D ARKNESS ALONE FILLED THE BOUNDLESS ALL ( a ), FOR FATHER, MOTHER AND SON WERE ONCE MORE ONE, AND THE SON HAD NOT AWAKENED YET FOR THE NEW WHEEL* AND HIS PILGRIMAGE THEREON ( b ).
( a ) "Darkness is Father-Mother: light their son," says an old Eastern proverb.
Light is inconceivable except as coming from some source which is the cause of it; and as, in the instance of primordial light, that source is unknown, though as strongly demanded by reason and logic, therefore it is called "Darkness" by us, from an intellectual point of view.
As to borrowed or secondary light, whatever its source, it can be but of a temporary mayavic character.
Darkness, then, is the eternal [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * That which is called "wheel" is the symbolical expression for a world or globe, which shows that the ancients were aware that our Earth was a revolving globe, not a motionless square as some Christian Fathers taught.
The "Great Wheel" is the whole duration of our Cycle of being, or Maha Kalpa, i.e.
, the whole revolution of our special chain of seven planets or Spheres from beginning to end; the "Small Wheels" meaning the Rounds, of which there are also Seven.
[[Vol.
1, Page]] 41 WHAT IS DARKNESS IN PHILOSOPHY?
matrix in which the sources of light appear and disappear.
Nothing is added to darkness to make of it light, or to light to make it darkness, on this our plane.
They are interchangeable, and scientifically light is but a mode of darkness and vice versa.
Yet both are phenomena of the same noumenon -- which is absolute darkness to the scientific mind, and but a gray twilight to the perception of the average mystic, though to that of the spiritual eye of the Initiate it is absolute light.
How far we discern the light that shines in darkness depends upon our powers of vision.
What is light to us is darkness to certain insects, and the eye of the clairvoyant sees illumination where the normal eye perceives only blackness.
When the whole universe was plunged in sleep -- had returned to its one primordial element -- there was neither centre of luminosity, nor eye to perceive light, and darkness necessarily filled the boundless all.
( b ) The Father-Mother are 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.
They are "once more One" when in "The Night of Brahma," during Pralaya, all in the objective Universe has returned to its one primal and eternal cause, to reappear at the following Dawn -- as it does periodically.
"Karana" -- eternal cause -- was alone.
To put it more plainly: Karana 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 Brahma -- the symbol of the Universe.
In esoteric parlance, Brahma is Father-Mother-Son, or Spirit, Soul and Body at once; each personage being symbolical of an attribute, and each attribute or quality being a graduated efflux of Divine Breath in its cyclic differentiation, involutionary and evolutionary.
In the cosmicophysical sense, it is the Universe, the planetary chain and the earth; in the purely spiritual, the Unknown Deity, Planetary Spirit, and Man -- the Son of the two, the creature of Spirit and Matter, and a manifestation of them in his periodical appearances on Earth during the "wheels," or the Manvantaras.
-- ( See Part II.
§: " Days and Nights of Brahma.
") [[Vol.
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STANZA I.
-- Continued .
6.
T HE SEVEN SUBLIME L ORDS AND THE SEVEN T RUTHS HAD CEASED TO BE ( a ), AND THE U NIVERSE, THE SON OF NECESSITY, WAS IMMERSED IN P ARANISHPANNA ( b ) (absolute perfection, Paranirvana, which is Yong-Grub) TO BE OUT-BREATHED BY THAT WHICH IS AND YET IS NOT.
N AUGHT WAS ( c ).
( a ) The seven sublime lords are the Seven Creative Spirits, the Dhyan-Chohans, who correspond to the Hebrew Elohim.
It is the same hierarchy of Archangels to which St.
Michael, St.
Gabriel, and others belong, in the Christian theogony.
Only while St.
Michael, for instance, is allowed in dogmatic Latin theology to watch over all the promontories and gulfs, in the Esoteric System, the Dhyanis watch successively over one of the Rounds and the great Root-races of our planetary chain.
