“There is a romance between the active principle of God and the passive principle of Nature. From the union of these two principles is produced the rational creation. Man is a composite creature. From his father (the active principle) he inherits his Divine Spirit, the fire of aspiration – that immortal part of himself which rises triumphant from the broken clay of mortality: that part which remains after the natural organisms have disintegrated of have been regenerated. From his Mother (the passive principle) he inherits his body – that part over which the laws of Nature have control: his humility, his mortal personality, his appetites, his feelings, and hid emotions. The Egyptians also believed that Osiris was the river Nile and that Isis (his sister-wife) was the contiguous land, which, when inundated by the river, bore fruit and harvest. The murky waters of the Nile were believed to account for the blackness of Osiris, who was generally symbolized as being of ebony hue.” ~Manly P. Hall
Union of God and Nature
There is definitely a kind of union between God and Nature, though I wouldn’t call it a romance. According to most Gnostic scripture, after the Demiurge, the false god, created the Physical universe and physical humans (what Hall says about man applies to woman as well), God took pity on us and gave us a Divine Immortal Spirit and Soul so we would, with His help, be redeemable. That may simply be an allegorical tale, but so is Hall’s regarding a romance. The union of God and Nature is more a necessity than the result of romance. Of course, it is largely due to God’s Love for us that we exist with such a duel nature.
Composite Man
So this union of God and Nature created Man thus making humans composite creatures. This is true in several ways, but what Hall means is that we have a physical nature as well as a spiritual one. We also have a mental (intellectual) nature and a psychic nature, but for the purpose of Hall’s article, only the two other natures matter.
Even if we look only at the physical body, we can see that humans are composite creatures. We are made up of many organs that function somewhat independently. And each of those organs is made of many cells that may operate in cooperation with each other, but not always. And those tiny cells are made of millions of atoms that are each a separate being in its own right. A very complex composite being.
The Immortal Rises Triumphant
Hall is correct in saying that the immortal part of man rises in triumph over the physical, and even the mental, after the death of the physical body. What he fails to say in the section from which the quote was extracted is that this process is not automatic. Nor is it what happens by default. Man must make the effort to awaken and develop his dormant spiritual faculties while still in physical form. Otherwise, he does not die as an integrated being that can rise up immortal to higher levels of consciousness and being. Instead, the immortal spirit will separate from us and leave us behind. While that spirit is immortal, we are not unless we unite and integrate with it while we are alive on Earth.
Osiris As the Nile
If you don’t get the allegory of Osiris as the Nile flooding the land (Isis) and bringing forth fruit, it symbolizes Osiris impregnating Isis with his sperm (flood) to create new life. This is the way new physical life is created, but not spirits or souls. The spirits are created in the Mind of God and join with new physical beings to form that union of God and Nature.
Blackness of Osiris
Hall says that Osiris was often depicted as ebony black because of the dark-colored waters of the Nile. Whatever the reason, one should not assume that being black indicates that Osiris was evil. While that is a common and simplistic belief today, the color black is not evil. It is a neutral color and we should think of it that way. Neither good nor evil in itself, but having the possibility of either. White and Black together is another way to depict that union of God and Nature, as is seen in the yin-yang symbol.
Worlds of polarity
