Volume 1:38-41

Continuing with the First Stanza, there are seven "Paths" or "Ways" to the "bliss of Non-Existence" (which is "absolute Being") because there are seven layers of the Mundane Egg that infold back into the central point in the Maha-Pralaya. The paths leads to absolute Being, as opposed to Be-ness, since the central point as the source of the Mundane Egg is an individualized aspect, or Brahma, of the immaculate white disk, as Brahman or Parabrahman.

When the "whole universe is plunged into sleep" in the Maha-Pralaya, there is no "centre of luminosity, nor eye to perceive light." The central point recedes into the dull black ground and all that remains is the "darkness" infilling the "boundless all." But the extent to which an individual can discern this picture in his waking hours during the Maha-Manvantara is dependent upon his "powers of vision." H.P. Blavatsky noted that the perception of the darkness of Father-Mother and "light their son" is but a "gray twilight to the perception of the average mystic, though to that of the spiritual eye of the Initiate it is absolute light." Even a well-trained ordinary person can see the division between phenomenon and noumenon. Sitting in his chair, he looks out at his surroundings: the grass, the duck pond, and the summer blanket. He shuts his eyes and it all disappears. Then the grey twilight of Mulaprakriti appears; it is the hazy background of Space in his mind. And then Space begins to move. Perhaps he dives deeper in that darkness into the absolute light, or perhaps he returns to his everyday surroundings on the ray of the central point that radiates against the backdrop of Space.

The name Father-Mother is used to identify the immaculate white disk when one of its potential points begins to vibrate. When H.P. Blavatsky stated that "Father-Mother" are the "opposite poles that manifest in all things on every plane of the Kosmos" she had in mind the existence of higher levels of Be-ness. The secondary "Universe," or the lower seven layers of the primary universe, is overseen by their son or Brahma, but the heights of the primary "Universe" in its upper five layers are beyond. This Brahma as a "symbol of the Universe" is "Father-Mother-Son" or "Spirit, Soul, and Body" in two different ways. On the one hand, he is "Father-Mother-Son" to the extent that the Great Breath of the immaculate white disk, the dull black ground, and the central point flows through him. On the other hand, he is "Father-Mother-Son" to the extent that his essence flows through the Central Suns, the Polar Suns, and the Equatorial Suns. This insight presents tremendous clarity to H.P. Blavatsky's statement in The Secret Doctrine 1:18 that the upper triad branches off into the seven cosmical principles: the upper triad beginning with the immaculate white disk is the first Father-Mother-Son and the middle triad beginning with the Central Sun is the second Father-Mother-Son. Thus, there are alternating layers of light and darkness throughout these six levels.

Sources:

H.P. Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine (Pasadena: Theosophical University Press, 2019).

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