-- Continued .
5.
T HE S EVEN ( Sons ) WERE NOT YET BORN FROM THE W EB OF L IGHT.
D ARKNESS ALONE WAS F ATHER- M OTHER, S VABHAVAT, AND S VABHAVAT WAS IN DARKNESS ( a ).
( a ) The Secret Doctrine, in the Stanzas given here, occupies itself chiefly, if not entirely, with our Solar System, and especially with our planetary chain.
The "Seven Sons," therefore, are the creators of the latter.
This teaching will be explained more fully hereafter.
(See Part II., "Theogony of the Creative Gods.") [[Vol.
1, Page]] 61 DIVINE THOUGHT, DIVINE THINKERS.
Svabhavat, 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." ------- STANZA II.
-- Continued .
6.
T HESE TWO ARE THE G ERM, AND THE G ERM IS -- ONE.
T HE U NIVERSE WAS STILL CONCEALED IN THE D IVINE T HOUGHT AND THE D IVINE B OSOM.
The " Divine Thought " does not imply the idea of a Divine thinker.
The Universe, not only past, present, and future -- which is a human and finite idea expressed by finite thought -- but in its totality, the Sat (an untranslateable term), the absolute being, with the Past and Future crystallized in an eternal Present, is that Thought itself reflected in a secondary or manifest cause.
Brahma (neuter) as the Mysterium Magnum of Paracelsus is an absolute mystery to the human mind.
Brahma, the male-female, its aspect and anthropomorphic reflection, is conceivable to the perceptions of blind faith, though rejected by human intellect when it attains its majority.
(See Part II., "Primordial Substance and Divine Thought.") Hence the statement that during the prologue, so to say, of the drama of Creation, or the beginning of cosmic evolution, the Universe or the "Son" lies still concealed "in the Divine Thought," which had not yet penetrated "into the Divine Bosom." This idea, note well, is at the root, and forms the origin of all the allegories about the "Sons of God" born of immaculate virgins.
Attributing human characteristics, emotions, or form to the divine; embodied divine imagery.
The passage explicitly discusses 'Brahma, the male-female, its aspect and anthropomorphic reflection' as a concession to 'the perceptions of blind faith,' acknowledging the attribution of human form to the divine.
Describing the divine only by negation—God transcends all positive categories and concepts; the via negativa.
Brahma is described as 'an absolute mystery to the human mind' and the nature is 'the nature which has no nature of its own,' describing the divine by negation and beyond positive categories.
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 is explicitly a cosmogonic narrative describing the primordial state before creation, the 'prologue of the drama of Creation,' and the beginning of cosmic evolution.
The supreme God's radical concealment beyond ordinary knowledge or perception; the Hidden Father.
The Universe is 'still concealed in the Divine Thought and the Divine Bosom' and Brahma is 'an absolute mystery to the human mind' — the supreme is radically concealed beyond ordinary perception.
The doctrine that the divine is present within all things and the universe itself, pervading creation rather than remaining solely transcendent above it. Distinct from unity_of_being (the general claim that all existence is one substance, agnostic about whether that substance indwells its parts) and from kingdom_within (the divine present specifically IN THE INDIVIDUAL human, accessible without mediation) — divine_immanence is the general pervading-presence claim applied to all of creation, not a human-specific indwelling.
Svabhavat is described as 'the Plastic Essence that fills the Universe' and 'the root of all things,' suggesting the divine pervades all of creation rather than remaining solely transcendent.
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 cascade from the absolute (Sat/Svabhavat) through the Divine Thought to the Seven Sons as creators of the planetary chain, a structured descent from a single transcendent source.
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 passage repeatedly asserts the male-female generative principle at the cosmic level: 'Darkness alone was Father-Mother' and 'Brahma, the male-female, its aspect and anthropomorphic reflection.'
Esoteric teachings reserved for those ready to receive them; outer meaning conceals an inner liberating truth.
The passage is explicitly from 'The Secret Doctrine' and references esoteric teachings across multiple traditions, implying an outer meaning concealing an inner liberating truth.
The doctrine of the universe as boundless and without center or circumference, populated by innumerable worlds — Bruno's rejection of the closed Aristotelian sphere; the divine and the cosmos as ontologically infinite.
Svabhavat 'fills the Universe' and the absolute being encompasses the universe 'in its totality' with past and future crystallized in an eternal Present, suggesting a boundless cosmos.
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 describes the Universe as 'still concealed in the Divine Thought' at 'the beginning of cosmic evolution,' naming the directional process of descent from the unconditioned into manifestation.
The divine reason, word, or ordering principle through which the universe was created; mediates between the transcendent God and the material world.
The 'Divine Thought' is the principle in which the Universe is concealed and through which it will manifest, functioning as the ordering principle between the absolute and the created world, though the passage explicitly denies it implies a separate divine thinker.
The Hermetic doctrine that THE ALL is Mind, and the Universe is mental in nature — a created thought held in the mind of THE ALL. Distinct from unity_of_being in specifying WHAT the underlying oneness is (mind, not an unspecified single substance), and from logos (a mediating ordering word BETWEEN a transcendent God and a separate material world) in collapsing that mediation entirely — under mentalism there is no world outside mind to mediate to.
The passage states 'The Universe was still concealed in the Divine Thought' and that the absolute being 'is that Thought itself reflected in a secondary or manifest cause,' asserting the universe is mental in nature.
The absolutely simple, undivided first principle from which all multiplicity and existence flows.
The passage declares 'The Germ is ONE' and describes Svabhavat as 'the Substance giving substance to itself' — the absolutely simple, undivided first principle from which all multiplicity flows.
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).
The passage presents 'without action and with action' and the Father-Mother duality within Darkness, suggesting apparent opposites as degrees of the same principle.
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 distinguishes between the absolute (Sat, the untranslatable term) and the human/finite idea of past, present, and future, holding both as legitimate on their own plane.
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.
The passage explicitly cites Nagarjuna's Ekasloka-Shastra and describes Subhava as 'the nature which has no nature of its own' — a direct expression of the Buddhist doctrine that phenomena lack independent self-nature.
The doctrine that all existence is ultimately one substance or one divine reality; non-duality as a theological claim.
The passage declares 'The Germ is ONE' and describes the universe in its totality as Sat, the absolute being, with past and future crystallized in an eternal Present — all existence as one undivided reality.