When the Trinity is represented as a Unity, the Triangle is used, either inscribed within a circle, or free. The universe is symbolised by two triangles interlaced, the Trinity of Spirit with the apex of the triangle upward, the Trinity of Matter with the apex of the triangle downward, and if colours are used, the first is white, yellow, golden or flame-coloured, and the second black, or some dark shade.
The kosmic process can now be readily followed. The One has become Two, and the Two Three, and the Trinity is revealed. The Matter of the universe is marked out and awaits the action of Spirit. This is the "in the beginning" of Genesis, when "God created the heaven and the earth,"[276] a statement further elucidated by the repeated phrases that He "laid the foundations of the earth;"[277] we have here the marking out of the material, but a mere chaos, "without form and void."[278]
On this begins the action of the Creative Intelligence, the Holy Spirit, who "moved upon the face of the waters,"[279] the vast ocean of matter. Thus His was the first activity, though He was the Third Person--a point of great importance.
In the Mysteries this work was shown in its detail as the preparation of the matter of the universe, the formation of atoms, the drawing of these together into aggregates, and the grouping of these together into elements, and of these again into gaseous, liquid, and solid compounds. This work includes not only the kind of matter called physical, but also all the subtle states of matter in the invisible worlds. He further as the "Spirit of Understanding" conceived the forms into which the prepared matter should be shaped, not building the forms, but by the action of the Creative Intelligence producing the Ideas of them, the heavenly prototypes, as they are often called. This is the work referred to when it is written, He "stretched out the heaven by His Understanding."[280]
The work of the Second Person follows that of the Third. He by virtue of His Wisdom "established the world,"[281] building all globes and all things upon them, "all things were made by Him."[282] He is the organising Life of the worlds, and all beings are rooted in Him.[283] The life of the Son thus manifested in the matter prepared by the Holy Spirit--again the great "Myth" of the Incarnation--is the life that builds up, preserves, and maintains all forms, for He is the Love, the attracting power, that gives cohesion to forms, enabling them to grow without falling apart, the Preserver, the Supporter, the Saviour. That is why all must be subject to the Son,[284] all must be gathered up in Him, and why "no man cometh unto the Father but by" Him.[285]