In Chapter XII, H.P. Blavatsky distinguished between the seven-fold Creative Gods and the ten-fold Kosmos.
(Chapter XII). THE THEOGONY OF THE CREATIVE GODS: H.P. Blavatsky reminisced how ancient nations gradually "lost sight of the highest and One principle of all things" and transferred the "abstract attributes of the 'causeless cause' to the caused effects" or the "creative Powers of the Universe." Originally, the "first, or rather ONE, principle was called 'the circle of Heaven,' symbolized by the hierogram of a point within a circle or equilateral triangle, the point being the Logos." The central point is both potential and active. All the hierarchies of "Creators" in the Mundane Egg come from this central point. In The Secret Doctrine 1:436, she outlined these seven classes: Divine, Cosmical, Sub-lunary, Solar Gods, Planetary, Sub-Mundane, and Manoushi heroes. These classes correlate to the Wondrous Beings in our solar system who were presented earlier in this commentary in The Secret Doctrine 1:206-212. In a general way, the Divine head of Adi-Buddha as the Central Sun preserves the 49 solar fires of seven solar Suns throughout a grand cycle of the Earth's planetary chain, the Cosmical ray of Amitabha Buddha as a semi-individualized aspect of one of the forces of Adi-Buddha splinters into the seven Dhyani-Buddhas as the Solar Gods in our solar system who each watch over one particular Round in the Earth cycle, the Sub-lunary influence of a fully-individualized Avalokitesvara operates through all the sacred planets and our Earth globes to receive the seven-fold pulse of the Cosmical ray, the Dhyani-Bodhisattvas as the Planetaries each oversee one particular globe, the superterrestrial Bodhisattvas as the Sub-Mundane each guard a particular Root-Race in a Round, and this combination of evolving entities spiritually incentivizes the cultivation of the Manushya Buddhas as the two antipodes of a Root-Race in the purest of human beings. Here, the 7 (Adi-Buddha) reflects itself into the 4 (Dhyani-Buddhas) and the 5 (Avalokitesvara) reflects itself into the 3 (Planetary Spirits). This reflection from higher to lower is why Adi-Buddha is also referred to as a Dhyani-Buddha and Avalokitesvara is also referred to as a Dhyani-Bodhisattva. Here, Adi-Buddha is the Central Sun, per G. de Purucker's designation in Fountain-Source on page 507. He asserted that this "Original Primordial Buddha" corresponds "from one angle of vision to the First or Unmanifest Logos." As such, Amitabha Buddha is the semi-individualized ray that shoots through the darkness or Alaya, per G. de Purucker's designation in Fountain-Source on page 508. Avalokitesvara is the "spiritual-intellectual power" of the semi-individualized ray but fully individualized. G. de Purucker also provided alternate designations for Adi-Buddha and Amitabha Buddha. In Studies on page 310, Amitabha is equated with Atman and thus Paramatman through a cosmic correspondence. This makes Adi-Buddha the semi-individualized aspect of Amitabha. In Fundamentals on page 234 he confirmed this designation since Adi-Buddha is merely the "highest sub-entity" of the "Wondrous Being." But this is not just any "Wondrous Being" but the "universal kosmical Wondrous Being" which refers to a stage of consciousness blending down into Paramatman but also upwards and beyond. As such, Adi-Buddha in its higher aspects reaches into Paramatman and can be labelled as the Central Sun, just as Kether and Ain-Soph are invariably interchanged. In The Secret Doctrine 1:571, H.P. Blavatsky equated Adi-Buddha with "Parabrahm and Ain-Soph." Further, she identified Adi-Buddha with the "UNCREATED Ray" as "Atma (our seventh principle)" which shoots out a "homogeneous spark" (5th principle) on a "bright ray" from the darkness (6th principle). This "UNCREATED Ray" is in the Central Sun. If Adi-Buddha is only one of the primordial seven forces in the Central Sun as opposed to its wholeness, it is only that force potentially and so its consciousness is truly absorbed in the essence of the Central Sun. Perhaps it could be said that there are seven Adi-Buddhas in the Central Sun as the potential primordial forces so intertwined with it that they cannot be separated. In Collected Writings 14:392, Adi-Buddha is Vajradhara and the Dhyani-Buddhas are Vajrasattva. But the Dhyani-Buddhas are only Vajrasattva in that Avalokitesvara synthesizes them. Avalokitesvara is the real Vajrsattva, or "Chief" of the Dhyani-Buddhas in Collected Writings 14:402. Vajradhara, like the potentiality of a primordial force, cannot directly manifest into individualized activity and must send Vajrasattva into the more material realms. They are "different Beings" and yet "identical in fact." These "two are one, and yet two." The situation can be summed up like this: The Central Sun possesses a potential and and active force just like the immaculate white disk possesses a potential and an active central point. But it takes time for the active force or the active central point to become fully individualized. The Central Sun is a reflection of the immaculate white disk. Therefore, the Adi-Buddha in the Central Sun is a potential force, Amitabha is the potential force semi-individualized, and Avalokitesvara is the potential force fully individualized and activated.
