Theosophy

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The Parent Theosophical Society was formed at New York, U. S. A., in 1875, by H. P. Blavatsky, with whom were associated William Q. Judge, Henry S. Olcott, and others.

The defined Objects of the Society were as follows:

I. To form a nucleus of a Universal Brotherhood of Humanity, without distinction of race, creed, sex, caste, or color. II. The study of ancient and modern religions, philosophies and sciences, and the demonstration of the importance of such study; and

III. The investigation of the unexplained laws of nature and the psychical powers latent in man.

Assent to the First Object only was obligatory on the part of all Fellows, the other Objects being subsidiary and optional.

There is one director; there is no second. I speak concerning him who abides in the heart. This being, the director, dwells in heart and directs all creatures. Impelled by that same being, I move as I am ordered, like water on a declivity. There is one instructor; there is no second different from him, and I speak concerning him who abides in the heart.-Anugita.

THEOSOPHY

Vol. VI

NOVEMBER, 1917

No. 1

No Theosophical Society, as such, is responsible for any opinion or declaration in this magazine, by whomsoever expressed, unless contained in an official document.

Where any article, or statement, has the author's name attached, he alone is responsible, and for those which are unsigned, the Editors will be accountable.

TRANSACTIONS OF THE BLAVATSKY LODGE

OF THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. DISCUSSIONS OF THE STANZAS OF THE FIRST VOLUME OF THE "SECRET DOCTRINE."

(PART TWO)

The "Transactions" were compiled from shorthand notes taken at the meetings of the Blavatsky Lodge of the Theosophical Society, January 10th to June 20th, 1889, and later printed in pamphlet form. Copies of this pamphlet are getting rarer with every year. THEOSOPHY is therefore reprinting the "Transactions" for the benefit of present-day students. Part II consists of Stanzas II and IV (Slokas 1 to 5) of the "Book of Dzyan," upon which "The Secret Doctrine" is based. The answers to the questions were given by H. P. Blavatsky. Students not possessing "The Secret Doctrine" will find that these Stanzas are also printed in H. P. Blavatsky's "Voice of the Silence," which is owned by most students, or can be purchased, through THEOSOPHY, at the nominal price of seventy-five cents, postpaid. The first part of the "Transactions" was printed in the issues of THEOSOPHY from June to October, 1916, inclusive.

V.

STANZA II. (Continued.)

Sloka (3). THE HOUR HAD NOT YET STRUCK; THE RAY HAD NOT YET FLASHED INTO THE GERM; THE MATRI-PADMA (mother lotus) HAD NOT YET SWOLLEN.

"The Ray of the 'ever-darkness' becomes, as it is emitted, a ray of effulgent life, and flashes into the 'germ'-the point in the Mundane Egg, represented by matter in its abstract sense."

Q. Is the Point in the Mundane Egg the same as the Point in the Circle, the Unmanifested Logos?

A. Certainly not: the Point in the Circle is the Unmanifested Logos, the Manifested Logos is the Triangle. Pythagoras speaks of the never manifested Monad which lives in solitude and darkness; when the hour strikes it radiates from itself ONE the first number. This number descending, produces Two, the second number, and Two, in its turn, produces THREE, forming a triangle, the first complete geometrical figure in the world of form. It is this ideal or abstract triangle which is the Point in the Mundane Egg, which, after gestation, and in the third remove, will start from the Egg to form the Triangle. This is Brahmâ-Vâch-Virâj in the Hindu Philosophy and Kether-Chochmah-Binah in the Zohar. The First Manifested Logos is the Potentia, the unrevealed Cause; the Second, the still latent Thought; the Third, the Demiurgus, the active Will evolving from its universal Self the active effect, which, in its turn, becomes the cause on a lower plane.

Q.

What is Ever-Darkness in the sense used here?

A. Ever-Darkness means, I suppose, the ever-unknowable mystery, behind the veil-in fact, Parabrahm. Even the Logos can see only Mulaprakriti, it cannot see that which is beyond the veil. It is that which is the "Ever-unknowable Darkness."

Q. What is the Ray in this connection?

A. I will recapitulate. We have the plane of the circle, the face being black, the point in the circle being potentially white, and this is the first possible conception in our minds of the invisible Logos. "Ever-Darkness" is eternal, the Ray periodical. Having flashed out from this central point and thrilled through the Germ, the Ray is withdrawn again within this point and the Germ developes into the Second Logos, the triangle within the Mundane Egg.

Q. What, then, are the stages of manifestation?

A. The first stage is the appearance of the potential point in the circle-the unmanifested Logos. The second stage is the shooting forth of the Ray from the potential white point, producing the first point, which is called, in the Zohar, Kether or Sephira. The third stage is the production from Kether of Chochmah, and Binah, thus constituting the first triangle, which is the Third or manifested Logos-in other words, the subjective and objective Universe. Further, from this manifested Logos will proceed the Seven Rays, which in the Zohar are called the lower Sephiroth and in Eastern occultism the primordial seven rays. Thence will proceed the innumerable series of Hierarchies.

Q. Is the Triangle here mentioned that which you refer to as the Germ in the Mundane Egg?

A. Certainly it is. But you must remember that there are both the Universal and Solar Eggs (as well as others), and that

it is necessary to qualify any statement made concerning them. The Mundane Egg is an expression of Abstract Form.

Q. May Abstract Form be called the first manifestation of the eternal female principle?

A. It is the first manifestation not of the female principle, but of the Ray which proceeds from the central point which is perfectly sexless. There is no eternal female principle, for this Ray produces that which is the united potentiality of both sexes but is by no means either male or female. This latter differentiation will only appear when it falls into matter, when the Triangle becomes a Square, the first Tetraktys.

Q. Then the Mundane Egg is as sexless as the Ray?

A. The Mundane Egg is simply the first stage of manifestation, undifferentiated primordial matter, in which the vital creative Germ receives its first spiritual impulse; Potentiality becomes Potency.

Matter, by convenience of metaphor, only, is regarded as feminine, because it is receptive of the rays of the sun which fecundate it and so produce all that grows on its surface, i. e., on this the lowest plane. On the other hand primordial matter should be regarded as substance, and by no means can be spoken of as having

sex.

Thus the Egg, on whatever plane you speak of, means the ever-existing undifferentiated matter which strictly is not matter at all but, as we call it, the Atoms. Matter is destructible in form while the Atoms are absolutely indestructible, being the quintessence of Substances. And here, I mean by "atoms" the primordial divine Units, not the "atoms" of modern Science.

Similarly the "Germ" is a figurative expression; the germ is everywhere, even as the circle whose circumference is nowhere and whose centre is everywhere. It therefore means all germs, that is to say, unmanifested nature, or the whole creative power which will emanate, called by the Hindus Brahmâ, though on every plane it has a different name.

Q. Is the Matri-Padma the eternal or the periodical Egg?

A. The eternal Egg; it will become periodical only when the ray from the first Logos shall have flashed from the latent Germ in the Matri-Padma which is the Egg, the Womb of the Universe which is to be. By analogy, the physical germ in the female cell could not be called eternal, though the latent spirit of the germ concealed within the male cell in nature, may be so called.

Sloka (4). HER HEART HAD NOT YET OPENED FOR THE ONE RAY TO ENTER, THENCE TO FALL AS THREE INTO FOUR IN THE LAP OF MAYA.

"But as the hour strikes and it becomes receptive of the Fohatic impress of the Divine Thought (the Logos or the male aspect of the Anima Mundi, Alaya)-its heart opens."*

* Vol. I, p. 58, original edition; p. 88, new edition.