Theos-Talk Archives (October 2002 Message tt00144)

Oct 16 2002

Re: OUR CROWDED SOLAR SYSTEM -- BEGINNINGS Part III


Dear friends:

With reference to my posting earlier today Oct 15 2002

Re: Our crowded Solar system QUAOAR (Parts I and II)

"In the last few days papers have focused on recent discoveries made
by
some Caltech astronomers (Mike Bowen and Chad Trujillo). We suddenly
become aware that in addition to our known and named 9 "planets" and
their "moons," we have some more distant and less important masses
orbiting the Sun. ....."

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I had posted some extracts from The SECRET DOCTRINE which illustrated
the corresponding ways in which several ancient Theogonies (Birth and
origin of the Gods) had developed relationships to illustrate the same
development from the abstract ABSOLUTENESS to the concrete matter we
know and deal with daily.

In TRANSACTIONS OF THE BLAVATSKY LODGE there are some more suggestive
and illustrative material relevant to this.

===================

STANZA II. (continued.) Trans p. 83
Sloka (3). THE HOUR HAD NOT YET STRUCK; THE RAY HAD NOT YET FLASHED
INTO THE GERM; THE MATRI-PADMA (mother lotus) HAD NOT YET SWOLLEN.

"The Ray of the 'ever-darkness' becomes, as it is emitted, a ray of
effulgent life, and flashes into the 'germ' -- the point in the
Mundane Egg, represented by matter in its abstract sense."


Q. Is the Point in the Mundane Egg the same as the Point in the
Circle, the Unmanifested Logos?

A. Certainly not: the Point in the Circle is the Unmanifested Logos,
the Manifested Logos is the Triangle. Pythagoras speaks of the never
manifested Monad which lives in solitude and darkness; when the hour
strikes it radiates from itself ONE the first number.

This number descending, produces TWO, the second number, and Two, in
its turn, produces THREE, forming a triangle, the first complete
geometrical figure in the world of form. It is this ideal or abstract
triangle which is the Point in the Mundane Egg, which, after
gestation, and in the third remove, will start from the Egg to form
the Triangle.

This is Brahma-Vach-Viraj in the Hindu Philosophy and
Kether-Chochmah-Binah in the Zohar.

The First Manifested Logos is the Potentia, the unrevealed Cause; the
Second, the still latent Thought; the Third, the Demiurgus, the active
Will evolving from its universal Self the active effect, which, in its
turn, becomes the cause on a lower plane.


Q. What is Ever-Darkness in the sense used here?

A. Ever-Darkness means, I suppose, the ever-unknowable mystery, behind
the veil -- in fact, Parabrahm. Even the Logos can see only
Mulaprakriti, [Maha-Buddhi, Primordial Root Matter] it cannot see that
which is beyond the veil. It is that which is the "Ever-unknowable
Darkness."


Q. What is the Ray in this connection?

A. I will recapitulate. We have the plane of the circle, the face
being black, the point in the circle being potentially white, and this
is the first possible conception in our minds of the invisible Logos.
"Ever-Darkness" is eternal, the Ray periodical.

Having flashed out from this central point and thrilled through the
Germ, the Ray is withdrawn again within this point and the Germ
develops into the Second Logos, the triangle within the Mundane Egg.


Q. What, then, are the stages of manifestation?

A. The first stage is the appearance of the potential point in the
circle -- the unmanifested Logos.

The second stage is the shooting forth of the Ray from the potential
white point, producing the first point, which is called, in the Zohar,
Kether or Sephira.

The third stage is the production from Kether of Chochmah, and Binah,
thus constituting the first triangle, which is the Third or manifested
Logos -- in other words, the subjective and objective Universe.

Further, from this manifested Logos will proceed the Seven Rays, which
in the Zohar are called the lower Sephiroth and in Eastern occultism
the primordial seven rays. Thence will proceed the innumerable series
of Hierarchies.


Q. Is the Triangle here mentioned that which you refer to as the Germ
in the Mundane Egg?

A. Certainly it is. But you must remember that there are both the
Universal and Solar Eggs (as well as others), and that it is necessary
to qualify any statement made concerning them. The Mundane Egg is an
expression of Abstract Form.
P. 85


Q. May Abstract Form be called the first manifestation of the eternal
female principle?

A. It is the first manifestation NOT of the female principle, but of
the Ray which proceeds from the central point which is perfectly
sexless.

