Volume 2:35-44

In The Secret Doctrine 2:41, H.P. Blavatsky opened with the key theme in the First Stanza: the need to center the "Cosmic principle of light" in one's "mental perception" to formulate the "groundwork of the philosophy of the divine manifesting in the Universe." This commentary has sought to achieve this mission by focusing on the immaculate white disk (1st Logos), the dull black ground (2nd Logos), and the central point (3rd Logos) in how they reflect themselves into the Cosmic lights of the Central Sun (Adi-Buddha), the Polar Sun (Amitabha), and the Equatorial Sun (Avalokitesvara). The 4th century AD initiate, Emperor Julian, nurtured a theosophical vision of this "Cosmic principle of light." He promoted a vision of multiple suns. H.P. Blavatsky elaborated in The Secret Doctrine 2:35, "Were I to touch upon the initiation into our Sacred Mysteries, which the Chaldees Bacchized, respecting the seven-rayed god, lighting up the soul through him, I should say things unknown to the rabble, very unknown, but well known to the blessed Theurgists." To understand the divine lights, one can turn to the 4th century AD Gnostic sourcebook of the Pistis Sophia.

In 1.1 (Book and Chapter) of the Pistis Sophia, Jesus is resurrected and appears to his disciples. He proclaims, "I am come forth out of that First Mystery, which is the last mystery, that is the four-and-twentieth mystery." The first "Mystery" is the last "Mystery" because the initiate comes from the Central Sun and returns to the Central Sun. Jesus is the Christos. This classifies him as Atman humanly and Paramatman cosmically. As to the "four-and-twentieth mystery," it is the hierarchy of the twelve talas and lokas (making 24) seen from the perspective of the Central Sun at the mid-way point in the Kosmic world system. In a twelve-fold system, Paramatman represents the transition downwards as well as the transition upwards. Six talas and lokas (making 12) signify the lower realms and six talas and lokas (making 12) signifies the upper realms. In 2.2, Jesus's disciples can not see him when he appears because he has come down to them from the Central Sun (or more technically a spark of the Central Sun in the Solar Sun). They can only see Jesus's "light" which "shot forth many light-rays. And the light was of divers kind, and it was of divers type from below upwards, one [ray] more excellent than the other." Jesus reminds his disciples in 4.129 that the initiate becomes "flames of light-beams and light-streams" that "penetrate all the regions until they reach the region of their inheritance." This region is in the Central Sun since Jesus is the "gnosis of the universe" in 2.97 and he ultimately oversees its destruction. In 2.100, Jesus explains that the initiate must splinter himself "for the sake of the race of men" for them to share in the "kingdom of the Light." He shows his disciples the series of lights that he passed through in his ascent and descent to and from the heavens, some of which were "forty-and-nine-times" brighter than ordinary light (a not-so-subtle reference to the seven Solar Suns under a Central Sun), per 1.12.

Then Jesus speaks of the "power of the little Iao" or the "Good" in 1.7 that he transferred from himself into the mother of John the Baptizer so that her son John could also "baptize with the water of the forgiveness of sins." In 1.62, Iao is a Mystery name, "the name of the Immortal: aaa, ooo: and this is the name of the Voice, for the sake of which the Perfect Man hath set himself in motion: iii." To understand this, one can turn to H.P. Blavatsky's comments on Iao in Isis Unveiled 2:299, "IAO, in such a case, would--etymologically considered--mean the 'Breath of Life,' generated or springing forth between an upright male and an egg-shaped female principle of nature." The combination of "AO" is Father-Mother and the "I" (which always precedes the "cipher" of emptiness) as the Son is the "Voice" in motion, the 3rd Logos, the Adam Kadmon as the "Perfect Man" in the secondary universe. That is, Adam Kadmon represents the "universal kosmical Wondrous Being" shining over the seven manifested layers of the Mundane Egg which is tinctured with the three higher kosmical principles flowing through his supra consciousness. He is the "first emanation of the Father-Mother or divine nature," per The Secret Doctrine 2:43. In terms of the Kosmos of a twelve-fold system, Iao is the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Logos as the immaculate white disk, the dull black ground, and the central point. In terms of the Cosmos in the Mundane Egg, Iao is the Central Sun, the Polar Sun, and the Equatorial Sun. In terms of the planets, Iao is the Moon (Earth's parent) and the Planet of Death (the 7th sacred planet). The "power of the little Iao" is in these two planets because of a series of emanations leading back to the Dhyani-Buddhas and the Central Sun. As initiates, Jesus and John (though Jesus is greater since he baptizes with spirit as opposed to water) both gain this "power." In Isis Unveiled 2:293, the name of Iao "marks the upper centre or rather the presumed spot where the Unknown One may be supposed to dwell" and around it "runs the legend" of the "eternal Sun-Abrasax" as the "Central Spiritual Sun." Jesus dwells in a speck of the Central Sun and, in this sense, he is a Silent Watcher over the comings and goings of those from above and below.

During his watch, Jesus encounters Pistis Sophia (Faith Wisdom) in 1.29 sitting dejectedly on the outer edge of the 13th Aeon but unable to enter. The 13th Aeon symbolizes the Central Sun. Jesus begins his story telling of Pistis Sophia as the individual speck of Pratyagatman traveling through the planetary chains as the Spiritual Monad; however, she wanted to elevate herself out of the planetary chains and into the Divine Monad over the solar chains. But the 13th Aeon represents the boundary line in Paramatman between the twelve lower lokas and talas and the twelve upper lokas and talas. In 1.31, Ilda-Baoth as one of the leaders of the "Self-willed" is jealous of her ambition to transcend the planetary chains. He pulls her down into the material spheres and takes away her light. This symbolizes her fall from the free-ranging Spiritual Monad to the stuck-in-the-mud Psychic Monad confined to a single planetary globe. She becomes the lower aspect of Sophia-Achamoth in the material realms of Cosmic Kama down through Sthula-Sarira. Lost in the chaos of matter, she receives assistance in 2.64 from the "power which had come out of the Height" or the "universal kosmical Wondrous Being" of the Central Sun who pours its light rays upon her. Infilled with its strength in 2.66, she conquers Ilda-Baoth, treads on his "serpent-faced emanation," and stands upon the "seven-headed basilisk." In this way, Pistis Sophia transcends the evils in the Mundane Egg, turns her vision skyward once again, and becomes the "Virgin of Light" in 1.7. She is united as the female aspect in the central point of the 3rd Logos beyond the Central Sun.

In the perception of this union of Pistis Sophia with the central point, we reach the grand culmination of the "mental circle" become "visible through light," or "real philosophy" in The Secret Doctrine 2:41. It is a first step towards "roving the interstellar space in full consciousness" and continuing "at will on Earth" in the physical body, per The Mahatma Letters on page 44.

Sources:

A. Trevor Barker, comp., The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett (Pasadena: Theosophical University Press, 1975).

H.P. Blavatsky, Isis Unveiled (Pasadena: Theosophical University Press, 1998).

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

G.R.S. Mead, trans., Pistis Sophia (Mineola: Dover Publications, Inc., 2005).

G. de Purucker, Fountain-Source of Occultism (Pasadena: Theosophical University Press, 1974).

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