Theos-Talk Archives (December 2002 Message tt00473)

Dec 14 2002

Dear Friends:

The black cube may have many symbolical meanings attached to it.

But what has Theosophical symbology to say ? If one opens the 6 equal
sides of the cube one has a CROSS This symbol antedates Christianity
and is to be found used in the most ancient of temples all around the
world.

Opening The SECRET DOCTRINE one finds written (in part): {Proem}

"An Archaic Manuscript -- a collection of palm leaves made impermeable
to water, fire, and air, by some specific unknown process -- is before
the writer's eye.
On the first page is an immaculate white disk within a dull black
ground.
The first, the student knows to represent Kosmos in Eternity, before
the re-awakening of still slumbering Energy, the emanation of the Word
in later systems.
On the following page, the same disk, but with a central point.
The point in the hitherto immaculate Disk, Space and Eternity in
Pralaya, denotes the dawn of differentiation. It is the Point in the
Mundane Egg, the germ within the latter which will become the
Universe, the ALL, the boundless, periodical Kosmos, this germ being
latent and active, periodically and by turns.
The one circle is divine Unity, from which all proceeds, whither all
returns.
Its circumference -- a forcibly limited symbol, in view of the
limitation of the human mind -- indicates the abstract, ever
incognisable PRESENCE, and its plane, the Universal Soul, although the
two are one.
Only the face of the Disk being white and the ground all around black,
shows clearly that its plane is the only knowledge, dim and hazy
though it still is, that is attainable by man. It is on this plane
that the Manvantaric manifestations begin; for it is in this SOUL that
slumbers, during the Pralaya, the Divine Thought, wherein lies
concealed the plan of every future Cosmogony and Theogony.
[ NOTE: the term "Divine Thought," like that of "Universal Mind,"
must not be regarded as even vaguely shadowing forth an intellectual
process akin to that exhibited by man. The "Unconscious," according to
von Hartmann, arrived at the vast creative, or rather Evolutionary
Plan, "by a clairvoyant wisdom superior to all consciousness," which
in the Vedantic language would mean absolute Wisdom.
Only those who realize how far Intuition soars above the tardy
processes of ratiocinative thought can form the faintest conception of
that absolute Wisdom which transcends the ideas of Time and Space.
Mind, as we know it, is resolvable into states of consciousness, of
varying duration, intensity, complexity, etc. -- all, in the ultimate,
resting on sensation, which is again Maya. Sensation, again,
necessarily postulates limitation.
The PERSONAL GOD of orthodox Theism perceives, thinks, and is affected
by emotion; he repents and feels "fierce anger." But the notion of
such mental states clearly involves the unthinkable postulate of the
externality of the exciting stimuli, to say nothing of the
impossibility of ascribing changelessness to a Being whose emotions
fluctuate with events in the worlds he presides over. The conceptions
of a Personal God as changeless and infinite are thus unpsychological
and, what is worse, unphilosophical. ]
It is the ONE LIFE, eternal, invisible, yet Omnipresent, without
beginning or end, yet periodical in its regular manifestations,
between which periods reigns the dark mystery of non-Being;
unconscious, yet absolute Consciousness; unrealizable, yet the one
self-existing reality; truly, "a chaos to the sense, a Kosmos to the
reason."
Its one absolute attribute, which is ITSELF, eternal, ceaseless
Motion, is called in esoteric parlance the "Great Breath,"* which is
the perpetual motion of the universe, in the sense of limitless,
ever-present SPACE. That which is motionless cannot be Divine. But
then there is nothing in fact and reality absolutely motionless within
the universal soul.
Almost five centuries B.C. Leucippus, maintained that Space was filled
eternally with atoms actuated by a ceaseless motion, the latter
generating in due course of time, when those atoms aggregated,
rotatory motion, through mutual collisions producing lateral
movements. Epicurus taught the same, adding to the lateral motion of
the atoms the idea of affinity -- an occult teaching.
>From the beginning of man's inheritance, from the first appearance of
the architects of the globe he lives in, the unrevealed Deity was
recognized and considered under its only philosophical aspect --
universal motion, the thrill of the creative Breath in Nature.
OCCULTISM sums up the "One Existence" thus: "Deity is an arcane,
living (or moving) FIRE, and the eternal witnesses to this unseen
Presence are Light, Heat, Moisture," -- this trinity including, and
being the cause of, every phenomenon in Nature.
Intra-Cosmic motion is eternal and ceaseless; cosmic motion (the
visible, or that which is subject to perception) is finite and
periodical.
As an eternal abstraction it is the EVER-PRESENT; as a manifestation,
it is finite both in the coming direction and the opposite, the two
being the alpha and omega of successive reconstructions.
Kosmos -- the NOUMENON -- has nought to do with the causal relations
of the phenomenal World. It is only with reference to the intra-cosmic
soul, the ideal Kosmos in the immutable Divine Thought, that we may
say: "It never had a beginning nor will it have an end."
