anscends the power of
conception of even the greatest intellect, it is useless for us to
speculate on the interplay of cosmic forces and the mysterious
interaction of Spheres of Being that transcend all normal human
consciousness. It is only on the lowest and outermost plane that the
lower Quaternary symbolizes the four Cardinal Points. The Michael (Sun),
Gabriel (Moon), Uriel (Venus), and Raphael (Mercury) of the Kabalah, the
four Beasts, the Wheels of Ezekiel, were living, divine, and intelligent
Entities pertaining to the inner nature of man and the universe for the
Initiated.

It is to be presumed that the Simonians had distinct teachings on this
point, as is evidenced by the title of their lost work, _The Book of the
Four Angles and Points of the World_. The Four Angles were probably
connected with the four ducts or Streams of the "River going forth from
Eden to water the Garden." These Streams have their analogy on all
planes, and cosmically are of the same nature as the Akasha-Ganga--the
Ganges in the Akashic Ocean of Space--and the rest of the Rivers in the
Pauranic writings of the Hindus.

But before going further it will be as well to have a Diagram or Scheme
of the Simonian Aeonology, for presumably the School of Simon had such a
Scheme, as we know the Ophites had from the work of Origen, _Contra
Celsum_.

[Illustration: DIAGRAM OF THE SIMONIAN AEONOLOGY.][121]

Of course no Diagram is anything more than a symbolical mnemonic, so to
say; in itself it is entirely insufficient and only permits a glance at
one aspect, or face, of the world-process. It is a step in a ladder
merely, useful only for mounting and to be left aside when once a higher
rung is reached. Thus it is that the whole of the elements of Euclid
were merely an introduction to the comprehension of the "Platonic
Solids," which must also, in their turn, be discarded when the within or
essence of things has to be dealt with and not the without or
appearance, no matter how "typical" that appearance may be.

Sufficient has already been said of the Universal Principle, of the
Universal Root and of the Boundless Power--the Parabrahman (That Which
transcends Brahma), Mula-Prakriti (Root-Nature), and Supreme Ishvara,
or the Unmanifested Eternal Logos, of the Vedantic Philosophers. The
next stage is the potential unmanifested type of the Trinity, the Three
in One and One in Three, the Potentialities of Vishnu, Brahma, and
Shiva, the Preservative, E