Each Class of Creators endows man with what it has to give: the one builds his external form; the other gives him its essence, which later on becomes the Human Higher Self owing to the _personal exertion of the individual_; but they could not make men as they were themselves--perfect, because sinless; sinless, because having only the first, pale shadowy outlines of attributes, and these all perfect--from the human standpoint--white, pure and cold as the virgin snow. Where there is no struggle, there is no merit. Humanity, "of the earth earthy," was not destined to be created by the Angels of the First Divine Breath. Therefore they are said to have _refused_ to create, and man had to be formed by more material Creators,(217) who, in their turn, could give only what they had in their own natures, and no more. Subservient to eternal law, the pure Gods could only project out of themselves _shadowy_ men, a little less ethereal and spiritual, less _divine_ and _perfect_ than themselves--shadows still. The first Humanity, therefore, was a pale copy of its Progenitors; too material, even in its ethereality, to be a hierarchy of Gods; too spiritual and pure to be Men--endowed as it is with every _negative_ (nirguna) perfection. Perfection, to be fully such, must be born out of imperfection, the _incorruptible_ must grow out of the corruptible, having the latter as its vehicle and basis and contrast. Absolute Light is absolute Darkness, and _vice versâ_. In fact, there is neither Light nor Darkness in the realms of Truth. Good and Evil are twins, the progeny of Space and Time, under the sway of Mâyâ. Separate them, by cutting off one from the other, and they will both die. Neither exists _per se_, since each has to be generated and created out of the other, in order to come into being; both must be known and appreciated before becoming objects of perception, hence, in mortal mind, they must be divided.
Nevertheless, as the illusionary distinction exists, it requires a _lower_ Order of Creative Angels to "create" inhabited Globes--especially ours--or to deal with Matter on this earthly plane. The philosophical Gnostics were the first to think so, in the historical period, and to invent various systems upon this theory. Therefore in their schemes of creation, one always finds their "Creators" occupying a place at the very foot of the ladder of Spiritual Being. With them, those who created our Earth and its mortals were placed on the very limit of mâyâvic Matter, and their followers were taught to think--to the great disgust of the Church Fathers--that for the creation of those wretched races, in a spiritual and moral sense, which grace our Globe, no high Divinity could be made responsible, but only Angels of a low Hierarchy,(218) to which Class they relegated the Jewish God, Jehovah.