With regard to its body or Cosmic organization, though it cannot be
said that it had a first, or will ever have a last construction, yet
at each new Manvantara, its organization may be regarded as the first
and the last of its kind, as it evolutes every time on a higher plane
. . . .
THE ESOTERIC DOCTRINE TEACHES, like Buddhism and Brahminism, and even
the Kabala, that the one infinite and unknown Essence exists from all
eternity, and in regular and harmonious successions is either passive
or active.
In the poetical phraseology of Manu these conditions are called the
"Days" and the "Nights" of Brahma. The latter is either "awake" or
"asleep."
`The Svabhavikas, or philosophers of the oldest school of Buddhism
(which still exists in Nepal), speculate only upon the active
condition of this "Essence," which they call Svabhavat, and deem it
foolish to theorize upon the abstract and "unknowable" power in its
passive condition. ...The Buddhists maintained that there is no
Creator, but an infinitude of creative powers, which collectively form
the one eternal substance, the essence of which is inscrutable --
hence not a subject for speculation for any true philosopher.
Upon inaugurating an active period, says the Secret Doctrine, an
expansion of this Divine essence from without inwardly and from within
outwardly, occurs in obedience to eternal and immutable law, and the
phenomenal or visible universe is the ultimate result of the long
chain of cosmical forces thus progressively set in motion.
In like manner, when the passive condition is resumed, a contraction
of the Divine essence takes place, and the previous work of creation
is gradually and progressively undone. The visible universe becomes
disintegrated, its material dispersed; and 'darkness' solitary and
alone, broods once more over the face of the 'deep.'
To use a Metaphor from the Secret Books, which will convey the idea
still more clearly, an out-breathing of the 'unknown essence' produces
the world; and an inhalation causes it to disappear. This process has
been going on from all eternity, and our present universe is but one
of an infinite series, which had no beginning and will have no end."
This passage will be explained, as far as it is possible though, its
esoteric interpretation may contain a good deal which has hitherto
remained entirely unknown to the Western student.
The first illustration being a plain disc the second one in the
Archaic symbol shows , a disc with a point in it -- the first
differentiation in the periodical manifestations of the ever-eternal
nature, sexless and infinite "Aditi in THAT" (Rig Veda), the point in
the disc, or potential Space within abstract Space. In its third stage
the point is transformed into a diameter, thus It now symbolises a
divine immaculate Mother-Nature within the all-embracing absolute
Infinitude.
When the diameter line is crossed by a vertical one , it becomes the
mundane cross. Humanity has reached its third root-race; it is the
sign for the origin of human life to begin. When the circumference
disappears and leaves only the it is a sign that the fall of man into
matter is accomplished, and the FOURTH race begins. The Cross within a
circle symbolises pure Pantheism; when the Cross was left uninscribed,
it became phallic. It had the same and yet other meanings as a TAU
inscribed within a circle or as a "Thor's hammer," the Jaina cross,
so-called, or simply Svastica within a circle
By the third symbol -- the circle divided in two by the horizontal
line of the diameter -- the first manifestation of creative (still
passive, because feminine) Nature was meant. The first shadowy
perception of man connected with procreation is feminine, because man
knows his mother more than his father. Hence female deities were more
sacred than the male. Nature is therefore feminine, and, to a degree,
objective and tangible, and the spirit Principle which fructifies it
is concealed. By adding to the circle with the horizontal line in it,
a perpendicular line, the tau was formed -- -- -- the oldest form of
the letter. It was the glyph of the third root-race to the day of its
symbolical Fall -- i.e., when the separation of sexes by natural
evolution took place -- when the figure became , the circle, or
sexless life modified or separated -- a double glyph or symbol. With
the races of our Fifth Race it became in symbology the sacr', and in
Hebrew n'cabvah, of the first-formed races;* then it changed into the
Egyptian (emblem of life), and still later into the sign of Venus,
Then comes the Svastica (Thor's hammer, or the "Hermetic Cross" now),
entirely separated from its Circle, thus becoming purely phallic. The
esoteric symbol of Kali Yuga is the five-pointed star reversed,
thus -- the sign of human sorcery, with its two points (horns) turned
heavenward, a position every Occultist will recognize as one of the
"left-hand," and used in ceremonial magic.*
It is wrong and unjust to regard the Buddhists and Advaitee Occultists
as atheists. If not all of them philosophers, they are, at any rate,
all logicians, their objections and arguments being based on strict
reasoning.
Indeed, if the Parabrahmam of the Hindus may be taken as a
representative of the hidden and nameless deities of other nations,
this absolute Principle will be found to be the prototype from which
all the others were copied. Parabrahm is not "God," because It is not
a God. "It is that which is supreme, and not supreme (paravara),"
