No Hindu has ever mistaken Prakriti -- the Astral Light being only above the lowest plane of Prakriti, the material Kosmos -- for the "immortal Spirit." Prakriti is ever called Maya , illusion, and is doomed to disappear with the rest, the gods included, at the hour of the Pralaya; for it is shown that Akasa is not even the Ether, least of all then, we imagine, can it be the Astral Light.
Those unable to penetrate beyond the dead letter of the Puranas, have occasionally confused Akasa with Prakriti, with Ether, and even with the visible Sky!
It is true also that those who have invariably translated the term Akasa by "Ether" (Wilson, for instance), finding it called "the material cause of sound" possessing, moreover, this one single property (Vishnu Purana), have ignorantly imagined it to be "material," in the physical sense.
True, again, that if the characteristics are accepted literally, then, since nothing material or physical, and therefore conditioned and temporary can be immortal -- according to metaphysics and philosophy -- it would follow that Akasa is neither infinite nor immortal.
But all this is erroneous, since both the words Pradhana [[Vol.
1, Page]] 256 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
(primeval matter) and sound , as a property, have been misunderstood; the former term (Pradhana) being certainly synonymous with Mulaprakriti and Akasa, and the latter (sound) with the Verbum, the Word or the Logos.
This is easy to demonstrate; for it is shown in the following sentences in Vishnu Purana: "In the beginning there was neither day nor night, nor sky, nor earth, nor darkness, nor light.
.
.
.
.
Save only O NE, unapprehensible by intellect, or that which is Brahma and Pums (Spirit) and Pradhana (primordial matter)." .
.
.
.
(Book I., ch.
ii.).
Now, what is Pradhana, if it is not Mulaprakriti, the root of all, in another aspect?
For Pradhana, though said further on to merge into the Deity as everything else does, in order to leave the ONE absolute during the Pralaya, yet is held as infinite and immortal.
The Commentator describes the Deity as: "One Pradhanika Brahma Spirit: THAT, was," and interprets the compound term as a substantive, not as a derivative word used attributively, i.e.
, like something conjoined with Pradhana.* Hence Pradhana even in the Puranas is an aspect of Parabrahmam, not an evolution, and must be the same as the Vedantic Mulaprakriti.
"Prakriti in its primary state is Akasa," says a Vedantin scholar (see "Five Years of Theosophy," p.
169).
It is almost abstract Nature.
Akasa, then, is Pradhana in another form, and as such cannot be Ether, the ever-invisible agent, courted even by physical Science.
Nor is it Astral Light.
It is, as said, the noumenon of the seven-fold differentiated Prakriti** -- the ever immaculate "Mother" of the fatherless Son, who becomes "Father" on the lower manifested plane.
For MAHAT is the first product of Pradhana, or Akasa, and Mahat -- Universal intelligence "whose characteristic property is Buddhi" -- is no other than the Logos , for he is called "Eswara" Brahma, Bhava, etc.
( See Linga Purana , sec.
lxx.
12 et seq.; and Vayu Purana, but especially the former Purana -- prior, section viii., 67-74).
He is, in short, the "Creator" or the divine mind in creative operation, "the cause of all things." He is [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * The student has to note, moreover, that the Purana is a dualistic system, not evolutionary, and that, in this respect, far more will be found, from an esoteric standpoint, in Sankhya, and even in the Manava - dharma - Sastra , however much the latter differs from the former.
** In the Sankhya philosophy, the seven Prakritis or "productive productions" are Mahat , Ahamkara , and the five tanmatras.
See " Sankhya - karika ," III., and the Commentary thereon.
[[Vol.
1, Page]] 257 AKASA IS NOT ETHER.
the "first-born" of whom the Puranas tell us that "Mahat and matter are the inner and outer boundaries of the Universe," or, in our language, the negative and the positive poles of dual nature (abstract and concrete), for the Purana adds: "In this manner -- as were the seven forms (principles) of Prakriti reckoned from Mahat to Earth -- so at the time of pralaya (pratyahara) these seven successively re-enter into each other.
The egg of Brahma (Sarva-mandala) is dissolved with its seven zones (dwipa), seven oceans, seven regions, etc." (Vishnu Purana, Book vi., ch.
iv.)* These are the reasons why the Occultists refuse to give the name of Astral Light to Akasa, or to call it Ether.