There is no eternal female principle, for this Ray produces that which
is the united potentiality of both sexes but is by no means either
male or female. This latter differentiation will only appear when it
falls into matter, when the Triangle becomes a Square, the first
Tetraktys.


Q. Then the Mundane Egg is as sexless as the Ray?

A. The Mundane Egg is simply the first stage of manifestation,
undifferentiated primordial matter, in which the vital creative Germ
receives its first spiritual impulse; Potentiality becomes Potency.

Matter, by convenience of metaphor, only, is regarded as feminine,
because it is receptive of the rays of the sun which fecundate it and
so produce all that grows on its surface, i.e., on this the lowest
plane.

On the other hand primordial matter should be regarded as substance,
and by no means can be spoken of as having sex.

Thus the Egg, on whatever plane you speak of, means the ever-existing
undifferentiated matter which strictly is not matter at all but, as we
call it, the Atoms.

Matter is destructible in form while the Atoms are absolutely
indestructible, being the quintessence of Substances. And here, I mean
by "atoms" the primordial divine Units, not the "atoms" of modern
Science.

Similarly the "Germ" is a figurative expression; the germ is
everywhere, even as the circle whose circumference is nowhere and
whose center is everywhere. It therefore means all germs, that is to
say, unmanifested nature, or the whole creative power which will
emanate, called by the Hindus Brahma, though on every plane it has a
different name.


Q. Is the Matri-Padma [Mother Lotus] the eternal or the periodical
Egg?

A. The eternal Egg; it will become periodical only when the ray from
the first Logos shall have flashed from the latent Germ in the
Matri-Padma which is the Egg, the Womb of the Universe which is to be.
By analogy, the physical germ in the female cell could not be called
eternal, though the latent spirit of the germ concealed within the
male cell in nature, may be so called.


Sloka (4). HER HEART HAD NOT YET OPENED FOR THE ONE RAY TO ENTER,
THENCE TO FALL AS THREE INTO FOUR IN THE LAP OF MAYA.

"But, as the hour strikes and it becomes receptive of the Fohatic
impress of the Divine Thought (the Logos, or the male aspect of the
Anima Mundi, Alaya) -- its heart opens." (Vol. I., p. 58.)


Q. Does not the Fohatic impress of the Divine Thought apply to a later
stage of differentiation?

A. Fohat, as a distinct force or entity, is a later development.
"Fohatic" is an adjective and may be used in a more wide sense; Fohat,
as a substantive, or Entity, springs from a Fohatic attribute of the
Logos. Electricity cannot be generated from that which does not
contain an electric principle or element. The divine principle is
eternal, the gods are periodical. Fohat is the Sakti or force of the
divine mind; Brahma and Fohat are both aspects of the divine mind.


Q. Is it not the intention in the Commentaries to this Stanza to
convey some idea of the subject by speaking of correspondences in a
much later stage of evolution?

A. Exactly so; it has several times been stated that the Commentaries
on the First Volume are almost entirely concerned with the evolution
of the solar system only.

The beauty and wisdom of the Stanzas consist in this, that they may be
interpreted on seven different planes, the last reflecting, by the
universal law of correspondences and analogy, in its most
differentiated, gross and physical aspect, the process which takes
place on the first or purely spiritual plane.

I may state here once for all that the first Stanzas treat of the
awakening from Pralaya and are not concerned with the Solar system
alone, while Vol. II. deals only with our Earth.


Q. Can you say what is the real meaning of the word Fohat?

A. The word is a Turanian compound and its meanings are various. In
China Pho, or Fo, is the word for "animal soul," the vital Nephesh or
the breath of life. Some say that it is derived from the Sanskrit
"Bhu," meaning existence, or rather the essence of existence.

Now Swayambhu means Brahma and Man at the same time. It means
self-existence and self-existing, that which is everlasting, the
eternal breath.

If Sat is the potentiality of Being, Pho is the potency of Being. The
meaning, however, entirely depends upon the position of the accent.
Again, Fohat is related to Mahat. It is the reflection of the
Universal Mind, the synthesis of the "Seven" and the intelligences of
the seven creative Builders, or, as we call them, Cosmocratores.
Hence, as you will understand, life and electricity are one in our
philosophy. They say life is electricity, and if so, then the One Life
is the essence and root of all the electric and magnetic phenomena on
this manifested plane. ...


Q. How does the Triangle become the Square, and the Square the
six-faced Cube?

A. In occult and Pythagorean geometry the Tetrad is said to combine
within itself all the materials from which Kosmos is produced.

