"Woe unto him who makes God to be like unto any mode or attribute whatever, even were it to one of His own; and still more if he make Him like unto the Sons of Men, whose elements are earthly, and so are consumed and perish !
There can be no conception had of Him, except in so far as He manifests Himself, in exercising dominion by and through some attribute . . . Abstracted from this, there can be no attribute, conception, or ideal of Him. He is comparable only to the Sea, filling some great reservoir, its bed in the earth, for example; wherein it fashions for itself a certain concavity, so that thereby we may begin to compute the dimensions of the Sea itself.
For example, the Spring and Source of the Ocean is a somewhat, which is one. If from this Source or spring there issues forth a certain fountain, proportioned to the space occupied by the Sea in that hemispherical reservoir, such as is the letter Yod, there the Source of Spring is the first somewhat, and the fountain that flows forth from it is the second. Then let there be made a great reservoir, as by excavation, and let this be called the Ocean, and we have the third thing, a vessel [Vas]. Now let this great reservoir be divided into seven beds of rivers, that is, into seven oblong reservoirs, so that from this ocean the waters may flow forth in seven rivers; and the Source, Fountain, and Ocean thus make ten in all..."
"The apparatus employed in 'The Great Work' consists of the Moist bath, the Dry bath, the Vases of Nature and Art, the bowl of oak, lutum sapientiae, the Seal of Hermes, the tube, the physical lamp, and the iron rod." - Morals and Dogma by Albert Pike
Some concavities:
the grail
the baptismal font
Bacchus' cup
