The Equinox (Volume I, Number IX)

THE EQUINOX We shall now sketch out an explanation of the Bible by the aid of numbers, for the Bible is the book of the images of God. We shall ask numbers to give us the reason of the dogmas of eternal religion; numbers will always reply by reuniting themselves in the synthesis of unity. The following pages are simply outlines of qabalistic hypotheses; they stand apart from faith, and we indicate them only as curiosities of research. It is no part of our task to make innovations in dogma, and what we assert in our character as an initiate is entirely subordinate to our sub- mission in our character as a Christian.t SKETCH OF THE PROPHETIC THEOLOGY OF NUMBERS I UNITY Unrry is the principle and the synthesis of numbers; it is the idea of God and of man ; it is the alliance of reason and of faith. Faith cannot be opposed to reason ; it is made necessary by love, it is identical with hope. To love is to believe and hope; and this triple outburst of the soul is called virtue, because, in order to make it, courage is necessary. But would there be any courage in that, if doubt were not possible? Now, to be able to doubt, is to doubt. Doubt is the force 1 This passage is typical of the sublime irony of Levi, and the key to the whole of his paradoxes.—TRANS. 14