The Secret Doctrine by H.
P.
Blavatsky -- Vol.
1 [[Vol.
1, Page]] 325 THE IMPARTIALITY OF SCIENTIFIC DENIALS.
[[This page continued from previous section ]] § III.
PRIMORDIAL SUBSTANCE AND DIVINE THOUGHT.
"As it would seem irrational to affirm that we already know all existing causes, permission must be given to assume, if need be, an entirely new agent.
"Assuming, what is not strictly accurate as yet, that the undulatory hypothesis accounts for all the facts, we are called on to decide whether the existence of an undulating Ether is thereby proved.
We cannot positively affirm [[Vol.
1, Page]] 326 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
that no other supposition will explain the facts.
Newton's corpuscular hypothesis is admitted to have broken down on Interference; and there is, at the present day, no rival.
Still, it is extremely desirable in all such hypotheses to find some collateral confirmation, some evidence aliunde , of THE SUPPOSED ETHER.
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Some Hypotheses consist of assumptions as to the minute structure and operations of bodies.
From the nature of the case, these assumptions can never be proved by direct means.
Their only merit is their suitability to express the phenomena.
They are REPRESENTATIVE FICTIONS." -- (" Logic ," by Alexander Bain , LL.D.
, Part II.
, p.
133) Ether, this hypothetical Proteus, one of the "representative Fictions " of modern Science -- which, nevertheless, was so long accepted -- is one of the lower "principles" of what we call PRIMORDIAL SUBSTANCE (Akasa, in Sanskrit), one of the dreams of old, and which has now become again the dream of modern science.
It is the greatest, just as it is the boldest, of the surviving speculations of ancient philosophers.
For the Occultists, however, both ETHER and the Primordial Substance are a reality.
To put it plainly, ETHER is the Astral Light, and the Primordial Substance is A KASA, the Upadhi of DIVINE THOUGHT.
In modern language, the latter would be better named COSMIC IDEATION -- Spirit; the former, COSMIC SUBSTANCE, Matter.
These, the Alpha and the Omega of Being, are but the two facets of the one Absolute Existence.
The latter was never addressed, or even mentioned, by any name in antiquity, except allegorically.
In the oldest Aryan race, the Hindu, the worship of the intellectual classes never consisted (as with the Greeks) in a fervent adoration of marvellous form and art, which led later on to anthropomorphism.
But while the Greek philosopher adored form, and the Hindu sage alone "perceived the true relation of earthly beauty and eternal truth" -- the uneducated of every nation understood neither, at any time.
They do not understand it even now.
The evolution of the G OD-IDEA proceeds apace with man's own intellectual evolution.
So true it is that the noblest ideal to which the religious Spirit of one age can soar, will appear but a gross caricature to the philosophic mind in a succeeding epoch!
The philosophers themselves had to be initiated into perceptive mysteries , before they could grasp the correct idea of the ancients in relation to this most metaphysical subject.
Otherwise -- outside such initiation -- for every thinker there will be a "Thus far shalt thou go and no farther," mapped out by his intellectual capacity, as clearly and as unmistakeably as there is for the progress of any nation or race in its cycle by the law of Karma.
Outside of initiation, the ideals of contemporary religious thought must always have their wings clipped and remain unable to soar higher; for idealistic as well as realistic thinkers, and even free-thinkers, are but the outcome and the natural product of their respective environments and periods.
The ideals of both are only [[Vol.
1, Page]] 327 DIVINE THOUGHT, OR CINERITIOUS MATTER.
the necessary results of their temperaments, and the outcome of that phase of intellectual progress to which a nation, in its collectivity, has attained.
Hence, as already remarked, the highest flights of modern (Western) metaphysics have fallen far short of the truth.
Much of current Agnostic speculation on the existence of the "First Cause" is little better than veiled materialism -- the terminology alone being different.
Even so great a thinker as Mr.