They are, moreover, said to send their Bhodisatvas, the human correspondents of the Dhyani-Buddhas (of whom vide infra ) during every Round and Race.
Out of the Seven Truths and Revelations, or rather revealed secrets, four only have been handed to us, as we are still in the Fourth Round, and the world also has only had four Buddhas, so far.
This is a very complicated question, and will receive more ample treatment later on.
So far "There are only Four Truths, and Four Vedas" -- say the Hindus and Buddhists.
For a similar reason Irenaeus insisted on the necessity of Four Gospels.
But as every new Root-race at the head of a Round must have its revelation and revealers, the next Round will bring the Fifth, the following the Sixth, and so on.
( b ) " Paranishpanna " is the absolute perfection to which all existences attain at the close of a great period of activity, or Maha-Manvantara, and in which they rest during the succeeding period of repose.
In Tibetan it is called Yong-Grub.
Up to the day of the Yogacharya school the true nature of Paranirvana was taught publicly, but since then it has become entirely esoteric; hence so many contradictory interpretations of it.
It is only a true Idealist who can understand it.
Everything has to be viewed as ideal, with the exception of Paranirvana, by him who would comprehend that state, and acquire a knowledge of how Non Ego, Voidness, and Darkness are Three in One and alone Self-existent and perfect.
It is absolute, however, only in a relative [[Vol.
Divine archetypal beings or eternal attributes dwelling within the Pleroma, often arranged in male-female syzygies.
The Seven Sublime Lords / Dhyan-Chohans are explicitly identified as divine archetypal beings corresponding to the Hebrew Elohim, arranged in a hierarchy that watches over successive Rounds.
The doctrine of the periodic restoration or recurrence of all things to their original state after vast cycles.
The universe dissolves into its cause during Pralaya and 'reappears at the following Dawn' periodically, describing the periodic restoration/recurrence of all things to their original state after vast cycles.
Describing the divine only by negation—God transcends all positive categories and concepts; the via negativa.
The supreme reality is described as 'absolute darkness to the scientific mind,' 'that which is and yet is not,' and 'Karana' (eternal cause) that is 'alone' and beyond all positive categories — the divine is known only by negation and beyond all concepts.
The Hermetic axiom that the structure of the cosmos is reflected at every scale — 'as above, so below; as within, so without' — making each level a legible map of the others.
The passage explicitly maps the same Father-Mother-Son structure across three registers simultaneously: 'Spirit, Soul and Body,' 'the Universe, the planetary chain and the earth,' and 'the Unknown Deity, Planetary Spirit, and Man,' making each level a legible map of the others.
Narratives or doctrines of cosmic origin — how heaven, earth, and the primordial deities first came into being. The Kojiki's deities born alone on the Plain of High Heaven, Voluspo's Ginnungagap, Genesis's tohu wa-bohu, the Timaeus's Demiurge fashioning the Receptacle, the Hesiodic Theogony, the Kalevala's egg-cosmogony, Egyptian Nun-and-Atum. Distinct from emanation_hierarchy (structural-ontological cascade), letters_of_creation (mechanism of creation), and apocatastasis/frashokereti (end-state restoration); cosmogony is temporally-narrative beginning.
The passage narrates the cosmic origin: 'When the whole universe was plunged in sleep — had returned to its one primordial element — there was neither centre of luminosity, nor eye to perceive light, and darkness necessarily filled the boundless all,' followed by the new manifestation.
The supreme God's radical concealment beyond ordinary knowledge or perception; the Hidden Father.
The source of primordial light is 'unknown, though as strongly demanded by reason and logic, therefore it is called Darkness,' and the ultimate reality is 'that which is and yet is not' — the supreme God is radically concealed beyond ordinary knowledge.
The uncreated luminous quality of the divine, sometimes experienced directly in mystical states; illumination as revelation.
Light is described as the luminous quality emanating from the divine source, with the 'spiritual eye of the Initiate' perceiving 'absolute light' where others see darkness — illumination as revelation of the divine.
