with the four Evangelists. The Quintessence is not a pure symbol, it has its own reality, even still unseizable by human senses...

As for the quaternary law in time, we have only to remind here the four ages of humanity, the four epochs of human life, and the four seasons in the year..."[61].

In Antiquity, men considered high and famous mountains as the Center of the World, as the pivot of the earth, where heaven and earth meet together. These mountains are for instance the Mount Kun Lun, the Fuji, the Elbrouz, The Thabor, the Olympus etc

Gradually, they considered temples and monuments such as Jerusalem, the Pyramids, Angkor-Thom and many Hindu Temples as Axis Mundi.

In a great temple, always we have a Central Chamber or Cella reserved to the highest divinity, and around which we have walls symbolizing mountains, and trenches standing for rivers. The whole meaning is that if man likes to climb up to divinity, he must pass by mountains, and oceans, and must endure many tribulations and hardships. [62]

If we look at art, we see that many temples are built with Stone disposed concentrically, with the highest divinity in the Center.

In India, there are many vestiges of stone disposed in circle, such as in Dipaldiana. [63]

In the Druid religion of ancient Gaul and Britain, we see many huge stone disposed in circle such as in the Stonehenge, and Avesbery. [64]

Other Druid temples have also stones disposed in circles: in the middle of them, there is a big rock, symbolizing the Supreme Being. We see these vestiges at Y Cromlech in Pembrochire, or at Keswich in Cumberland (England). [65]

In Norway and Sweden, we see that temples consecrated to Odin have 12 seats reserved to 12 principal deities and a seat in the middle reserved for Odin. We see these vestiges at Scandia, Zeland and Jutland. [66]Looking into myths of Creation of diverse religions such as Jewish, Catholic, Persian, Atlantes, Greek, or Hindu, we see that Paradise is in the middle, with Four Rivers coming to it from the four corners of the Earth. This means that Paradise comes from a Center.

In our brain, the third ventricle is in the middle, having four arteries issuing from the Circle of Willis, and depart to four directions. Hindus and Taoists called it the Shahasrara, or the Ni Wan Gong (Nê Hoàn Cung), the point where God and Men meet. The West also considered our brain was a lodging house of the divine part. [67]

We know that many countries considered the Center as their native land. Jewish people considered for instance Sion as the center of the world. Pindar, Sophocles, Titus Livius, Ovid etc. considered Athena or Delphi as the Navel, the Center of the World. Hindu and Buddhist considered Mount Meru as the Center of the world. Babylonian considered Babylon as the Center of the World. China considered itself as the Center of the world, and as the most civilized people. It considered all the surrounding countries as barbarious.

I have demonstrated that the Center of the World is in each of us. And we can easily prove it: If we go into an open space, in the country side for instance, in every of our steps we will see that the horizon around us changes its limits, while we are always in the middle of a circumference determined by our standing position.

We see that everywhere in the world, ancient people try to teach us how to find the Eternal Center. And we know that to find the Eternal Center in the midst of all turmoil is to find God himself. The Eternal Center is then the Fountain of Immortality. To find it is to know how to be united with God.

In so doing, we must go back into our heart, dissipate all the clouds of concupiscence and of ignorance, imitate Saints and Sages of all creeds.

[1] E.C. G. Turville Petre, The Religion of Ancient Scandinavia, Holt, Rinehart & Winston, NY, Chicago, SF. 1964.

[2] On Iranian myth, see R.C. Zaehner, The Dawn and Twilight of Zoroastrianism, 1961, pp. 203, 248, 249. For derivation from India, see Ibid. pp. 207-208)

[14] Mr. Sénard, Le Zodiaque, Clef de l'Ontologie appliquéeà la Psychologie, p. 10.

[17] (John Davies - Summa Totalis or All in All and the Same Forever 1607). Mackey's Revised Freemasonry Encyclopedia, p. 964)

[25] See Carl G. Jung, Psychology and Alchemy, fig 8, p. 40, fig. 20, p. 52, fig. 23, p. 65; fig. 25, p. 69; fig. 32, p. 79; fig. 51, p. 104; fig. 112, p. 214 etc..

[31] Gustave Schlegel, Uranographie Chinoise, La Haye, Librairie de Martinus Nijhoff, 1875, p. 523.

[34] Roger Bastide. Les Problèmesde la vie mystique, Collection Armand Collin, p. 38-39.

[36] Albert Pike, Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, Charleston, 1871, p. 438.

[40] Richard Maurice Bucke, M.D., Cosmic Consciousness New York, E. P. Dutton and Company, Inc. Publishers, 1901, p. 81.

[42] Wilhelm/Baynes, The I Ching, Bollingen series XIX, Princeton University Press, 1950, pp. 504, 505.

[49] José and Miriam Arguelles, Mandala, Shambhala: Bouler and London, 1972, p. 13

[54] Arthur Avalon, translated by Charles Vachot, La Puissance du Serpent (The Serpent power), Lyon, Paul Derain, 128 Rue Vauban, 1959, p. 127, 154.

[55] Robert Wang, Qabalistic Tarot, Samuel Weiser, Inc., York Beach, Maine, 1983, p. 5.

[58] L'Origine de la Croix gammée, in R’veillez-vous, 22/11/1970, No 22, pp. 21 and ss.

[62] Pierre Grison, Angkor ou Univers manifesté, France Asie, No 114-115, p. 537, 538.

Le Symbolisme des temples Hindous et Kmers, France Asie No 114-115, p. 341 and ss.

[68] José and Miriam Arguelles, Mandala, Shambhala: Boulder and London, 1972, p. 48.