The Web of Life (H.P. Blavatsky, Walt Whitman, Mundaka Upanishad)

The seven sons were not yet born from the web of light. Darkness alone was father-mother, Svabhavat; and Svabhavat was in darkness.

These two are the Germ, and the Germ is one. The Universe was still concealed in the Divine thought and the Divine bosom. . . . (H.P. Blavatsky, The Stanzas of Dzyan, 2 5-6, The Secret Doctrine)

Light is cold flame, and flame is fire, and fire produces heat, which yields water: the water of life in the great mother.

Father-Mother spin a web whose upper end is fastened to spirit — the light of the one darkness — and the lower one to its shadowy end, matter; and this web is the universe spun out of the two substances made in one, which is Svabhavat.

It expands when the breath of fire is upon it; it contracts when the breath of the mother touches it. Then the sons dissociate and scatter, to return into their mother’s bosom at the end of the great day, and re-become one with her; when it is cooling it becomes radiant, and the sons expand and contract through their own selves and hearts; they embrace infinitude.

Then Svabhavat sends Fohat to harden the atoms. Each is a part of the web. Reflecting the “Self-Existent Lord” like a mirror, each becomes in turn a world.  (Stanzas 3, 9-12)

 

As a spider ejects and retracts (the threads),

As the plants shoot forth on the earth,

As the hairs on the head and body of the living man,

So from the Imperishable, all that is here.

As the sparks from the well-kindled fire,

In nature akin to it, spring forth in their thousands;

So, my dear sir, from the Imperishable

Living beings of many kinds go forth,

And again return into him.

(Mundaka Upanishad, 1.1.7)

 

A noiseless patient spider,

I mark’d where on a little promontory it stood isolated,

Mark’d how to explore the vacant vast surrounding,

It launch’d forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself,

Ever unreeling them, ever tirelessly speeding them.

And you O my soul where you stand,

Surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of space,

Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing, seeking the spheres to connect them,

Till the bridge you will need be form’d, till the ductile anchor hold,

Till the gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere, O my soul.

(Walt Whitman)

 

But they believed in destiny or Karma, which from birth to death every man is weaving thread by thread around himself, as a spider does his cobweb; and this destiny is guided by that presence termed by some the guardian angel, or our more intimate astral inner man, who is but too often the evil genius of the man of flesh or the personality. Both these lead on Man, but one of them must prevail; and from the very beginning of the invisible affray the stern and implacable law of compensation and retribution steps in and takes its course, following faithfully the fluctuating of the conflict. When the last strand is woven, and man is seemingly enwrapped in the network of his own doing, then he finds himself completely under the empire of this self-made destiny. It then either fixes him like the inert shell against the immovable rock, or like a feather carries him away in a whirlwind raised by his own actions. 

(H.P. Blavatsky, Isis Unveiled, Vol. II, 593)

 

Macrocosm & Microcosm Correspondence? As above, so below?' Some observations from recent scientific studies:

 

'Then Svabhavat sends Fohat to harden the atoms. Each is a part of the web'. (Blavatsky, Stanzas of Dzyan 3, 12) (Fohat is cosmic electricity)

New research suggests that spider webs can lure their prey using, literally, electric attraction (Megan Garber, 2013) https://www.theatlantic.com/.../confirmed-spiders.../277544/

The study, published Thursday in the journal Current Biology, found that when spiders are in a chamber with no wind, but a small electric field, they are likely to prep for take-off, or even fly. Plus, the sensory hairs covering the spiders’ bodies move when the electric field is turned on — much like your own hair stands up due to static electricity. This “spidey sense” could be how the creatures know it’s time to fly. (Amanda Grennel, 2018)

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/spiders-fly-on-the-currents-of-earths-electric-field

 

golden orbweaver spider has 7 kinds of silk glands & each 1 creates its own liquid protein & solidified & combined in numerous ways, released as silk from 6 spinnerets (Krista Carothers, 14 of the Most Elaborate Spider Webs Ever Found in Nature, 2018/2022) https://www.rd.com/list/elaborate-spider-webs/

 

Secret Doctrine I study notes, Stanzas of Dzyan, Third Stanza 3/3

3.10. Spirit-Substance spin a web whose upper end is fastened to Spirit, the matter of the Pure Spirit, and the lower one to Matter, Spirit’s shadowy end; and the web is the Universe spun out of the two substances made in one, which is Swabhava, the plastic essence that fills the Universe.

3.11. The web of the Universe expands when the Heat of Fire is upon it; it contracts when the heat of the Root of Matter touches it. Then the Elements with their respective Powers, or Intelligences dissociate and scatter, to return into the source of the Root of Matter at the end of the great cycle and merge with it. When the web is cooling, it becomes radiant, the Elements expand and contract through their own selves and hearts; they embrace infinitude.

