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SPIRIT of THE ALL. And, upward and onward along this Scale of Life,
everything is moving. All are on the Path, whose end is THE ALL. All
progress is a Returning Home. All is Upward and Onward, in spite of all
seemingly contradictory appearances. Such is the message of the
Illumined.

The Hermetic Teachings concerning the process of the Mental Creation of
the Universe, are that at the beginning of the Creative Cycle, THE ALL,
in its aspect of Being, projects its Will toward its aspect of
"Becoming" and the process of creation begins. It is taught that the
process consists of the lowering of Vibration until a very low degree of
vibratory energy is reached, at which point the grossest possible form
of Matter is manifested. This process is called the stage of Involution,
in which THE ALL becomes "involved," or "wrapped up," in its creation.
This process is believed by the Hermetists to have a Correspondence to
the mental process of an artist, writer, or inventor, who becomes so
wrapped up in his mental creation as to almost forget his own existence
and who, for the time being, almost "lives in his creation," If instead
of "wrapped" we use the word "rapt," perhaps we will give a better idea
of what is meant.

This Involuntary stage of Creation is sometimes called the "Outpouring"
of the Divine Energy, just as the Evolutionary state is called the
"Indrawing." The extreme pole of the Creative process is considered to
be the furthest removed from THE ALL, while the beginning of the
Evolutionary stage is regarded as the beginning of the return swing of
the pendulum of Rhythm--a "coming home" idea being held in all of the
Hermetic Teachings.

The Teachings are that during the "Outpouring," the vibrations become
lower and lower until finally the urge ceases, and the return swing
begins. But there is this difference, that while in the "Outpouring" the
creative forces manifest compactly and as a whole, yet from the
beginning of the Evolutionary or "Indrawing" stage, there is manifested
the Law of Individualization--that is, the tendency to separate into
Units of Force, so that finally that which left THE ALL as
unindividualized energy returns to its source as countless highly
developed Units of Life, having risen higher and higher in the scale by
means of Physical, Mental and Spiritual Evolution.

The ancient Hermetists use the word "Meditation" in describing the
process of the mental creation of the Universe in the Mind of