Chinese Cosmogony

JdHEEN OR SHANG-TE is the great Prince or model man; He is the Gre a t Father of Gods and men; He is Heaven or the Kosmos animated by a mind or soul and hence He is a sphere or circle; that being the most perfect figure. All parts of the Kosmos, therefore, viz., Heaven, E a rth, Man, Sun, Moon, Stars, Mount a ins, Rivers, Birds, Beasts, Insects, Reptiles, Trees, Vegetables, etc., are all His parts and members and these are all pervaded and anim a ted by the "One Mind" or Soul of Heaven or Shang-te.

In the state religion Sha:i:ig-te is worshiped in all His parts, beginning with His triplication He a ven, E a rth, and Man.

This philosophy is evidently founded upon the Confucionist idea of m a n transferred to the universe; as man is composed of mind and body so Heaven or the Kosmos is supposed to be composed of mind and matter, and the mind in each is one and the same, therefore Sh a ng-te design a ted God or the Divinity within. Hence Confucious states that this He a ven or Shang-te is a gigantic Man, a lso this Shang-te is a sphere containing the whole univer s e within Himself and is the highest Numen.

From the "Classic of Chance,"

By the Rev. Cannon McClatchie, M.A.

This sidelight into the mythology and cosmogony of Chin a sho w s how closely it is correlated with the teachings of the Hebrew Qabbalah and the alchemical and theosophic concepts of life. This Shang-te, the All Prevading m a nifesting in its multiplicity of forms , is called by many names in many lands but is the same wherever found. This cosmic Being who made man in His own image and whom we honor as the Creator of our universe has been known and studied for hundreds of thousands of years by the a ncient peoples of the eastern countries.

Students who analyze religion soon rea lize that there is but one to analyze and that the most heathenish concept in the world is to believe in heathens.

The ancients of the western world have symbolized the Grand Man as a great figure twisted b a ckward until His head and feet touch, forming a great sphere. There is little doubt that the ultimate form of all things is sphereoid and that the planets which we see in the sky, the sun, etc., are a ll of them or ganisms not unlike our own with intelligence, circulation, and consciousness but instead of, like our bodies, being peopled with cells and corpuscles these bodies are peopled with flora and faun a of evolving life.

A true understanding of the mystic philos ophies depends upon the willingness of the student to credit all things with intelligence, and to realize th a t a s mind and body ex pand they eternally express themselves in new environments which are the expressions of need, and that at various times during our growth the forms of our vehicles ch a nge.

Man is a universe is himself just as complicated upon a miniature scale as the heavens which unfold around us. Within him are the pl a nets, the great powers of light and darkness and millions of evolving lives,-some h a ve estimated six septillion in the hum a n body. Thus man as he raises his hand to Shang-te, the Father of Light, and the globe-shaped Spirit of Creation, within whose Being we live and move and h a ve our being, must also realize th a t he himself is Sh a ng-te and that the universe wonderful beyond conception which expresses itself as his bodies is in truth built in the im a ge of the Father, and that he himself is not only a God in the making but is a lre a dy a gre a t spiritual power to the millions of lives seeking expression through his extension of consciousness.