e universe may
be said to be rooted in the divine Will. Then follows the second aspect
of the One--Wisdom; Power is guided by Wisdom, and therefore it is
written that "without Him was not anything made that is made;"[265]
Wisdom is dual in its nature, as will presently be seen. When the
aspects of Will and Wisdom are revealed, a third aspect must follow to
make them effective--Creative Intelligence, the divine mind in Action. A
Jewish prophet writes: "He hath made the earth by His Power, He hath
established the world by His Wisdom; and hath stretched out the heaven
by His Understanding,"[266] the reference to the three functions being
very clear.[267] These Three are inseparable, indivisible, three aspects
of One. Their functions may be thought of separately, for the sake of
clearness, but cannot be disjoined. Each is necessary to each, and each
is present in each. In the First Being, Will, Power, is seen as
predominant, as characteristic, but Wisdom and Creative Action are also
present; in the Second Being, Wisdom is seen as predominant, but Power
and Creative Action are none the less inherent in Him; in the Third
Being, Creative Action is seen as predominant, but Power and Wisdom are
ever also to be seen. And though the words First, Second, Third are
used, because the Beings are thus manifested in Time, in the order of
Self-unfolding, yet in Eternity they are known as interdependent and
co-equal, "None is greater or less than Another."[268]

This Trinity is the divine Self, the divine Spirit, the Manifested God,
He that "was and is and is to come,"[269] and He is the root of the
fundamental triplicity in life, in consciousness.

But we saw that there was a Fourth Person, or in some religions a second
Trinity, feminine, the Mother. This is That which makes manifestation
possible, That which eternally in the One is the root of limitation and
division, and which, when manifested, is called Matter. This is the
divine Not-Self, the divine Matter, the manifested Nature. Regarded as
One, She is the Fourth, making possible the activity of the Three, the
Field of Their operations by virtue of Her infinite divisibility, at
once the "Handmaid of the Lord,"[270] and also His Mother, yielding of
Her substance to form His Body, the universe, when overshadowed by His
power.[271] Regarded carefully She is seen to be triple also, existing
in three inseparable aspects, without which She could not be. These are
Stability--Inertia or Re