The section below was taken directly from the book Initiation by Elizabeth Haich (Chapter 33). 

 

It is a comprehensive description of the nature of existence and creation and how mathematics and geometry align to spiritual truths. This segment was recalled by Haich through a highly developed form of clairvoyance, when she had attained as a genuine spiritual initiate in the 20th century. This story is recounted through clairvoyance, as guided by Divine Teachers, in ancient Egypt many millennia before (the specific date of this discussion was stated in the book).

 

Any spelling errors are the fault of the admin. Some are a result of the export process to word via PDF.  I added comments/quotes in italics from Dr. Rudolf Steiner's works, and other reference points, in an attempt to provide additional perspectives and insights. 

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"Once again I stand before Ptahhotep in his laboratory.

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'I've already explained to you,' he says, 'that behind all the manifestations of the visible world there is a primordial force, a striving to return to the state of unity, and this force is apparent as the attraction between the two complementary halves, the positive and the negative. You are now standing before me because the earth's gravitational force is holding your body here. If it weren't for this force, you and everything that is not rooted to the earth would have spun off into space long ago.

 

Even the whole gigantic body of the earth would have broken apart long ago. The force which holds together the earth and all the matter within its atmosphere doesn't belong to the earth itself, but merely affects the earth operating outward from its centre. If matter had no resistance and merely yielded to this force, the tremendous mass of the earth and everything that's living on it would disappear into its centre. But where would it go? Think for a moment.

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'Come closer, my child. I'll show you. If I put various things on the top of this table, tie a string on to each, draw the strings through the hole in the middle of the table top, and then pull all the strings from below, all the objects are drawn towards the centre of the table top; and all those that are smaller than the hole disappear. Where do they go? Aren't they drawn towards the point from which the force is acting? But where does the force in the centre of the earth come from ... the force that draws everything towards it? Can you answer that, my child?'

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I reflect for a moment and answer: 'The earth is recognizable. If everything that is recognizable is so only because it has separated itself from the "all and nothingness", leaving its complementary half behind in the unmanifested state, then the earth too must have its complementary half in the unmanifested state, and the force of gravitation it exerts on all the creatures and objects living on it is the striving for reunification between the earth and its unmanifested complementary half which has been left behind in the void as its negative reflection. The earth's gravitational pull thus draws all the earth towards the void which stands beyond time and space, in order to bring about this reunion.

 

If the earth were to yield, all the earth and everything on it would disappear into the centre, into the void. But that would be a return to the paradisiacal unity—to God—to bliss! Why can't that happen, Father?'

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'My child,' answers Ptahhotep, 'the obstacle is the resistance of matter! Without resistance no creation is possible! It's the resistance of matter that keeps the earth and all creation from disappearing and being annihilated. Everything that has appeared in this recognizable world has fallen out of a point in the universe, and this point has then become its own centre. Through the fall it became matter. Now it can't return to divine unity because its own resistance as matter doesn't let it. A return to the paradisiacal divine unity—to God—is only possible through the spiritualization of the matter, that is, through the transformation of matter into spirit! But matter, all by itself, could never become spirit without spiritual help. That's why one aspect of God comes down into matter, clothes itself in matter, assumes material characteristics, and animates it as the self in order to make possible its spiritualization, its salvation.

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'The effect which this self in the centre of every creature has constantly exerted on the innermost structure of matter throughout aeons and aeons of time has led to the development of the forms of life existing on each rung of the ladder of creation. Thus each creature has come into being, from the simple protozoa up to the highest manifestation.

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'The highest creature on earth is man. It is his task to carry out the completion of the spiritualization of the earth, a task at which all living creatures are at work, each within the limits of its own particular stage of development. And every human being who transforms himself from a being identical with the body into a being reawakened in spirit, a divine being— identifying his consciousness with the divine self—has fulfilled his duty. He has spiritualized a bit of the earth. He has advanced by one step the salvation of the earth. Then he can co-operate as a helper in the salvation of other beings.

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'And now you know why you're standing here before me. It's because the self of the earth, which at the same time is our own self, loves the earth and all its creatures, drawing the earth towards itself, into divine unity, just as a bridegroom draws his bride to himself. This striving towards union, characteristic of all love, expresses itself in everything—including our bodies— as weight!

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'This force which we call weight is at work in every form of nature, and when we build we must reckon and work with this force, never against it. When we take proper account of it, it helps us preserve our buildings for a long time. If we were to try to build against the laws of these forces, all our structures would collapse in practically no time at all.

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'It's enough for you to understand that in the pyramidal form the resultant of forces is the most favourable one possible for the preservation of buildings for many thousands of years against the ravages of nature.