The Point or One, extends to a Line -- the Two; a Line to a
Superficies, Three; and the Superficies, Triad or Triangle, is
converted into a Solid, the Tetrad or Four, by the point being placed
over it.

Kabalistically Kether, or Sephira, the Point, emanates Chochmah and
Binah, which two, are the synonym of Mahat, in the Hindu Puranas, and
this Triad, descending into matter, produces the Tetragrammaton,
Tetraktys, as also the lower Tetrad. This number contains both the
productive and produced numbers.

The Duad doubled makes a Tetrad and the Tetrad doubled forms a
Hebdomad. From another point of view it is the Spirit, Will, and
Intellect animating the four lower principles.


Q. Then how does the Square become the six-faced Cube?

A. The Square becomes the Cube when each point of the triangle becomes
dual, male or female. The Pythagoreans said "Once One, Twice Two, and
there ariseth a Tetrad, having on its top the highest Unit; it becomes
a Pyramid whose base is a plane Tetrad; divine light resting on it,
makes the abstract Cube."

The surface of the Cube is composed of six squares, and the Cube
unfolded gives the Cross, or the vertical Four, barred by the
horizontal Three; the six thus making Seven, the seven principles or
the Pythagorean seven properties in man....

That is to say, the Logos becomes a Tetragrammaton; the Triangle, or
the Three becomes the Four.


Q. Is the Astral Light used here in the sense of Maya?

A. Certainly. It is explained further on in the Secret Doctrine that
practically there are only four planes belonging to the planetary
chains. The three higher planes are absolutely Arupa and outside our
comprehension.

Q. Then the Tetraktys is entirely different from Tetragrammaton?

A. The Tetraktys by which the Pythagoreans swore, was not the
Tetragrammaton, but on the contrary, the higher or superior Tetraktys.

In the opening chapters of Genesis we have a clue to the discovery of
this lower Tetragrammaton. We there find Adam, Eve, and Jehovah who
becomes Cain. The further extension of Humanity is symbolized in Abel,
as the human conception of the higher. Abel is the daughter and not
the son of Eve, and symbolizes the separation of the sexes; while the
murder of Abel is symbolical of marriage. The still more human
conception is found at the end of the fourth Chapter, when speaking of
Seth, to whom was born a son Enos, after which men began -- not, as
translated in Genesis, to "call upon the Lord" -- but to be called
Jod-He-Vah, meaning males and females.

The Tetragrammaton, therefore, is simply Malkuth; when the bridegroom
comes to the bride on Earth, then it becomes Humanity. The seven lower
Sephiroth must all be passed through, the Tetragrammaton becoming more
and more material. The Astral Plane lies between the Tetraktys and
Tetragrammaton.

Q. Tetraktys appears to be used here in two entirely different senses?

A. The true Pythagorean Tetraktys was the Tetraktys of the invisible
Monad, which produces the first Point, the second and the third and
then retires into the darkness and everlasting silence; in other words
the Tetraktys is the first Logos. Taken from the plane of matter, it
is among other things, the lower Quaternary, the man of flesh or
matter.

93


STANZA III.

Sloka (1). THE LAST VIBRATION OF THE SEVENTH ETERNITY THRILLS THROUGH
INFINITUDE. THE MOTHER SWELLS, EXPANDING FROM WITHIN WITHOUT LIKE THE
BUD OF THE LOTUS.

"The seemingly paradoxical use of the sentence 'Seventh Eternity,'
thus dividing the indivisible, is sanctified in esoteric philosophy.
The latter divides boundless duration into unconditionally eternal and
universal Time and a conditioned one (Khandakala). One is the
abstraction or noumenon of infinite time (Kala); the other its
phenomenon appearing periodically, as the effect of Mahat (the
Universal Intelligence limited by Manvantaric duration)." (Vol. I., p.
62.)


Q. Does the commencement of Time as distinguished from Duration,
correspond to the appearance of the manifested Logos?

A. Certainly it cannot do so earlier. But "the seventh vibration"
applies to both the First, and to the manifested Logos -- the first
out of Space and Time, the second, when Time has commenced. It is only
when "the mother swells" that differentiation sets in, for when the
first Logos radiates through primordial and undifferentiated matter
there is as yet no action in Chaos. "The last vibration of the Seventh
Eternity" is the first which announces the Dawn, and is a synonym for
the First or unmanifested Logos.