The reunification of complementary divine principles (male-female, spirit-matter) as a symbol of wholeness and salvation.
'Father, Mother and Son were once more One' and 'Karana — eternal cause — was alone' describe the reunification of the complementary male-female divine principles into undifferentiated unity.
The doctrine that God has no parts, divisions, or composite attributes; pure undivided being.
'Karana is alone' and 'Non Ego, Voidness, and Darkness are Three in One and alone Self-existent and perfect' describe the divine as having no parts, divisions, or composite attributes in its unmanifest state.
A chain of divine beings or principles flowing downward from a single transcendent source (the One or the Father), each level less perfect than the one above.
The passage describes 'a graduated efflux of Divine Breath in its cyclic differentiation' and the Father-Mother-Son structure flowing from a single source, mapping the cascade at cosmic and human scales.
The Hermetic doctrine that a masculine-feminine generative principle operates on every plane of being, not only the biological — present at all times as a structural feature of creation itself. Distinct from divine_marriage (a specific reunification event or symbol) and aeons (paired divine beings arranged in syzygies, not a universal structural claim).
'The Father-Mother are the male and female principles in root-nature, the opposite poles that manifest in all things on every plane of Kosmos' is an explicit statement of the masculine-feminine generative principle operating on every plane of being.
Esoteric teachings reserved for those ready to receive them; outer meaning conceals an inner liberating truth.
The text states that 'since then it has become entirely esoteric; hence so many contradictory interpretations of it,' and the entire passage operates as an esoteric gloss on a stanzas, concealing inner meaning beneath allegorical language.
A non-physical dimension of reality, interpenetrating the physical world, populated by forces, beings, and forms ordinarily imperceptible to physical senses and instruments, that can affect embodied life without being seen — Dion Fortune's 'mind-side of nature,' the astral plane of Western esotericism broadly construed. Distinct from astral_light (a specific transmitting medium or fluid operating within this realm, not the realm itself), pleroma (the divine fullness at the summit of a cosmic hierarchy, not a parallel plane coextensive with ordinary life), and animism (particular indwelling spirits bound to specific natural objects, not the general unseen dimension itself).
The passage references multiple planes of being (cosmicophysical, purely spiritual) and different levels of perception (scientific mind, average mystic, spiritual eye of the Initiate), implying a non-physical dimension interpenetrating the physical.
The doctrine that the cosmos unfolds as a structured descent of spirit into matter — a directional process traced stage by stage from an unconditioned principle down through successive planes to full materialization — complemented by its own eventual return ('evolution'). Distinct from emanation_hierarchy (the static structure of the resulting levels of the cascade) and cosmogony (a single originating event rather than an ongoing staged process) in naming the directional cosmic PROCESS of descent itself, paired with its own complementary ascent.
The passage explicitly names 'involutionary and evolutionary' as the character of 'a graduated efflux of Divine Breath in its cyclic differentiation,' describing the directional descent of spirit into matter complemented by its return.
The human being as a small-scale image of the entire cosmos; the body, soul, and intellect mirroring the structure of the heavens and the divine — distinct from correspondence in that it makes the human the privileged mirror.
'In the purely spiritual, the Unknown Deity, Planetary Spirit, and Man — the Son of the two, the creature of Spirit and Matter' explicitly positions the human as a small-scale image of the entire cosmic structure.
The absolutely simple, undivided first principle from which all multiplicity and existence flows.
'Karana is alone during the Nights of Brahma' and 'the one primal and eternal cause' describe the absolutely simple, undivided first principle from which all multiplicity flows.
The dissolution of binary oppositions (male/female, inner/outer, above/below) as a mark of spiritual completion.
The dissolution of the light/darkness binary ('they are interchangeable'), the reunification of Father-Mother into 'once more One,' and 'Non Ego, Voidness, and Darkness are Three in One' all mark the dissolution of binary oppositions as a feature of the highest state.
Using apparent contradiction, reversal, or riddle to destabilise ordinary understanding and induce insight.