3.12. Then the self-existent plastic Essence sends the primordial Electric Entity to electrify into life, and separate primordial stuff or pregenetic matter into atoms, themselves the source of all life and consciousness. (i.e., by infusing energy into them: he scatters the atoms or primordial matter). Each of these is a part of the structure of the Universe. Reflecting the Primeval Light (Mahat) like a mirror (It is through Fohat that the ideas of the Universal Mind are impressed upon matter), each becomes in turn a world (like a fire that can light an endless amount of candles, without diminishing its flame).

10. Father-Mother spin a web whose upper end is fastened to Spirit (Purusha), the light of the one Darkness, and the lower one to Matter (Prakriti) its (the Spirit’s) shadowy end; and this web is the Universe spun out of the two substances made in one, which is Swabhava (a).

Brahma, as “the germ of unknown Darkness,” is the material from which all evolves and develops “as the web from the spider, as foam from the water,” etc. This is only graphic and true, if Brahma the “Creator” is, as a term, derived from the root brih, to increase or expand. Brahma “expands” and becomes the Universe woven out of his own substance. (SD1, 83)

Father-Mother:  the male and female principles in root-nature, the opposite poles that manifest in all things on every plane of Kosmos, or Spirit and Substance, in a less allegorical aspect, the resultant of which is the Universe, or the Son.  (SD1, 41)

Purusha: Spirit. (SD1, 83)

Prakriti: Matter (SD1, 83)

Darkness: Darkness, then, is the eternal matrix in which the sources of light appear and disappear. “Darkness is Father-Mother: light their son,” says an old Eastern proverb. (SD1, 40-4) …The essence of darkness being absolute light, Darkness is taken as the appropriate allegorical representation of the condition of the Universe during Pralaya, or the term of absolute rest, or non-being, as it appears to our finite minds. … According to the tenets of Eastern Occultism, Darkness is the one true actuality, the basis and the root of light, without which the latter could never manifest itself, nor even exist. Light is matter, and Darkness pure Spirit. Darkness, in its radical, metaphysical basis, is subjective and absolute light; while the latter in all its seeming effulgence and glory, is merely a mass of shadows, as it can never be eternal, and is simply an illusion, or Maya. (SD1, 70)

Svabhava: the “Plastic Essence” that fills the Universe, is the root of all things. Svabhavat is, so to say, the Buddhistic concrete aspect of the abstraction called in Hindu philosophy Mulaprakriti. It is the body of the Soul, and that which Ether would be to Akasa, the latter being the informing principle of the former. Chinese mystics have made of it the synonym of “being.” In the Ekasloka-Shastra of Nagarjuna (the Lung-shu of China) called by the Chinese the Yih-shu-lu-kia-lun, it is said that the original word of Yeu is “Being” or “Subhava,” “the Substance giving substance to itself,” also explained by him as meaning “without action and with action,” “the nature which has no nature of its own.” Subhava, from which Svabhavat, is composed of two words: Su “fair,” “handsome,” “good”; Sva, “self”; and bhava, “being” or “states of being.” (SD1, 61)

Spirit-Substance spin a web whose upper end is fastened to Spirit, the matter of the Pure Spirit, and the lower one to Matter, Spirit’s shadowy end; and the web is the Universe spun out of the two substances made in one, which is Svhabhava, the plastic essence that fills the Universe.

11. It (the Web) expands when the breath of fire (the Father) is upon it; it contracts when the breath of the mother (the root of Matter) touches it. Then the sons (the Elements with their respective Powers, or Intelligences) dissociate and scatter, to return into their mother’s bosom at the end of the “great day” and rebecome one with her (a). When it (the Web) is cooling, it becomes radiant, its sons expand and contract through their own selves and hearts; they embrace infinitude. (b)

The expanding of the Universe under the breath of Fire is very suggestive in the light of the “Fire mist” period of which modern science speaks so much, and knows in reality so little.

Great heat breaks up the compound elements and resolves the heavenly bodies into their primeval one element, explains the commentary. “Once disintegrated into its primal constituent by getting within the attraction and reach of a focus, or centre of heat (energy), of which many are carried about to and fro in space, a body, whether alive or dead, will be vapourised and held in “the bosom of the Mother” until Fohat, gathering a few of the clusters of Cosmic matter (nebulae) will, by giving it an impulse, set it in motion anew, develop the required heat, and then leave it to follow its own new growth. (SD1, 83-84)

There is heat internal and heat external in every atom,” say the manuscript Commentaries, to which the writer has had access; “the breath of the Father (or Spirit) and the breath (or heat) of the Mother (matter);” (SD1, 84)

The expanding and contracting of the Web — i.e., the world stuff or atoms — expresses here the pulsatory movement; for it is the regular contraction and expansion of the infinite and shoreless Ocean of that which we may call the noumenon of matter emanated by Swabhavat, which causes the universal vibration of atoms. (SD1, 84)

But even this will be found irreconcileable, unless this “something besides heat” is ticketed “Causeless Heat,” the “Breath of Fire,” the all-creative Force plus absolute intelligence, which physical science is not likely to accept. (SD1, 85)

The web of the Universe expands when the Heat of Fire is upon it; it contracts when the heat of the Root of Matter touches it. Then the Elements with their respective Powers, or Intelligences dissociate and scatter, to return into the source of the Root of Matter at the end of the great cycle and merge with it. When the web is cooling, it becomes radiant, the Elements expand and contract through their own selves and hearts; they are infinite.

