In the Seven Stanzas in the first part of "Cosmogenesis," H.P. Blavatsky documented the core theosophical teachings on Cosmic evolution. The second part of "Cosmogenesis" traced the development of Symbolism in relation to Cosmic evolution. In looking at the second part on the development of Symbolism, this commentary analyzes key passages from each of its fifteen chapters.
(Chapter I). SYMBOLISM AND IDEOGRAPHS: Thomas Carlyle wrote that a symbol is a "revelation of the God-like." An ideograph represents an idea or thing. In The Secret Doctrine 1:4, H.P. Blavatsky illustrated the "plain disc," the "disc with a point in it," and the "point transformed into a diameter." These three symbols reveal the God-like, but they also represent the Kosmos as an organic living thing. The plain disc vibrates with aliveness, the point throbs into manifestation, the fabric of the disc is wrinkled by the movement of the point within its expanse. It is the motion of a God.
(Chapter II). THE MYSTERY LANGUAGE AND ITS KEYS: This motion of a God is captured in the mystery language used in The Secret Doctrine 1:312, "Osiris, saying he is Toum (the creative force in nature, giving form to all Beings, spirits and men), self-generated and self-existent, issued from Noun, the celestial river, called Father-mother of the gods, the primordial deity, which is chaos or the Deep, impregnated by the unseen spirit." Here, "Noun" is the 2nd Logos or Mulaprakriti, the "point transformed into a diameter" across her darkened underbelly. The point has already begun to vibrate, so she is Father-Mother as opposed to Mother alone. The "unseen spirit" is the 3rd Logos, or the vibrating point moving obscurely through the Father-Mother's hazy folds. The point breaks the cosmic plane of darkness to establish the head of a new secondary universe, or Osiris as Paramatman. The central point is a "wink of the Eye of Self-Existence" in The Secret Doctrine 1:17. Its child, Osiris, can likewise be spoken of as "self-generated and self-existent."Osiris finds "Shoo" the "solar force" on "the staircase of the City of the Eight (the two cubes of good and Evil"). As the 7th cosmical principle, Osiris reflects himself into the first cube (the "good") as the Central Sun, the Polar Sun, the Equatorial Sun, and the Solar Sun. He reflects himself into the second cube (the "Evil") as the Solar Sun and the triple Earth. The two cubes are the Ogdoad of the central point. Osiris is "Fire and Water" (meaning Paramatman for the cosmical principles or Atman for the human principles is expelled from the "Water" of the 2nd Logos and tinctured with the "Fire" of the 3rd Logos). He creates the "14 gods"--seven "dark" and seven "light" (the talas and lokas)--out of his limbs. In these seven realms, he is the "Law of existence and Being," where "night follows the day, and day the night" (the "periodical cycles of cosmic resurrection and human re-incarnation"). In these passages, H.P. Blavatsky is speaking the mystery language. The mystery language is the vision of ideographs in the seer's mind. The individual must have gained a degree of visual tenuousness to see its living reality in his own imagination.
Sources:
H.P. Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine (Pasadena: Theosophical University Press, 2019).
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