itself, is above Gender, as it is above every other Law, including those
of Time and Space. It is the Law, from which the Laws proceed, and it is
not subject to them. But when THE ALL manifests on the plane of
generation or creation, then it acts according to Law and Principle, for
it is moving on a lower plane of Being. And consequently it manifests
the Principle of Gender, in its Masculine and Feminine aspects, on the
Mental Plane, of course.

This idea may seem startling to some of you who hear it for the first
time, but you have all really passively accepted it in your everyday
conceptions. You speak of the Fatherhood of God, and the Motherhood of
Nature--of God, the Divine Father, and Nature the Universal Mother--and
have thus instinctively acknowledged the Principle of Gender in the
Universe. Is this not so?

But, the Hermetic teaching does not imply a real duality--THE ALL is
ONE--the Two Aspects are merely aspects of manifestation. The teaching
is that The Masculine Principle manifested by THE ALL stands, in a way,
apart from the actual mental creation of the Universe. It projects its
Will toward the Feminine Principle (which may be called "Nature")
whereupon the latter begins the actual work of the evolution of the
Universe, from simple "centers of activity" on to man, and then on and
on still higher, all according to well-established and firmly enforced
Laws of Nature. If you prefer the old figures of thought, you may think
of the Masculine Principle as GOD, the Father, and of the Feminine
Principle as NATURE, the Universal Mother, from whose womb all things
have been born. This is more than a mere poetic figure of speech--it is
an idea of the actual process of the creation of the Universe. But
always remember, that THE ALL is but One, and that in its Infinite Mind
the Universe is generated, created and exists.

It may help you to get the proper idea, if you will apply the Law of
Correspondence to yourself, and your own mind. You know that the part of
You which you call "I," in a sense, stands apart and witnesses the
creation of mental Images in your own mind. The part of your mind in
which the mental generation is accomplished may be called the "Me" in
distinction from the "I" which stands apart and witnesses and examines
the thoughts, ideas and images of the "Me." "As above, so below,"
remember, and the phenomena of one plane may be employed to solve the
riddles of higher or lower planes.

Is it any w