The Egyptian Kneph, or Chnuphis, Divine Wisdom, represented by a serpent, produces an egg from his mouth, from which issues Phtha. In this case Phtha represents the universal germ, as well as Brahmä, who is of the neuter gender, when the final _a_ has a diaresis on it;[432] otherwise it becomes simply one of the names of the Deity. The former was the model of the THREE LIVES of the Nazarenes, as that of the kabalistic “Faces,” PHARAZUPHA, which, in its turn, furnished the model for the Christian Trinity of Irenæus and his followers. The egg was the primitive matter which served as a material for the building of the visible universe; it contained, as well as the Gnostic Pleroma, the kabalistic Shekinah, the man and wife, the spirit and life, “whose light includes all other lights” or life-spirits. This first manifestation was symbolized by a serpent, which is at first _divine_ wisdom, but, _falling into generation_, becomes polluted. Phtha is the heavenly man, the Egyptian Adam-Kadmon, or Christ, who, in conjunction with the female Holy Ghost, the ZOE, produces the five elements, air, water, fire, earth, and ether; the latter being a servile copy from the Buddhist A’d, and his five Dhyana Buddhas, as we have shown in the preceding chapter. The Hindu Swayambhuva-Nara, develops from himself the _mother-principle_, enclosed within his own divine essence--Nari, the immortal Virgin, who, when impregnated by his spirit, becomes Taumâtra, the mother of the five elements--air, water, fire, earth, and ether. Thus may be shown how from the Hindu cosmogony all others proceed. Knorr von Rosenroth, busying himself with the interpretation of the _Kabala_, argues that, “In this first state (of secret wisdom), the infinite God Himself can be understood as ‘Father’ (of the new covenant). But the _Light_ being let down by the Infinite through a canal into the ‘primal Adam,’ or _Messiah_, and joined with him, can be applied to the name SON. And the influx emitted down from him (the Son) to the lower parts (of the universe), can be applied to the character of the Holy Ghost.”[433] Sophia-Achamoth, the half-spiritual, half-material LIFE, which vivifies the inert matter in the depths of chaos, is the Holy Ghost of the Gnostics, and the _Spiritus_ (female) of the Nazarenes. She is--be it remembered--the _sister_ of _Christos_, the perfect emanation, and both are children or emanations of Sophia, the purely spiritual and intellectual daughter of Bythos, the Depth. For the elder Sophia is Shekinah, the Face of God, “God’s Shekinah, which is his image.”[434] “The _Son_ Zeus-Belus, or Sol-Mithra is an image of the Father, an emanation from the _Supreme Light_,” says Movers. “He passed for Creator.”[435]