"In the preceding macrocosmic mirror, it appears that the world began from the bright Aleph, for Mem is illuminated beginning from the bright Aleph. But the end of the world takes form in the final Mem, where light returns again into darkness; for when Aleph hides its brightness, it is transformed into the dark Aleph. Aleph, therefore, is the beginning of things, and likewise their ultimate end. It is the Alpha and the Omega, it is unity, and it is the number beyond which, in arithmetic, there is no measure.
Thus the world has arisen, and otherwise, it will perish in the same way; that is, when the bright Aleph turns its face away, hiding itself in darkness from the worldly spirit and returning to divine potential. And hence it has been said that Aleph, in the manner of the Hermaphrodite, participates in the nature of both sexes: in respect to the male, as act and form; in respect to the female, as power and matter. Thus said Mercury Trismegistus in Pimander I:
"Mind, full of fecundity of both sexes..."
"If the world was made in the image of the Tetragrammaton, so man was created in the image of the world, and both by Mercury Trismegistus are not without reason called sons of God."