12. Then Svabhava sends Fohat to harden the atoms. Each (of these) is a part of the web (Universe). Reflecting the “Self-Existent Lord” (Primeval Light) like a mirror, each becomes in turn a world.* . . .

* This is said in the sense that the flame from a fire is endless, and that the lights of the whole Universe could be lit at one simple rush-light without diminishing its flame.

“Fohat hardens the atoms”; i.e., by infusing energy into them: he scatters the atoms or primordial matter. “He scatters himself while scattering matter into atoms” (MSS. Commentaries.)

Fohat: It is through Fohat that the ideas of the Universal Mind are impressed upon matter. Some faint idea of the nature of Fohat may be gathered from the appellation “Cosmic Electricity” sometimes applied to it; but to the commonly known properties of electricity must, in this case, be added others, including intelligence. It is of interest to note that modern science has come to the conclusion, that all cerebration and brain-activity are attended by electrical phenomena. (SD1, 85)

Self-Existent Lord: Primeval Light. The Mahat (Understanding, Universal Mind, Thought, etc.), before it manifests itself as Brahma or Siva, appears as Vishnu, says Sankhya Sara (p. 16); hence Mahat has several aspects, just as the logos has. Mahat is called the Lord, in the Primary Creation, and is, in this sense, Universal Cognition or Thought Divine; but, “That Mahat which was first produced is (afterwards) called Ego-ism, when it is born as “I,” that is said to be the second Creation” (Anugita, ch. xxvi.). (SD1, 76)

All the Kabalists and Occultists, Eastern and Western, recognise (a) the identity of “Father-Mother” with primordial AEther or Akasa, (Astral Light)*; and (b) its homogeneity before the evolution of the “Son,” cosmically Fohat, for it is Cosmic Electricity. “Fohat hardens and scatters the seven brothers” (Book III. Dzyan); which means that the primordial Electric Entity — for the Eastern Occultists insist that Electricity is an Entity — electrifies into life, and separates primordial stuff or pregenetic matter into atoms, themselves the source of all life and consciousness. “There exists an universal agent unique of all forms and of life, that is called Od,† Ob, and Aour, active and passive, positive and negative, like day and night: it is the first light in Creation” (Eliphas Levi’s Kabala): — the first Light of the primordial Elohim — the Adam, “male and female” — or (scientifically) electricity and life. (SD1, 76)

Primordial matter, then, before it emerges from the plane of the never-manifesting, and awakens to the thrill of action under the impulse of Fohat, is but “a cool Radiance, colourless, formless, tasteless, and devoid of every quality and aspect.” Even such are her first-born, the “four sons,” who “are One, and become Seven,” — the entities, by whose qualifications and names the ancient Eastern Occultists called the four of the seven primal “centres of Forces,” or atoms, that develop later into the great Cosmic “Elements,” now divided into the seventy or so sub-elements, known to science. (SD1, 82)

Then the self-existent plastic Essence sends the primordial Electric Entity to electrify into life, and separate primordial stuff or pregenetic matter into atoms, themselves the source of all life and consciousness. (i.e., by infusing energy into them: he scatters the atoms or primordial matter). Each of these is a part of the structure of the Universe. Reflecting the Primeval Light (Mahat) like a mirror (It is through Fohat that the ideas of the Universal Mind are impressed upon matter), each becomes in turn a world, (like a fire that can light an endless amount of candles, without diminishing its flame).

Secret Doctrine I study notes, Stanzas of Dzyan, Third Stanza 2/3

3.7. The radiant result of  the union of the two (the divine Ray and Chaos), the unparalleled refulgent glory, manifested Space, the progeny of unmanifested space, emerges from the depths of chaos. It is Oeaohoo, the younger (Avalokitesvara), the Logos, the synthesis of Universal Wisdom, the essence of manifested Wisdom.(a)

He shines forth like the sun. He is the Logos (this first manifestation, being the synthesis or the aggregate of Universal Wisdom). This one is four, and the four takes to itself three, and the union produces the seven in whom are the seven (the Seven Creative Hosts) which become the hosts and the multitudes, the root-number which is thirty-three (12 Adityas, the 8 Vasus, the 11 Rudras, and 2 Aswins).(b)

He lifts the veil and unfurls it from East to West. He shuts out the above and leaves the below to be seen as the great illusion. He marks the places for the stars and turns the upper space into infinite Akasha (the first radiation from the Root, the Mulaprakriti, the undifferentiated Cosmic Substance, which becomes Astral Matter), and the one manifested element into pregenetic matter. (c)

3.8. Where was abstract matter? And where was the Eternal Matrix? Where is the spirit of the flame that burns in your lamp? Abstract Matter is THAT (the concealed and the unrevealed Principle), and THAT is Light (the same Omnipresent Spiritual Ray, which has entered and now fecundated the Divine Egg); that male or temporary deity, as he, the emanation of the primordial Ray, is made to serve as a Vahan or vehicle for that divine Ray, which otherwise could not manifest itself in the Universe.

