Having united the solar Sun with the three higher types of suns into a Quaternary in the Second Stanza, H.P. Blavatsky reminded her readers that The Secret Doctrine "occupies itself chiefly, if not entirely, with our Solar System, and especially with our planetary chain." She had arrived at that point in her text where the solar system was introduced as Cosmic Kama, per G. de Purucker's diagram on page 437 of Fountain-Source. Her focus now shifted to the relationship of the 7th, 6th, 5th, and 4th cosmical principles in the Mundane Egg.
She introduced the concept of "Svabhavat" or a "Plastic Essence" that "fills the Universe" as the "root of all things." It is a "Buddhistic concrete aspect of the abstraction called in Hindu philosophy Mulaprakriti," meaning it is a more deeply materialized form of Primordial Substance, or Alaya as the 6th cosmical principle in the Mundane Egg. From Svabhavat comes "Subhava" or Svabhava as the "states of being" of the "self." Therefore, Svabhava, as the vehicles of Svabhavat, correspond to the 5th cosmical principle of Mahat. It is admired as "fair," "handsome," and "good" because it has not yet fallen into the corruption of Cosmic Kama. In its descent into Cosmic Kama, it is this Svabhava that splinters into the innumerable buddhic shards of light that inform the characters of evolving entities. If one reviews G. de Purucker's diagram on page 437, he labelled Mahat as the "Cosmic Source of Individual Intelligences." These Individual Intelligences are the various "states of being" in H.P. Blavatsky's definition of Svabhava; it is why she never really viewed Adi-Buddhi as a self.
In his Occult Glossary on page 171, G. de Purucker preferred to view Svabhavat as a combination "Father-Mother" of "akasa" and "buddhi." For the "northern Buddhists" it was the 6th cosmical principle of Adi-Buddhi, for the Brahmans it was the 7th cosmical principle of Akasa, and for the Hebrews it was the 6th cosmical principle of the "waters" of Alaya. In Fundamentals on page 404, he chose to place Svabhavat as the first principle above Add-Buddhi, thereby making it the 7th cosmical principle, Adi-Buddhi the 6th cosmical principle, and Mahat the 5th cosmical principle. Such a placement at the 7th cosmical principle initially appears to be contradictory since Svabhavat is supposed to correspond to Mulaprakriti (the 2nd logos) or its concretion into Alaya (the 6th cosmical principle). But the apparent contradiction is resolved when one realizes that there are different ways of enumerating the logoi.
For example, G. de Purucker, in his Encyclopedic Theosophical Glossary under the definition of Brahman, enumerated the three logoi of the upper triad in the Kosmos as 1) Parabrahman-Mulraprakriti 2) Brahman-Pradhana 3) Brahma/Purusha-Prakriti. In this case, Mulaprakriti is the 1st Logos, though the underbelly of Parabrahman. Brahman-Pradhana is the spirit-matter combination of the 2nd Logos, and Brahma/Purusha-Prakriti is the spirit-matter combination of the 3rd Logos. With Mulaprakriti as the 1st Logos, Svabhavat can be spoken of as its concrete aspect in the 7th cosmical principle.
There are different ways to enumerate the logoi in the Kosmos. In the example above, G. de Purucker used a system that relied on the division between "lokas" and "talas," per the Occult Glossary on pages 92 and 172. A loka was the superior part of a plane or principle and a tala was the inferior part. Therefore, Parabrahman can be spoken of as the loka of the 1st Logos and Mulaprakriti can be spoken of as the tala of the 1st Logos. Brahman can be spoken of as the loka of the 2nd Logos and Pradhana can be spoken of as the tala of the 2nd Logos. Brahma/Purusha can be spoken of as the loka of the 3rd Logos and the Prakrit can be spoken of as the tala of the 3rd Logos. This means that every layer of the Kosmos must be spoken of in terms of a light and dark side. The problem with outlining the logoi in such a manner is two-fold 1) the inner eye of human vision does not see in this way; it has already been shown how multiple lights appear as one star in our inner vision 2) the lokas and talas of Parabrahman, Mulaprakriti, and the central point are so united as to be nearly indistinguishable. Since multiple lights appear as one star in our inner vision, this commentary has preferred to label Parabrahman as the immaculate white disk of the 1st Logos, Mulaprakriti as the dull black ground of the 2nd Logos, and the central point of shining light as the 3rd Logos. Not only does this presentation tally more closely with G. de Purucker's diagram on page 437 of Fountain-Source, but it also takes into account how we see things; hence, the title "Theosophical Visions." The title is inspired by Anaïs Nin, the 20th-century French writer who wrote in her novel Seduction of the Minotaur (1961) on page 146, "we don't see things as they are; we see them as we are."
Sources:
H.P. Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine (Pasadena: Theosophical University Press, 2019).
Anaïs Nin, Seduction of the Minotaur: The Authoritative Edition (Sky Blue Press, 2014). Retrieved from https://scribd.com.
G. de Purucker, Encyclopedic Theosophical Glossary. Retrieved from theosociety.org.
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, Occult Glossary (Pasadena: Theosophical University Press, 1996).
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