The Self-Being pierced the opening outwards; hence one looks outward, not within himself. 

—Upanishads 46

THE superficial absurdity of assuming that Space itself is measurable in any direction is of little consequence. That which is the abyss of nothingness to the physicist, who knows only the world of visible causes and effects, is the boundless Space of the Divine Plenum to the Occultist. SPACE, which, in their ignorance and iconoclastic tendency to destroy every philosophical idea of old, the modern wiseacres have proclaimed “an abstract idea” and a void, is, in reality, the container and the body of the Universe with its seven principles. It is a body of limitless extent, whose PRINCIPLES, in Occult phraseology — each being in its turn a septenary — manifest in our phenomenal world only the grossest fabric of their sub-divisions.

Space is neither a “limitless void,” nor a “conditioned fulness,” but both; being, on the plane of absolute abstraction, the ever-incognisable Deity, which is void only to finite minds, and on that of mayavic perception, the Plenum, the absolute Container of all that is, whether manifested or unmanifested; it is, therefore, the ABSOLUTE ALL. The primordial Reality is that which is one and alone; that which is not made of matter, nor in any body — which has neither colour nor form, which changes not nor is it transmitted, but which always is. From the earliest philosophers whose records passed to posterity, down to our present age, which, if it denies “invisible Beings” in Space, can never be so insane as to deny a plenum of some sort — the fullness of the universe was an accepted belief.

Akasa is the Universal Space in which lies inherent the eternal Ideation of the Universe in its ever-changing aspects on the planes of matter and objectivity, and from which radiates the First Logos, or expressed thought. If the student bears in mind that there is but One Universal Element, which is infinite, unborn, and undying, and that all the rest — as in the world of phenomena — are but so many various differentiated aspects and transformations (correlations, they are now called) of that One, from Cosmical down to microcosmical effects, from super-human down to human and sub-human beings, the totality, in short, of objective existence — then the first and chief difficulty will disappear and Occult Cosmology may be mastered.

Metaphysically and esoterically there is but ONE ELEMENT in nature, and at the root of it is the Deity; and the so-called seven elements are the garment, the veil, of that deity; direct from the essence whereof comes MAN, whether physically, psychically, mentally or spiritually considered. Karana, “eternal cause,” is alone during the “Nights of Brahma.” The previous objective Universe has dissolved into its one primal and eternal cause, and is, so to say, held in solution in space, to differentiate again and crystallize out anew at the following Manvantaric dawn, which is the commencement of a new “Day” or new activity of Brahmâ — the symbol of the Universe. Akasa, whose characteristic property and rudiment is sound (the “Word”), occupies the whole containment of Space. After Pralaya, whether the great or the minor Pralaya, the first that re-awakes to active life is the plastic Akasa, Father-Mother, the Spirit and Soul of Ether, or the plane on the surface of the Circle.

Primordial Substance is AKASA, the Upadhi of DIVINE THOUGHT. Matter is Eternal. It is the Upadhi (the physical basis) for the One infinite Universal Mind to build thereon its ideations. “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. 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 blade of grass.

Brahma or Brahman is the impersonal, supreme and uncognisable Principle of the Universe from the essence of which all emanates, and into which all returns, which is incorporeal, immaterial, unborn, eternal, beginningless and endless. It is all-pervading, animating the highest god as well as the smallest mineral atom. The root of Brahmâ is derived by some from the word Brih, “to grow” or “to expand”; and that of Vishnu from the word “Vis,” “to pervade,” to enter in the nature of the essence. Brahmâ-Vishnu is this infinite SPACE, of which the gods, the Rishis, the Manus, and all in this universe are simply the potencies. In esoteric language this “One” is the “Father” deity, and “Sound” is synonymous with Logos (Verbum, or the Son), the Universe.

Modern Science is secure only in its own domain and region; within the physical boundaries of our solar system, beyond which everything, every particle of matter is different from the matter it knows: which matter exists in states of which Science can form no idea. That matter, which is truly homogeneous, is beyond human perceptions, if perception is tied down merely to the five senses. We feel its effects through those INTELLIGENCES which are the results of its primeval differentiation, whom we name Dhyan Chohans. … That matter — the real primordial substance, the noumenon of all the “matter” we know of — even some of the astronomers have been led to believe in, and to despair of the possibility of ever accounting for rotation, gravitation, and the origin of any mechanical physical laws — unless these Intelligences be admitted by Science.

Modern Science may divide its hypothetically conceived ether in as many ways as it likes; the real Æther of Space will remain as it is throughout. It has seven principles, as all the rest of nature has, and where there was no Ether there would be no sound, as it is the vibrating sound-board in nature in all of its seven differentiations. This is the first mystery the Initiates of old have learned. The whole range of physical phenomena proceed from the Primary of Ether — Akasa, as dual-natured Akasa proceeds from undifferentiated Chaos, so-called, the latter being the primary aspect of Mulaprakriti, the root-matter and the first abstract Idea one can form of Parabrahmam. Our Esoteric Doctrine teaches that it is this original, primordial, prima materia, divine and intelligent, the direct emanation of the Universal Mind, which formed the nuclei of all the “self-moving” orbs in Kosmos. It is the informing, ever-present moving-power and life-principle, the vital soul of the suns, moons, planets, and even of our Earth. The Secret Doctrine teaches that the whole universe is ruled by intelligent and semi-intelligent Forces and Powers.

Nature taken in its abstract sense, cannot be “unconscious,” as it is the emanation from, and thus an aspect (on the manifested plane) of the ABSOLUTE consciousness. What is called “unconscious nature” is in reality an aggregate of forces, manipulated by semi-intelligent beings (Elementals), guided by High Planetary Spirits, (Dhyan Chohans), whose collective aggregate forms the manifested verbum of the unmanifested LOGOS, and constitutes at one and the same time the MIND of the Universe and its immutable LAW.

Fohat is the Sakti or force of the divine Mind; Brahmâ and Fohat are both aspects of the divine Mind. Fohat is the reflection of the Universal Mind, the synthesis of the “Seven” and the intelligences of the seven creative Builders. It is taught that Primordial matter awakens to the thrill of action under the impulse of Fohat. He is the synthesizer of all the manifesting forces in nature. Fohat is one thing in the yet unmanifested Universe and another in the phenomenal and Cosmic World. (The scientific aspect of Vishnu, Fohat is omniscient in his own sphere of action, the differentiating and individualizing power.) He is called the “Pervader,” and the Manufacturer, because he shapes the atoms from crude material. He is, metaphysically, the objectivized thought of the gods; the “Word made flesh,” on a lower scale, and the messenger of Cosmic and human ideations: the active force in Universal Life.

Fohat is the “Son of Ether” in its highest aspect, Akasa, the Mother-Father of the primitive Seven, and of Sound or Logos. Fohat is the light of the latter. He is One and Seven, and on the Cosmic plane is behind all such manifestations as light, heat, sound, adhesion, etc., etc., and is the “spirit” of ELECTRICITY, which is the Life of the Universe.

Yet he is no personal god at all, but the emanation of those other Powers behind him whom the Christians call the “Messengers” of their God (who is in reality only the Elohim, or rather one of the Seven Creators called Elohim), and we, the “Messenger of the primordial Sons of Light and Life.”

In the Mandukya (Mundaka) Upanishad it is written, “As a spider throws out and retracts its web, as herbs spring up in the ground — so is the Universe derived from the undecaying one.” Brahmâ, 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. 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.

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