3.9. Light, is the unmanifested soul of things, and the soul of things (flame) is the creator, preserver and destoyer of light (fire),  the soul of things (fire) produces Cosmic heat, the energy that actuates matter after its first formation into atoms our plane (water of life) in chaos.

7. Behold, oh Lanoo!† the radiant Child of the two, the unparalleled refulgent Glory, Bright Space, Son of Dark Space, who emerges from the depths of the great Dark Waters. It is Oeaohoo, the Younger, the * * * (whom thou knowest now as Kwan-Shai-Yin. — Comment) (a).

Bright Space, son of dark Space: the Ray dropped at the first thrill of the new “Dawn” into the great Cosmic depths, from which it re-emerges differentiated as Oeaohoo the younger, (the “new LIFE”), to become, to the end of the life-cycle, the germ of all things. He is “the Incorporeal man who contains in himself the divine Idea,” — the generator of Light and Life, to use an expression of Philo Judaeus. (SD1, 70)

The radiant result of  the union of the two (the divine Ray and Chaos), the unparalleled refulgent glory, Bright Space, the progeny of dark space, emerges from the depths of chaos. It is Oeaohoo, the younger (Avalokitesvara), the Logos, the synthesis of Universal Wisdom, the essence of manifested Wisdom.(a)

He shines forth as the Sun. He is the blazing Divine Dragon of Wisdom. The Eka is Chatur (four), and Chatur takes to itself three, and the union produces the Sapta (seven) in whom are the seven which become the Tridasa‡ (the thrice ten) the hosts and the multitudes (b).

Blazing Dragon of Wisdom: is that which the Greek philosophers called the Logos, the Verbum of the Thought Divine; and secondly, because in Esoteric philosophy this first manifestation, being the synthesis or the aggregate of Universal Wisdom, Oeaohoo, “the Son of the Son,” contains in himself the Seven Creative Hosts (The Sephiroth), and is thus the essence of manifested Wisdom. “He who bathes in the light of Oeaohoo will never be deceived by the veil of Maya.” (SD1, 70-71)… “The “Dragon of Wisdom” is the One, the “Eka” (Sanskrit) or Saka. (SD1, 73)

Tri-dasa:  three times ten (30), alludes to the Vedic deities, in round numbers, or more accurately 33 — a sacred number. They are the 12 Adityas, the 8 Vasus, the 11 Rudras, and 2 Aswins — the twin sons of the Sun and the Sky. This is the root-number of the Hindu Pantheon, which enumerates 33 crores or over three hundred millions of gods and goddesses.

whereas, the gnostic Ophis contained the same triple symbolism in its seven vowels as the One, Three and Seven-syllabled Oeaohoo of the Archaic doctrine; i.e., the One Unmanifested Logos, the Second manifested, the triangle concreting into the Quaternary or Tetragrammaton, and the rays of the latter on the material plane. (SD1, 73)

The “Spirit of God moving on Chaos” was symbolized by every nation in the shape of a fiery serpent breathing fire and light upon the primordial waters, until it had incubated cosmic matter and made it assume the annular shape of a serpent with its tail in its mouth — which symbolises not only Eternity and Infinitude, but also the globular shape of all the bodies formed within the Universe from that fiery mist. (SD1, 74)

† By “God, the Father,” the seventh principle in Man and Kosmos are here unmistakeably meant, this principle being inseparable in its Esse and Nature from the seventh Cosmic principle. In one sense it is the Logos of the Greeks and the Avalokiteswara of the esoteric Buddhists. (SD1, 74)

He shines forth like the sun. He is the blazing dragon of divine wisdom, the Logos (this first manifestation, being the synthesis or the aggregate of Universal Wisdom). This one is four, and the four takes to itself three, and the union produces the seven in whom are the seven (the Seven Creative Hosts) which become the hosts and the multitudes, the root-number which is thirty-three (12 Adityas, the 8 Vasus, the 11 Rudras, and 2 Aswins).

Behold him lifting the Veil, and unfurling it from East to West. He shuts out the above and leaves the below to be seen as the great Illusion. He marks the places for the shining ones (stars) and turns the upper (space) into a shoreless Sea of Fire, and the One manifested (element) into the Great Waters (c).