H.P. Blavatsky maintained that the Sacred Mysteries of the solar system involve numbers and figures. The preliminary three degrees of initiation are about learning to evoke the higher self. The 4th initiation (Winter Solstice) is a touching of the portals of the Dhyani-Buddhas and returning with a Manasaputric influence. The 5th initiation (Spring Equinox) is a descent into the Underworld because it is Sub-lunary or terrestrial and we must feel the compassion of the Avalokitesvaric influence not to seek an exit from the planetary chains. It is the fork in the road in the choice between becoming a Pratyeka Buddha or a Buddha of Compassion. We confront the temptation of individuality because we meet our own god-self face to face since Avalokitesvara is fully individualized. The 6th initiation (Summer Solstice) is also a great temptation because we ascend to the portals of Adi-Buddha but must turn back, refraining from blending our particular light ray with the other six. The 7th initiation (Winter Solstice) represents the point of inner strength where we can merge with the seven forces of Adi-Buddha and yet still assist mankind. The 8th initiation (Autumnal Equinox) signifies the final point of separation between Pratyeka Buddhas and Buddhas of Compassion because it is galaxial in nature. The decision is made to leave or remain within the solar system under the influence of the Mundane Egg. The result of this decision produces the Manushya Buddhas. The source from which the central point emanates is "passed over in silence" in many of the world's religious traditions since it can so often be the path of the Pratyeka Buddha. But its source is the immaculate white disk, the 10th kosmical principle or the heart of a galaxy. In The Secret Doctrine 1:435, H.P. Blavatsky compared the 10th hierarch in the Syrian religious tradition to the "Via Straminis" (Latin: "the wispy way") or path of lights to the "Milky Way." The Syrians did not tell what was beyond the "tenth world." Beyond the tenth world there is a Laya-center. In the early phase of a Maha-Pralaya, this Laya-center stimulates a potential point to shoot forth like a comet. It vibrates through the all-whiteness of the immaculate white disk and possesses an independent function or purpose (which is why it emerges in its full "integrity" with the new Maha-Manvantara in The Secret Doctrine 2:80), but it does not possess an independent form. H.P. Blavatsky advised in The Secret Doctrine 1:432 that this Parabrahman (immaculate white disk) "cannot be known except through the luminous point (the LOGOS) which knows not Parabrahman but only Mulaprakriti." This luminous Point evokes the "triad" from which "emanate the remaining seven numbers of the 10 (ten) numbers which are at the base of the manifested universe." The potential point becomes an active point at the "third stage of Cosmic manifestation." H.P. Blavatsky wrote that "all the creative gods or personal Deities" begin at this stage of Time (since the 3rd Logos brings Time into existence). In some aspect, Brahma, Odin, Adam-Kadmon, Zeus, Osiris, Amshaspend-Ormazd, and Avalokitesvara are all this central point, but they are also the emanations from this central point. As for Jehovah, H.P. Blavatsky repeatedly made it clear (such as in The Secret Doctrine 1:99) that he stood no higher than Binah, or the third sephirah, in the Kabbalistic tradition. He/she (since Binah is the Primordial Point of Hokmah in the womb of the Palace) is referred to in the plural as "Elohim" since he/she (like Brahma-Purusha-Prakriti) streams as a host of emanations into the lower sephiroth. For H.P. Blavatsky, this central point as a "great circle" could be imagined by closing one's eyes and thinking outward to the "extreme limits" of the mind in every direction until its rays terminated "in the vault of a sphere." This, she maintained, is the "extremest all-embracing conception of the Ain-Soph manifest, which formulates itself as a geometrical figure." A "geometrical shape is the first recognizable means of connection between the Ain-Soph and the intelligence of man." The conduit of transmission between the immaculate white disk and man's highest perceptions is the central point. But as H.P. Blavatsky averred, the ancient nations often began their Cosmogonies with darkness, not light. For example, Hesiod, in Verses 116-118 of Theogony, maintained that "Chaos was first of all, but next appeared broad-bosomed Earth, sure standing-place for all the gods who live on snowy Olympus' peak." In this case, since Hesiod juxtaposed Chaos with the Earth, he is referring to Aditi, not Mulaprakriti. In The Secret Doctrine 1:431, Aditi (as Aditi-Vach or the "Boundless Voice") can also be referred to as the 3rd Logos, but this permutation of Mulaprakriti applies to the realm of the Creative Gods in the solar system. It has been previously suggested in this commentary that the Paramatman overshadowing the human principles in G. de Purucker's diagram in Fountain-Source on page 435 can be labelled as Mahat. It can equally be labelled as Aditi. For the seven human principles in the solar system, Aditi rules over them as Aditi-Vach, the 3rd Logos, a female goddess. In an Ogdoad, she reigns as the Queen Regent, the 7+1 = 8, commanding the Solar Sun and its planetary chains. She is regent as opposed to ruler because the primordial Kosmic 3rd Logos has already returned to its mother Darkness.
Sources:
H.P. Blavatsky, Collected Writings, Vol. 14 (Wheaton: The Theosophical Publishing House, 1985).
H.P. Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine (Pasadena: Theosophical University Press, 2019).
Hesiod and Theognis, Theogony, Works and Days, and Elegies, trans. Dorothea Wonder (London: Penguin Books, 1973).
G. de Purucker, Fountain-Source of Occultism (Pasadena: Theosophical University Press, 1974).
G. de Purucker, Fundamentals of the Esoteric Philosophy (Pasadena: Theosophical University Press, 1979).
G. de Purucker, Studies in Occult Philosophy (Pasadena: Theosophical University Press, 1973).
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