Poimandres wrote:As I said, then, the birth of the seven was as follows.
Text seems to be pointing the manifested correspondences of the seven brothers starting from the four elements: Earth, Water, Fire and spirit (air) through which the manifested creation appears. Ether is the fifth, and I wonder whether it is the one I called earlier as 'prima materia', the conglomeration wherefrom the three other elements differentiated from, or if it is the light wherefrom
the word descended above the prima materia to disturb the differentiating elements out of. Spirit is often synonymous to wind and
word, so I'm personally leaning towards the latter interpretation. Which ever it is, I think the two (light and prima materia) correspond to each other, mirror each other from the distance of different metaphysical spheres of emanation. Approximately in this text Earth seems to corresponds to linga sharira, Water corresponds to kama rupa, Fire corresponds to atma-prana with the emphasis on the latter, and spirit-wind corresponds to manas-kama manas. Ether as prima materia would then correspond to manas-prana with the emphasis on the former as undifferentiated matter under the undifferentiated intelligence.
Here we have five correspondences to the seven. The remaining two seems to be soul and mind, that are also portions of the manifested world - "the cosmos of the senses". They are instruments of higher principles, instruments by which the manifested human being reaches the spheres of heaven above the manifested world. Fire and Spirit are
also licking the gates of heavens as seen in the text, these elements rise above, and as seen in the SoA point of view to the tabulation of the principles: manas is seen part of the higher triad and prana is the intermediary between the higer and the lower. Theosophical tabulations agree to this in some respect but also makes a more strict definition where the two last ones, buddhi and atma form the nucleus of the higher principles, while manas is already descending (and ascending) in it's nature, the Luciferian light falling to the lower worlds. This fits well with the idea of manas licking the gates of heavens. The reality of principles and their instruments above the elemental spheres (here: mind and soul) is what can be seen creating the doctrine of ascension back to the heavens and beyond from the elemental creation.
"From light came mind" can be seen pointing how mind is the instrument of manas - the higher intellect. To some degree mind can be seen as kama-manas, but it is also the word Poimandres is called by. I think Poimandres is the Windwalker - Hermes with winged sandals and Venus-Lucifer with the lightbringing, mind creating qualities - and thus the higher entity of the mind, a deity of manas. The receiving student seems to be identifying more to kama manas as he learns of the visions and metaphysical elaborations of the teacher, and could be seen fulfilling the role of the mind instead of light in this sentence. As Ether already occupies the correspondence of manas in this interpretation of mine, we could also interpret this Light-mind emphasising the oneness of atma-manas. I remember interpreting the vision of everything being light as a field of monads. Each of these monads are holding individual atma within, and from the atma also pours out the shining starlight of manas.
From the abstraction of life (force), the principle looming above prana-shakti - buddhi -, formed the soul. The idea of circumference (center-circumference, spirit-soul, male-female) as the uniting principle speaks of the gathering of powers within a single soul and how the soul of an individual reflects the whole of a microcosm, the intactness of the individual sphere, and thus its ability to connect to all these higher and lower spheres and other individuals who have the same instruments and access to the spheres above and their corresponding lower manifestations. Soul is the "sphere" as an instrument of buddhi.
To enrich the interpretation of mere principle correspondences and what they could reveal, I'll try to look in to the texts own definitions with a bit more free form interpretation.
Poimandres wrote:<Earth> was the female.
We can remember receptivity as virtue of the feminine, which pertains to the memory holding idea (karma). All our deeds embedded to our body, to which our Will (to unload the accumulated burden) corresponds to.
Poimandres wrote:Water did the fertilizing.
The Water fertilizes the ground, as the feelings lure out the embedded burdens from the body. The water starts to desolidify the ground and all sorts of tensions and problems begin to appear in the form of feelings.
Hermes Trismegistus wrote:her Water filled with longing
This is an interesting variation between translations. The same idea seeps through as the Water longs the secrets of the body. Relating to this, I find it immensely beautiful formation of English language how the word
secretion means "a functionally specialized substance released from a gland or cell".
Poimandres wrote:Fire was the maturing force.
Again, fire as the element which licks the gates of the heavens, thus it "matures" the other elements towards ascension. It does it by processing the feelings waken in the waters. Fire sort of forces the feelings in touch with the other principles, forces the substances to be refined in the vial of the alchemist. Fire and spirit bring out reasoning upon the feelings.
Poimandres wrote:Nature took spirit from the ether and brought forth bodies in the shape of the man.
The five-fold shape of man, which is seen defining the instrumental demands of a human being - a microcosm, an image of the divine man. These human shapes can be interpreted in this sequence of interpretations
as the deeds where manas - kama-manas axis has been set upon the feelings that have been risen from the body.through the element of water.
Poimandres wrote:
From life and light the man became soul and mind; from life came soul, from light came mind, and all things in the cosmos of the senses remained thus until a cycle ended <and> kinds of things began to be.
This whole of the cycles make up the journey of atma. This is also the very same teaching the early Theosophists wrote about as the seven cycles, greater and lesser, going forth until the creation manages to reach pralaya.