Sea of Fire: is then the Super-Astral (i.e., noumenal) Light, the first radiation from the Root, the Mulaprakriti, the undifferentiated Cosmic Substance, which becomes Astral Matter. It is also called the “Fiery Serpent,” as above described. (SD1, 75)

All the Kabalists and Occultists, Eastern and Western, recognise (a) the identity of “Father-Mother” with primordial AEther or Akasa, (Astral Light)*; and (b) its homogeneity before the evolution of the “Son,” cosmically Fohat, for it is Cosmic Electricity. “Fohat hardens and scatters the seven brothers” (Book III. Dzyan); which means that the primordial Electric Entity — for the Eastern Occultists insist that Electricity is an Entity — electrifies into life, and separates primordial stuff or pregenetic matter into atoms, themselves the source of all life and consciousness.  (SD1,  75-76)

But there are two secret Hermetical operations, one spiritual, the other material-correlative, and for ever united. “Thou shalt separate the earth from the fire, the subtile from the solid . . . that which ascends from earth to heaven and descends again from heaven to earth. It (the subtile light), is the strong force of every force, for it conquers every subtile thing and penetrates into every solid. Thus was the world formed” (Hermes). (SD1, 76)

The veil is lifted and unfurled from East to West. The spiritual plane is shut out and the material plane is left to be seen as the great illusion. He marks the places for the stars and turns the upper space into infinite Akasha (the first radiation from the Root, the Mulaprakriti, the undifferentiated Cosmic Substance, which becomes Astral Matter), and the one manifested element into pregenetic matter.

8. Where was the germ, and where was now darkness? Where is the spirit of the flame that burns in thy lamp, oh Lanoo? The germ is that, and that is light; the white brilliant son of the dark hidden father (a).

Germ: the point in the Mundane Egg, represented by matter in its abstract sense.sd 1 57 The Pythagorean Monad is also said to dwell in solitude and darkness like the “germ.” (SD1, 63)

Darkness: Darkness, then, is the eternal matrix in which the sources of light appear and disappear. “Darkness is Father-Mother: light their son,” says an old Eastern proverb. (SD1, 40-41)

That: In the Sanscrit Commentary on this Stanza, the terms used for the concealed and the unrevealed Principle are many. In the earliest MSS. of Indian literature this Unrevealed, Abstract Deity has no name. It is called generally “That” (Tad in Sanskrit), and means all that is, was, and will be, or that can be so received by the human mind.

Among such appellations, given, of course, only in esoteric philosophy, as the “Unfathomable Darkness,” the “Whirlwind,” etc. — it is also called the “It of the Kalahansa, the Kala-ham-sa,” and even the “Kali Hamsa,” (Black swan). Here the m and the n are convertible, and both sound like the nasal French an or am, or, again, en or em (Ennui, Embarras, etc.) (SD1, 78)

As to the strange symbol chosen, it is equally suggestive; the true mystic significance being the idea of a universal matrix, figured by the primordial waters of the “deep,” or the opening for the reception, and subsequently for the issue, of that one ray (the Logos), which contains in itself the other seven procreative rays or powers (the logoi or builders). (SD1, 80)

Light: the same Omnipresent Spiritual Ray, which has entered and now fecundated the Divine Egg, and calls cosmic matter to begin its long series of differentiations. (SD1, 68)

White Brillant Son of Dark Father: The “Swan or goose” (Hansa) is the symbol of that male or temporary deity, as he, the emanation of the primordial Ray, is made to serve as a Vahan or vehicle for that divine Ray, which otherwise could not manifest itself in the Universe, being, antiphrastically, itself an emanation of “Darkness” — for our human intellect, at any rate. It is Brahma, then, who is Kala-Hansa, and the Ray, the Hansa-Vahana. (SD1, 80)

The answer to the first question, suggested by the second, which is the reply of the teacher to the pupil, contains in a single phrase one of the most essential truths of occult philosophy. It indicates the existence of things imperceptible to our physical senses which are of far greater importance, more real and more permanent, than those that appeal to these senses themselves. Before the Lanoo can hope to understand the transcendentally metaphysical problem contained in the first question he must be able to answer the second, while the very answer he gives to the second will furnish him with the clue to the correct reply to the first. (SD1, 77)

Where was abstract matter? And where was the Eternal Matrix? Where is the spirit of the flame that burns in your lamp? Abstract Matter is THAT (the concealed and the unrevealed Principle), and THAT is Light (the same Omnipresent Spiritual Ray, which has entered and now fecundated the Divine Egg); that male or temporary deity, as he, the emanation of the primordial Ray, is made to serve as a Vahan or vehicle for that divine Ray, which otherwise could not manifest itself in the Universe.

9. Light is cold flame, and flame is fire, and the fire produces heat, which yields water, the water of life in the great mother (Chaos) (a).