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'The pyramids—particularly the great pyramid—have been built according to various mathematical and astronomical laws in order to serve the people as clock and calendar. You will learn these laws another time. Moreover, the fact that the lateral faces stand at an angle of 51° to their base enables the pyramid to reflect the sun's rays far out to sea and far into the desert. Thus our pyramids also serve as lighthouses. All the laws on which they are based, together with the history of those who have built them, are inscribed on the ceramic tiles with which they are covered. When the sons of men some day discover the secret of our writing, they will be able for a long time to read right from the pyramids themselves the knowledge and information I am giving you now, the mathematical and astronomical laws we have applied, the secrets of the pyramids and all our scientific knowledge. In the darkest ages of the earth, however, these written records will also disappear, so the sons of men will later have to discover all truth for themselves.

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'You must learn the law of the three-dimensional world which is based on the law of the spirit and could not exist without it.

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'The first source of all truth and of all manifestation is the eternal being— God. But God is in the unmanifested state beyond time and space, and only his manifestations appear as projections in the three-dimensional world. Therefore in order to understand these laws correctly, we must begin with God. In order to talk about God, however, we always have to cope with the fact that God stands above the recognizable world. For this reason every living creature can only understand God to the extent to which it itself is able consciously to experience, manifest and realize God; that is, to the extent to which it itself can be God! In everything God is living, and everything is living in God. Nevertheless, God in his own complete, perfect being can be understood only by one who has himself become God—or who has never fallen out of God. God can be understood only by God!

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'The fact that even the most primitive man has a concept of God shows that divine consciousness is dwelling within him, even though only very dimly and to the lowest degree. On the other hand, to become conscious in God, to understand God completely, and to be God means to become completely one with one's own divine self, with the God dwelling within. That is easy to say but very hard to do! Because man has fallen out of his divine consciousness, he can only imagine God in accordance with his own personal power of understanding. How can he know what the real, living divinity is like in its perfection when his power of imagination only corresponds to the level he personally stands on, separated as he is from unity, and having fallen as he has from divinity? How can the finite understand the infinite, the mortal the immortal, the temporal the eternal? ... How can an imaginary being understand, experience and become identical with the eternal, true being— God?

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'And still man must reach him! His eternal desire, his unquenchable longing helps him and propels him forward in the direction of his divine self. Man's intellect—the greatest but most dangerous gift he has received from God-builds a bridge across the seemingly unconquerable chasm between that which is personal and mortal and that which is impersonal and eternal. Through man's intellect he succumbed to the temptation to fall out of divine unity with his consciousness. But by the same token, his intellect gives him the possibility of bringing back his consciousness into full union with divinity. By means of his intellect, man is able to understand truth, and when he has understood, he will seek and keep on seeking and trying until he some day succeeds in finding the only path to the realization of his self.

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'Realization means being something. For as long as we think about something or talk about it, we aren't being it. You can think about a cat, or about a lion, but that doesn't mean by any manner of means that you have achieved realization, that you have become a cat or a lion. Likewise, you can think about yourself without being your divine, creative self! To think something is to be separated from it. For if you send out a single thought, you—the thinker—are connected only by thinking with the object of your thought.

 

You are connected with it, but not identical with it. You are not yet that which is in your intellect. Your intellect belongs to you; it is a wonderful tool, a mirror into which you can project everything and in which you can recognize everything, but your intellect is not you! The intellect is outside your self. Consequently what you can do with your intellect is not you yourself, is not achievement of realization. 'When man seeks God outside himself, he can often be "thinking" about God, he can be "praying" to God, he can be "loving" God with his whole being, but all this doesn't mean he has become identical with God. For man can never find God by seeking outside himself!

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'The creator in man is man's own self whose last manifestation, farthest from his own centre, is his little "I", his personal "I-consciousness". The personal "I" within him is the image of God mirrored by matter—in the body. Thus when man seeks to return to God and re-establish his identity with him he must follow the same path with his consciousness: he must draw his consciousness more and more from his own little personal "I"—deeper and deeper into himself—turning to his own true self, to his creator, until he consciously recognizes himself in Him. But this doesn't mean that the creature—the person—recognizes itself in this condition.

 

As an imaginary being, it has no true existence and cannot really achieve self-knowledge. On the contrary, the creator recognizes himself in the created, in the person. This is the only possibility for overcoming the state of separation and bringing back the consciousness into the state of unity: the individual stops thinking about himself and instead becomes himself, recognizes himself. In this condition, the recognizer, the recognized and the recognition are one and the same. The self—the creator—recognizes its self in itself!