THEO. I might retort with the same question and ask: “How is it that he, whom you regard as ‘the God of Gods’ and the One living God, _is so weak_ as to allow evil (or the Devil) to have the best of _him_ as much as of all his creatures, whether while he remains in Heaven, or during the time he was incarnated on this earth?” You are sure to reply again: “This is a Mystery; and we are forbidden to pry into the mysteries of God.” Not being forbidden to do so by our religious philosophy, I answer your question that, unless a God descends as an _Avatar_, no divine principle can be otherwise than cramped and paralysed by turbulent, animal matter. Heterogeneity will always have the upper hand over homogeneity, on this plane of illusions, and the nearer an essence is to its root-principle, Primordial Homogeneity, the more difficult it is for the latter to assert itself on earth. Spiritual and divine powers lie dormant in every human Being; and the wider the sweep of his spiritual vision the mightier will be the God within him. But as few men can feel that God, and since, as an average rule, deity is always bound and limited in our thought by earlier conceptions, those ideas that are inculcated in us from childhood, therefore, it is so difficult for you to understand our philosophy. ENQ. And is it this Ego of ours which is our God? THEO. Not at all; “_A_ God” is not the universal deity, but only a spark from the one ocean of Divine Fire. Our God _within_ us, or “our Father in Secret” is what we call the “HIGHER SELF,” _Atma_. Our incarnating Ego was a God in its origin, as were all the primeval emanations of the One Unknown Principle. But since its “fall into Matter,” having to incarnate throughout the cycle, in succession, from first to last, it is no longer a free and happy god, but a poor pilgrim on his way to regain that which he has lost. I can answer your more fully by repeating what is said of the INNER MAN in ISIS UNVEILED (Vol. II. 593):—