All these — “Light,” “Flame,” “Hot,” “Cold,” “Fire,” “Heat,” “Water,” and the “water of life” are all, on our plane, the progeny; or as a modern physicist would say, the correlations of electricity. (SD1, 81)

Electricity: Electricity, the one Life at the upper rung of Being, and Astral Fluid

Fire: the creator, the preserver and the destroyer; of light — the essence of our divine ancestors;

Flame: the Soul of things.

Cosmic heat: the energy that actuates matter after its first formation into atoms our plane

Water of Life: matter after its first formation into atoms our plane.

Now, why is Light called in the Stanzas “cold flame”? Because in the order of Cosmic evolution (as taught by the Occultist), the energy that actuates matter after its first formation into atoms is generated on our plane by Cosmic heat; and because Kosmos, in the sense of dissociated matter, was not, before that period. The first primordial matter, eternal and coeval with Space, “which has neither a beginning nor an end,” is “neither hot nor cold, but is of its own special nature,” says the Commentary (Book II). Heat and cold are relative qualities and pertain to the realms of the manifested worlds, which all proceed from the manifested Hyle, which, in its absolutely latent aspect, is referred to as the “cold Virgin,” and when awakened to life, as the “Mother.”… (SD1, 82)

Light, is the unmanifested soul of things, and the soul of things (flame) is the creator, preserver and destroyer of light (fire),  the soul of things (fire) produces Cosmic heat, the energy that actuates matter after its first formation into atoms our plane (water of life) in chaos.

Secret Doctrine I study notes, Stanzas of Dzyan, Third Stanza 1/3

Stanza III describes the Re-awakening of the Universe to life after Pralaya. It depicts the emergence of the “Monads” from their state of absorption within the one; the earliest and highest stage in the formation of “Worlds,” the term Monad being one which may apply equally to the vastest Solar System or the tiniest atom. (SD1, 21)

3.1. The last vibration of the seventh eternity (7^th noumenal phase of infinite Time) of the solar pralaya thrills through infinitude. The Universal Matrix develops from limitless subjectivity to limitless objectivity, from an ideal prototype.

3.2. The vibration sweeps along, touching with its swift wing simultaneously the whole universe, and abstract matter in the eternal matrix: primordial matter with the latent Spirit in it.

3.3. The Eternal Matrix radiates light, and the light of Divine Intelligence drops one solitary ray into Primordial matter, chaos. The ray shoots through the eternal power of becoming and causes it to drop into the the non-eternal periodical abstract matter, which condenses into the primordial form of everything manifested.

3.4. The triple logos transforms into the sacred quaternary. The World Egg becomes seven inside, seven outside. The World Egg (Radiant Essence, which has the three aspects of the Avasthas) differentiates and spreads the world-stuff (primordial matter in its first form) throughout the depths of space.

3.5. Unconditioned Reality remains, the Omnipresent Spiritual Ray remains, the first differentiation of cosmic matter remains, and still the septenary root from which all proceeds is one.

3.6. Unconditioned Reality was in every particle of the eternal Universe and the Universe was radiant cosmic matter, which was the essence of abstract Fire, Heat, and Motion. Pralaya was no more. It disappeared in its own essence, the body of the divine Ray and Chaos.

1. The last vibration of the seventh eternity thrills through infinitude (a). The mother swells, expanding from within without like the bud of the lotus (b).

Seventh Eternity: The seemingly paradoxical use of the sentence “Seventh Eternity,” thus dividing the indivisible, is sanctified in esoteric philosophy. The latter divides boundless duration into unconditionally eternal and universal Time and a conditioned one (Khandakala). One is the abstraction or noumenon of infinite time (Kala); the other its phenomenon appearing periodically, as the effect of Mahat (the Universal Intelligence limited by Manvantaric duration)… Therefore, the “last vibration of the Seventh Eternity” was “fore-ordained” — by no God in particular, but occurred in virtue of the eternal and changeless Law which causes the great periods of Activity and Rest, called so graphically, and at the same time so poetically, the “Days and Nights of Brahma.” (SD1, 62)

Seven Eternities:  aeons or periods, Manvantara, and extending throughout a Maha-Kalpa or the “Great Age” — 100 years of Brahma — making a total of 311,040,000,000,000 of years  sd35. …made to apply both to the Maha-Kalpa or “the (great) Age of Brahma,” as well as to the Solar pralaya and subsequent resurrection of our Planetary System on a higher plane. (SD1, 53)

Mother: The expansion “from within without” of the Mother, called elsewhere the “Waters of Space,” “Universal Matrix,” etc., … (SD1, 62)

Expanding from within without: does not allude to an expansion from a small centre or focus, but, without reference to size or limitation or area, means the development of limitless subjectivity into as limitless objectivity… does not allude to an expansion from a small centre or focus, but, without reference to size or limitation or area, means the development of limitless subjectivity into as limitless objectivity. “The ever (to us) invisible and immaterial Substance present in eternity, threw its periodical shadow from its own plane into the lap of Maya.” It implies that this expansion, not being an increase in size — for infinite extension admits of no enlargement — was a change of condition. (SD1, 62)