"In my Father's house are many mansions," may be contrasted with the occult saying, "In our Mother's house there are seven mansions," or planes, the lowest of which is above and around us -- the Astral Light.
The elements, whether simple or compound, could not have remained the same since the commencement of the evolution of our chain.
Everything in the Universe progresses steadily in the Great Cycle, while incessantly going up and down in the smaller cycles.
Nature is never stationary during manvantara, as it is ever becoming ,** not simply being; and mineral, vegetable, and human life are always adapting their organisms to the then reigning Elements, and therefore those Elements were then fitted for them, as they are now for the life of present humanity.
It will only be in the next, or fifth, Round that the fifth Element, Ether -- the gross body of Akasa, if it can be called even that -- [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * No use to say so to the Hindus, who know their Puranas by heart, but very useful to remind our Orientalists and those Westerns who regard Wilson's translations as authoritative, that in his English translation of the Vishnu Purana he is guilty of the most ludicrous contradictions and errors.
So on this identical subject of the seven Prakritis or the seven zones of Brahma's egg, the two accounts differ totally.
In Vol.
1, page 40, the egg is said to be externally invested by seven envelopes -- Wilson comments: "by Water, Air, Fire, Ether, and Ahamkara" (which last word does not exist in the Sanskrit texts); and in vol.
v., p.
The doctrine of the periodic restoration or recurrence of all things to their original state after vast cycles.
The Pralaya cycle—where all seven Prakritis 'successively re-enter into each other' and the egg of Brahma is dissolved—is a clear statement of periodic cosmic restoration after vast cycles.
The universal fluid or medium of occult philosophy — Lévi's Great Magical Agent — that transmits will, thought, and magical influence between minds and matter, and preserves the impress of all forms and actions as a book of consciences; cognate with akasha and the anima mundi. Distinct from cosmic_sympathy (a doctrine of hidden affinity) in being a substantival medium that can be charged, directed, and abused.
Astral Light is a major point of the passage, explicitly distinguished from Akasa and identified as 'only above the lowest plane of Prakriti' and the 'lowest' of the seven mansions.
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 cited Vishnu Purana passage 'In the beginning there was neither day nor night, nor sky, nor earth, nor darkness, nor light' is a temporally-narrative account of cosmic origin.
A secondary creator deity—often ignorant or malevolent—responsible for fashioning the material world, distinct from the supreme transcendent God.
Mahat is called 'the Creator or the divine mind in creative operation, the cause of all things,' functioning as a secondary creative principle distinct from the absolute ONE, though not characterized as ignorant or malevolent.
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's central structure is the seven-fold cascade from Akasa/Pradhana through Mahat, Ahamkara, and the five tanmatras down to Earth, each level a product of the one above.
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 explicitly states the 'ever immaculate Mother of the fatherless Son, who becomes Father on the lower manifested plane,' asserting the masculine-feminine generative principle operates structurally on every plane.
Esoteric teachings reserved for those ready to receive them; outer meaning conceals an inner liberating truth.
The passage positions itself as esoteric correction of exoteric misreadings ('Those unable to penetrate beyond the dead letter of the Puranas'), implying an outer meaning conceals an inner liberating truth.
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 describes a multi-planed reality with seven 'mansions' or planes, distinguishing the Astral Light as a specific plane above the material Kosmos, constituting 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's core argument traces the structured descent from unconditioned Akasa/Pradhana through seven successive stages to full materialization (Earth), complemented by the pralaya re-entry, naming the directional cosmic process of descent paired with its complementary ascent.
The divine reason, word, or ordering principle through which the universe was created; mediates between the transcendent God and the material world.
The passage explicitly identifies Mahat with the Logos/Verbum/Word, calling it 'the divine mind in creative operation, the cause of all things,' and equates the property 'sound' with the Logos.
The absolutely simple, undivided first principle from which all multiplicity and existence flows.
The Vishnu Purana citation 'Save only ONE, unapprehensible by intellect' identifies the absolutely simple, undivided source 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 explicitly states 'the negative and the positive poles of dual nature (abstract and concrete)' as the inner and outer boundaries of the Universe.
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.
'Everything in the Universe progresses steadily in the Great Cycle, while incessantly going up and down in the smaller cycles' is a direct statement of the rhythmic doctrine operating at cosmic-historical scale.