There is no Time at this stage. There is neither Space nor Time when
beginning is made; but it is all in space and Time, once that
differentiation sets in.

At the time of the primordial radiation, or when the Second Logos
emanates, it is Father-Mother potentially, but when the Third or
manifested Logos appears, it becomes the Virgin-Mother.

The "Father and the Son" are one in all the world Theogonies; hence,
the expression corresponds to the appearance of both the unmanifested
and the manifested Logos, one at the beginning, the other at the end,
of the "Seventh Eternity."


Q. Can you, then, speak of Time as existing from the appearance of the
Second or Unmanifested-Manifested Logos?

A. Assuredly not, but from the appearance of the Third. It is here
that the great difference between the two lies, as just shown. The
"last vibration" begins outside of Time and Space, and ends with the
third Logos, when Time and Space begin, i.e., periodical time. The
Second Logos partaking of both the essences or natures of the first
and the last. There is no differentiation with the First Logos;
differentiation only begins in latent World-Thought, with the Second
Logos, and receives its full expression, i.e., becomes the "Word" made
flesh -- with the Third.


Q. How do the terms "Radiation" and "Emanation" differ in the Secret
Doctrine?

A. They express, to my mind, two entirely different ideas, and are the
best apologies for the original terms that could be found; but if the
ordinary meanings are attached to them the idea will be missed.
Radiation is, so to say, the unconscious and spontaneous shooting
forth, the action of a something from which this act takes place; but
emanation is something from which another thing issues in a constant
efflux, and emanates consciously. An orthodox Occultist goes so far as
to say that the smell of a flower emanates from it "consciously" --
absurd as it may seem to the profane. Radiation can come from the
Absolute; Emanation cannot. One difference exists in the idea that
Radiation is sure, sooner or later, to be withdrawn again while
Emanation runs into other emanations and is thoroughly separated and
differentiated. Of course at the end of the cycle of time emanation
will also be withdrawn into the One Absolute; but meanwhile, during
the entire cycle of changes emanation will persist. One thing emanates
from the other, and, in fact, from one point of view, emanation is
equivalent to Evolution; while "radiation" represents to my mind -- in
the precosmic period, of course -- an instantaneous action like that
of a piece of paper set on fire under a burning glass, of which act
the Sun knows nothing. Both terms, of course, are used for want of
better.

Q. What is meant by prototypes existing in the Astral Light? (Vol. I.,
p. 63.)

A. Astral Light is here used as a convenient phrase for a term very
little understood, viz: "the realm of Akasa, or primordial Light
manifested through the divine Ideation." The latter must be accepted
in this particular case as a generic term for the universal and divine
mind reflected in the waters of Space or Chaos, which is the Astral
Light proper, and a mirror reflecting and reversing a higher plane.

In the ABSOLUTE or Divine Thought everything exists and there has been
no time when it did not so exist; but Divine Ideation is limited by
the Universal Manvantaras.

The realm of Akasa is the undifferentiated noumenal and abstract Space
which will be occupied by Chidakasam, the field of primordial
consciousness.

It has several degrees, however, in Occult philosophy; in fact, "seven
fields." The first is the field of latent consciousness which is
coeval with the duration of the first and second unmanifested Logoi.
It is the "Light which shineth in darkness and the darkness
comprehended it not" of St. John's Gospel.

When the hour strikes for the Third Logos to appear, then from the
latent potentiality there radiates a lower field of differentiated
consciousness, which is Mahat, or the entire collectivity of those
Dhyan-Chohans of sentient life of which Fohat is the representative on
the objective plane and the Manasaputras on the subjective. The Astral
Light is that which mirrors the three higher planes of consciousness,
and is above the lower, or terrestrial plane; therefore it does not
extend beyond the fourth plane, where, one may say, the Akasa begins.

There is one great difference between the Astral Light and the Akasa
which must be remembered. The latter is eternal, the former is
periodic. The Astral Light changes not only with the Mahamanvantaras
but also with every sub-period and planetary cycle or Round.


--------------------------

H P B explains much more and one is invited to go directly to the
TRANSACTIONS OF THE BLAVATSKY LODGE and read her explanations.

All these statements ought to be assimilated to the "Matrix" as they
indicate the foundation thereof emanating from the imperishable and
indescribable ONE ABSOLUTE -- antecedent to "SPIRIT' in any one period
of manifestation. I am sure many questions will arise.

Best wishes,

Dallas.