Bud of a lotus: It “expanded like the bud of the Lotus”; for the Lotus plant exists not only as a miniature embryo in its seed (a physical characteristic), but its prototype is present in an ideal form in the Astral Light from “Dawn” to “Night” during the Manvantaric period, like everything else, as a matter of fact, in this objective Universe; from man down to mite, from giant trees down to the tiniest blades of grass. (SD1, 62-63)

The last vibration of the seventh eternity (7th noumenal phase of infinite Time) of the solar pralaya thrills through infinitude. The Universal Matrix develops from limitless subjectivity to limitless objectivity from an ideal prototype.

2. The vibration sweeps along, touching with its swift wing (simultaneously) the whole universe, and the germ that dwelleth in darkness: the darkness that breathes (moves) over the slumbering waters of life (a).

Germ: the point in the Mundane Egg, represented by matter in its abstract sense. (SD1, 57) The Pythagorean Monad is also said to dwell in solitude and darkness like the “germ.” (SD1, 63)

Darkness: Darkness, then, is the eternal matrix in which the sources of light appear and disappear. “Darkness is Father-Mother: light their son,” says an old Eastern proverb. (SD1, 40-41)

The “breath” of Darkness moving over “the slumbering Waters of life”: primordial matter with the latent Spirit in it… recalls the first chapter of Genesis. Its original is the Brahminical Narayana (the mover on the Waters), who is the personification of the eternal Breath of the unconscious All (or Parabrahm) of the Eastern Occultists. The Waters of Life, or Chaos — the female principle in symbolism — are the vacuum (to our mental sight) in which lie the latent Spirit and Matter. (SD1, 63)

The vibration sweeps along, touching with its swift wing simultaneously the whole universe, and abstract matter in the eternal matrix: primordial matter with the latent Spirit in it.

3. “Darkness” radiates light, and light drops one solitary ray into the waters, into the mother deep. The ray shoots through the virgin-egg; the ray causes the eternal egg to thrill, and drop the non-eternal (periodical) germ, which condenses into the world egg (a).

The solitary ray dropping into the mother deep: Divine Thought or Intelligence, impregnating chaos. This, however, occurs on the plane of metaphysical abstraction, or rather the plane whereon that which we call a metaphysical abstraction is a reality. (SD1, 64)

The Virgin-egg : Eternal Egg, abstract Egg-ness, or the power of becoming developed through fecundation, is eternal and for ever the same. (SD1, 64)

The non-eternal periodical germ: just as the fecundation of an egg takes place before it is dropped; so the non-eternal periodical germ which becomes later in symbolism the mundane egg, contains in itself, when it emerges from the said symbol, “the promise and potency” of all the Universe. (SD1, 64)

World Egg: Mundane Egg, … it suggests the idea of infinity as an endless circle. It brings before the mind’s eye the picture of Kosmos emerging from and in boundless space, a Universe as shoreless in magnitude if not as endless in its objective manifestation. The simile of an egg also expresses the fact taught in Occultism that the primordial form of everything manifested, from atom to globe, from man to angel, is spheroidal, the sphere having been with all nations the emblem of eternity and infinity — a serpent swallowing its tail…. The mystery of apparent self-generation and evolution through its own creative power repeating in miniature the process of Cosmic evolution in the egg, both being due to heat and moisture under the efflux of the unseen creative spirit, justified fully the selection of this graphic symbol. The “Virgin Egg” is the microcosmic symbol of the macrocosmic prototype — the “Virgin Mother” — Chaos or the Primeval Deep…. The Golden Egg was surrounded by seven natural elements (ether, fire, air, water), “four ready, three secret.” It may be found stated in Vishnu Purana, where elements are translated “Envelopes” and a secret one is added: “Aham-kara” (see Wilson’s Vishnu Purana, Book I., p. 40). (SD1, 65)

The male Creator (under whatever name) springs forth from the Virgin female, the immaculate root fructified by the Ray. Who, if versed in astronomy and natural sciences, can fail to see its suggestiveness? Cosmos as receptive Nature is an Egg fructified — yet left immaculate; once regarded as boundless, it could have no other representation than a spheroid. (SD1, 65)

The Eternal Matrix radiates light, and the light of Divine Intelligence drops one solitary ray into Primordial matter,chaos. The ray shoots through the eternal power of becoming and causes it to drop into the the non-eternal periodical abstract matter, which condenses into the primordial form of everything manifested.

4. (Then) the three (triangle) fall into the four (quaternary). The radiant essence becomes seven inside, seven outside (a). The luminous egg (Hiranyagarbha), which in itself is three (the triple hypostases of Brahma, or Vishnu, the three “Avasthas”), curdles and spreads in milk-white curds throughout the depths of mother, the root that grows in the ocean of life (b).