'That which is and yet is not,' 'Darkness is Father-Mother: light their son,' and 'light is but a mode of darkness and vice versa' use apparent contradiction to destabilise ordinary understanding and point toward a deeper truth.
The Hermetic doctrine that apparent opposites are identical in nature but differ in degree — two extremes of the same scale (hot/cold, love/hate) — such that one pole can be shifted toward its opposite by a change of degree ('mental transmutation'). Distinct from opposites_transcended (a completion-state marking the path's end, not this doctrine's active technique) and magical_equilibrium (balance held BETWEEN two forces, not identity-by-degree of what looks like two forces).
'Nothing is added to darkness to make of it light, or to light to make it darkness... They are interchangeable, and scientifically light is but a mode of darkness and vice versa' is a direct statement of the identity-by-degree of apparent opposites.
The doctrine that reality has two registers — an Absolute truth as the divine or ultimate mind knows it, and a Relative truth as finite human reason perceives and must act on — with both held as legitimate on their own plane rather than the second being simply an error to correct. Distinct from apophatic_theology (a claim about how the divine may be described, by negation) and unity_of_being (a claim that being is ultimately one) in being a claim about two coexisting registers of truth-claim itself.
The passage explicitly holds two registers: 'absolute darkness to the scientific mind, and but a gray twilight to the perception of the average mystic, though to that of the spiritual eye of the Initiate it is absolute light' — both perceptions are legitimate on their own plane.
The soul's journey back to its divine origin, reversing the fall into matter through stages of purification or illumination.
'All in the objective Universe has returned to its one primal and eternal cause, to reappear at the following Dawn' describes the cosmos's journey back to its divine origin during Pralaya.
The Hermetic doctrine of a measured swing or pendulum motion between poles — action and reaction, flow and outflow, rise and fall — operating in mental, physical, and cosmic-historical registers alike. Distinct from apocatastasis (cosmic-scale eschatological restoration after vast cycles) in naming a constant, ever-present oscillation rather than a singular restorative event.
The periodic dissolution into Pralaya and re-emergence at the 'following Dawn,' described as 'cyclic differentiation, involutionary and evolutionary,' names the constant oscillation between manifestation and dissolution.
The Buddhist doctrine that all phenomena lack independent self-nature; emptiness as the positive recognition that things arise only in dependence on conditions — distinct from kenoma's mere deficiency.
'Non Ego, Voidness, and Darkness are Three in One and alone Self-existent and perfect' presents voidness not as mere deficiency but as a positive, self-existent perfection, echoing the Buddhist recognition of emptiness as ground rather than absence.
The doctrine that the one Godhead or first principle subsists as three co-equal aspects or persons rather than a bare unity — the Christian Father/Son/Holy Ghost invoked in the recurring liturgical formula 'In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost,' but structurally the same pattern as the Egyptian Amen/Ptah/Osiris, the Hindu Brahma/Vishnu/Siva, and the Kabbalistic Chochmah/Binah/Kether triads that esoteric writers explicitly map onto it as instances of one universal law. Distinct from unity_of_being (the general claim that all existence is one substance, agnostic about internal plurality) and divine_simplicity (God as having no parts or divisions at all) in asserting a definite three-aspected differentiation within a single divine essence.
The entire passage is structured around the Father-Mother-Son triad, explicitly mapped to 'Spirit, Soul and Body' and to 'the Unknown Deity, Planetary Spirit, and Man,' asserting a definite three-aspected differentiation within a single divine essence.
Division of the human being into three principles: spirit (pneuma), soul (psyche), and body/matter (hyle or soma).
Brahma is explicitly identified as 'Father-Mother-Son, or Spirit, Soul and Body at once,' mapping the tripartite division of spirit, soul, and body onto the cosmic structure.
The doctrine that all existence is ultimately one substance or one divine reality; non-duality as a theological claim.
'Both are phenomena of the same noumenon' and 'Father, Mother and Son were once more One' assert that all existence is ultimately one substance or one divine reality.