explains Mandukya Upanishad (2.28). IT is "Supreme" as CAUSE, not
supreme as effect. Parabrahm is simply, as a "Secondless Reality," the
all-inclusive Kosmos -- or, rather, the infinite Cosmic Space -- in
the highest spiritual sense, of course.
Brahma (neuter) being the unchanging, pure, free, undecaying supreme
Root, "the ONE true Existence, Paramarthika," and the absolute Chit
and Chaitanya (intelligence, consciousness) cannot be a cognizer, "for
THAT can have no subject of cognition."
Parabrahm is, in short, the collective aggregate of Kosmos in its
infinity and eternity, the "THAT" and "THIS" to which distributive
aggregates can not be applied. "In the beginning THIS was the Self,
one only" (Aitareya Upanishad); the great Sankaracharya, explains that
"THIS" referred to the Universe (Jagat); the sense of the words, "In
the beginning," meaning before the reproduction of the phenomenal
Universe.
Therefore, when the Pantheists echo the Upanishads, they do not deny a
Creator, or rather a collective aggregate of creators, but only
refuse, very logically, to attribute "creation" and especially
formation, something finite to an Infinite Principle.
Since there can be neither two INFINITES nor two ABSOLUTES in a
Universe supposed to be Boundless, this Self-Existence can hardly be
conceived of as creating personally. In the sense and perceptions of
finite "Beings," THAT is Non-"being," in the sense that it is the one
BE-NESS.
For, in this ALL lies concealed its coeternal and coeval emanation or
inherent radiation, which, upon becoming periodically Brahma (the
male-female Potency) becomes or expands itself into the manifested
Universe.
They say that Absolute Unity cannot pass to infinity; for infinity
presupposes the limitless extension of something, and the duration of
that "something"; and the One All is like Space -- which is its only
mental and physical representation on this Earth, or our plane of
existence -- neither an object of, nor a subject to, perception. If
one could suppose the Eternal Infinite All, the Omnipresent Unity,
instead of being in Eternity, becoming through periodical
manifestation a manifold Universe or a multiple personality, that
Unity would cease to be one.
"What is that which was, is, and will be, whether there is a Universe
or not; whether there be gods or none?" asks the esoteric Senzar
Catechism. And the answer made is -- SPACE.
It is not the One Unknown ever-present God in Nature, or Nature in
abscondito, that is rejected, but the God of human dogma and his
humanized "Word." In his infinite conceit and inherent pride and
vanity, man shaped it himself with his sacrilegious hand out of the
material he found in his own small brain-fabric, and forced it upon
mankind as a direct revelation from the one. This is precisely what
has been done by the believers in an anthropomorphic Creator, an
extracosmic, instead of an intracosmic God.
The oldest religions of the world -- exoterically, for the esoteric
root or foundation is one -- are the Indian, the Mazdean, and the
Egyptian. Then comes the Chaldean... later, comes the Jewish,
esoterically, as in the Kabala, following in the line of Babylonian
Magism; exoterically, as in Genesis and the Pentateuch, a collection
of allegorical legends.
The Occult Catechism contains the following questions and answers:
"What is it that ever is?" "Space, the eternal Anupadaka."* "What is
it that ever was?" "The Germ in the Root." "What is it that is ever
coming and going?" "The Great Breath." "Then, there are three
Eternals?" "No, the three are one. That which ever is, is one, that
which ever was is one, that which is ever being and becoming is also
one: and this is Space."
"Explain, oh Lanoo (disciple)." -- "The One is an unbroken Circle
(ring) with no circumference, for it is nowhere and everywhere; the
One is the boundless plane of the Circle, manifesting a diameter only
during the manvantaric periods; the One is the indivisible point found
nowhere, perceived everywhere during those periods; it is the Vertical
and the Horizontal, the Father and the Mother, the summit and base of
the Father, the two extremities of the Mother, reaching in reality
nowhere, for the One is the Ring as also the rings that are within
that Ring. Light in darkness and darkness in light: the 'Breath which
is eternal.' It proceeds from without inwardly, when it is everywhere,
and from within outwardly, when it is nowhere -- (i.e., maya, one of
the centres). It expands and contracts (exhalation and inhalation).
When it expands the mother diffuses and scatters; when it contracts,
the mother draws back and ingathers. This produces the periods of
Evolution and Dissolution, Manwantara and Pralaya. The Germ is
invisible and fiery; the Root (the plane of the circle) is cool; but
during Evolution and Manwantara her garment is cold and radiant. Hot
Breath is the Father who devours the progeny of the many-faced Element
(heterogeneous); and leaves the single-faced ones (homogeneous). Cool
Breath is the Mother, who conceives, forms, brings forth, and receives
them back into her bosom, to reform them at the Dawn (of the Day of
Brahma, or Manvantara). . . . ."
Esoteric philosophy, regarding as Maya (or the illusion of ignorance)
every finite thing, must necessarily view in the same light every
intra-Cosmic planet and body, as being something organized, hence
finite.
Follows the THREE FUNDAMENTAL PROPOSITIONS