Radiant Essence: World Egg, Luminous Egg, Hiranyagargha.

Curds: the first differentiation, and probably refer also to that cosmic matter which is supposed to be the origin of the “Milky Way” — the matter we know. This “matter,” which, according to the revelation received from the primeval Dhyani-Buddhas, is, during the periodical sleep of the Universe, of the ultimate tenuity conceivable to the eye of the perfect Bodhisatva — this matter, radical and cool, becomes, at the first reawakening of cosmic motion, scattered through Space; appearing, when seen from the Earth, in clusters and lumps, like curds in thin milk. These are the seeds of the future worlds, the “Star-stuff.” (SD1, 68-69)

Root: as already explained, pure knowledge (Sattva),* eternal (Nitya) unconditioned reality or sat (Satya), whether we call it Parabrahmam or Mulaprakriti, for these are the two aspects of the one. (SD1, 68-69) … Whatever meaning various schools may give the term, Sattva is the name given among Occult students of the Aryasanga School to the dual Monad or Atma-buddhi, and Atma-buddhi on this plane corresponds to Parabrahm and Mulaprakriti on the higher plane. (SD1, 69)

“The radiant essence curdled and spread throughout the depths” of Space. From an astronomical point of view this is easy of explanation: it is the “milky way,” the world-stuff, or primordial matter in its first form. (SD1 67)

This “churning” relates to a period before the earth’s formation, and is in direct connection with that other universal legend, the various and contradictory versions of which culminated in the Christian dogma of the “War in Heaven,” and the fall of the Angels. (SD1, 68)

The triple logos transforms into the sacred quaternary. The World Egg becomes seven subjectively, seven objectively. The World Egg (Radiant Essence, which has the three aspects of the Avasthas) differentiates and spreads the world-stuff (primordial matter in its first form) throughout the depths of space.

5. The root remains, the light remains, the curds remain, and still Oeaohoo (a) is one (b).

Light: the same Omnipresent Spiritual Ray, which has entered and now fecundated the Divine Egg, and calls cosmic matter to begin its long series of differentiations. (SD1, 68)

Oeaohoo: “Father-Mother of the Gods” in the Commentaries, or the six in one, or the septenary root from which all proceeds…. In one sense, Oeaohoo is the “Rootless Root of All”; hence, one with Parabrahmam; in another sense it is a name for the manifested one life, the Eternal living Unity. (SD1, 68)

This refers to the Non-Separateness of all that lives and has its being, whether in active or passive state. (SD1, 68)

Unconditioned Reality remains, the Omnipresent  Spiritual Ray remains, the first differentiation of cosmic matter remains, and still the septenary root from which all proceeds is one.

6. The root of life was in every drop of the ocean of immortality (Amrita)* and the ocean was radiant light, which was fire and heat and motion. Darkness vanished and was no more.† It disappeared in its own essence, the body of fire and water, of father and mother (a).*

† See Commentary No. 1 to this Stanza. * See “Kwan-Shai-Yin.” The real name from the text cannot be given.

Ocean: The celestial Ocean, the AEther . . . . is the Breath of the Father, the life-giving principle, the Mother, the Holy Spirit, . . . . for these are not separated, and their union is life.” (SD1, 75)

Fire, Heat, Motion: not the fire, heat, and motion of physical science, but the underlying abstractions, the noumena, or the soul, of the essence of these material manifestations — (SD1, 69)

Darkness: The essence of darkness being absolute light, Darkness is taken as the appropriate allegorical representation of the condition of the Universe during Pralaya, or the term of absolute rest, or non-being, as it appears to our finite minds. … According to the tenets of Eastern Occultism, Darkness is the one true actuality, the basis and the root of light, without which the latter could never manifest itself, nor even exist. Light is matter, and Darkness pure Spirit. Darkness, in its radical, metaphysical basis, is subjective and absolute light; while the latter in all its seeming effulgence and glory, is merely a mass of shadows, as it can never be eternal, and is simply an illusion, or Maya. (SD1, 70)

Fire / Father: may be taken here to mean the divine Ray (SD1, 70)

Water/ Mother: may be taken here to mean Chaos. (SD1, 70)

The solitary ray dropping into the mother deep: Divine Thought or Intelligence, impregnating chaos. This, however, occurs on the plane of metaphysical abstraction, or rather the plane whereon that which we call a metaphysical abstraction is a reality. (SD1, 64)

Waters of Life, or Chaos — the female principle in symbolism — are the vacuum (to our mental sight) in which lie the latent Spirit and Matter. (SD1, 63)

Unconditioned Reality was in every particle of the eternal Universe and the Universe was radiant cosmic matter, which was the essence of abstract Fire, Heat, and Motion. Pralaya was no more. It disappeared in its own essence, the body of the divine  Ray and Chaos.