H P B: No apology is required for asking the reader to make himself
familiar with them first...these basic ideas are few in number, and on
their clear apprehension depends the understanding of all that
follows...]	SD I pp. 14 - 19


1.	FIRST FUNDAMENTAL: "Be-ness"


1.	the Absolute...both Absolute Being and Non-Being.

2.	First manifestation...unmanifested Logos, the precursor of the
"manifested"...the "First Cause"...the "Unconscious"

3.	Spirit-matter, Life; the "Spirit of the Universe,"
Purusha and Prakriti, or the second Logos.

4.	Cosmic Ideation, Mahat or Intelligence, the Universal World-soul;
the Cosmic Noumenon of Matter, the basis of the intelligent operations
in and of Nature, also called Maha-Buddhi.

THE ONE REALITY; its dual aspects in the conditioned Universe."
SD I 16


2.	SECOND FUNDAMENTAL:	"Becoming"


"The Eternity of the Universe in toto as a boundless plane;
periodically, "the playground of numberless Universes incessantly
manifesting and disappearing," called the "manifesting stars," and the
"sparks of Eternity."...The absolute universality of that law of
periodicity, of flux and reflux, ebb and flow...an alternation...so
perfectly universal and without exception, that it is easy to
comprehend that in it we see one of the absolutely fundamental laws of
the universe."	SD I 16-17


3.	THIRD FUNDAMENTAL:	"Being"


"The fundamental identity of all Souls with the Universal Over Soul,
the latter being itself an aspect of the Unknown root; and the
obligatory pilgrimage for every Soul--a spark of the former--through
the Cycle of Incarnation (or "Necessity")...The pivotal doctrine of
the Esoteric philosophy admits no privileges or special gifts in man,
save those won by his own Ego through personal effort and merit
throughout a long series of metempsychoses and reincarnations."	SD I
17

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

Best wishes,

Dallas

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



-----Original Message-----
From: Morten
Sent: Saturday, December 14, 2002 2:40 AM
To:
Subject: The UN sect ! On Theosophy and politics...

Hi all of you,

There has been some debate going on about Theosophy and its relation
to politics.
Maybe those of you here at Theos-talk who are afraid about the idea
that Theosophy as such should be involved with politics - ought to
read the following below, so to - face some facts. (The article has a
certain Christian twist to it, but that should be of a lesser concern.
It is the content, which is important.)

And if you would make some comments on it - I could be appreciated.
What are your views ? Do you care ?

CUT