Herbert Spencer speaks of the "Unknowable" occasionally in terms that demonstrate the lethal influence of materialistic thought, which, like the deadly Sirocco, has withered and blighted all current ontological speculation.* From the early ages of the Fourth Race, when Spirit alone was worshipped and the mystery was made manifest, down to the last palmy days of Grecian art at the dawn of Christianity -- the Hellenes alone had dared to raise publicly an altar to the U NKNOWN G OD.
Whatever St.
Paul may have had in his profound mind when declaring to the Athenians that this "unknown," ignorantly worshipped by them, was the true God announced by himself -- that Deity was not "Jehovah" ( see " The Holy of Holies "), nor was he "The Maker of the world and all things." For it is not the "God of Israel" but the "Unknown" of the ancient and modern Pantheist that "dwelleth not in temples made with hands " (Acts xviii., 23-4).
Divine thought cannot be defined, or its meaning explained, except by the numberless manifestations of Cosmic Substance in which the former is sensed spiritually by those who can do so.
To say this, after having defined it as the Unknown Deity, abstract, impersonal, sexless, which must be placed at the root of every Cosmogony and its subsequent evolution, is equivalent to saying nothing at all.
It is like attempting a transcendental equation of conditions for the true values of a set, having in hand for deducing them only a number of unknown quantities.
Its place is found in the old primitive Symbolic charts, in which, as shown in the text, it is represented by a boundless darkness, on the ground of which appears the first central point in white -- thus symbolising coeval and co-eternal S PIRIT- M ATTER making its appearance in the phenomenal world, before its first differentiation.
When "the one becomes two," it may then be [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * For instance, when he terms the "First Cause" -- the U NKNOWABLE -- a "power manifesting through phenomena," and "an infinite eternal Energy " (?) it is clear that he has grasped solely the physical aspect of the mystery of Being -- the Energies of Cosmic Substance only.
The co-eternal aspect of the O NE R EALITY -- Cosmic Ideation -- (as to its noumenon , it seems non-existent in the mind of the great thinker) is absolutely omitted from consideration.
Describing the divine only by negation—God transcends all positive categories and concepts; the via negativa.
The divine is described as 'the Unknown Deity, abstract, impersonal, sexless' and 'Divine thought cannot be defined, or its meaning explained,' employing negation and ineffability as the primary mode of describing the ultimate reality.
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.
The passage explicitly identifies Ether as 'the Astral Light' and positions it as one of the lower principles of Primordial Substance, making it a central identification in the text's cosmological framework.
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 describes the origin of the phenomenal world: 'coeval and co-eternal SPIRIT-MATTER making its appearance in the phenomenal world, before its first differentiation' and 'when the one becomes two,' narrating the primordial emergence from undifferentiated unity.
The supreme God's radical concealment beyond ordinary knowledge or perception; the Hidden Father.
The 'Unknown God' that 'dwelleth not in temples made with hands' and the Primordial Substance that was 'never addressed, or even mentioned, by any name in antiquity, except allegorically' express the radical concealment of the supreme reality beyond ordinary knowledge.
The doctrine that God has no parts, divisions, or composite attributes; pure undivided being.
The 'one Absolute Existence' is presented as undivided, with Spirit and Matter being 'but the two facets' rather than parts or composite attributes, affirming the divine as pure undivided being.
Salvation through direct experiential knowledge of the divine nature, not through faith, ritual, or moral works alone.
The passage states that Divine Thought is 'sensed spiritually by those who can do so,' implying a direct experiential apprehension of the ultimate reality available to qualified perceivers rather than through intellectual definition alone.
Esoteric teachings reserved for those ready to receive them; outer meaning conceals an inner liberating truth.
The passage states the Primordial Substance 'was never addressed, or even mentioned, by any name in antiquity, except allegorically' and that philosophers 'had to be initiated into perceptive mysteries, before they could grasp the correct idea,' indicating esoteric concealment of truth.
The ritual admission of an individual into esoteric knowledge or a sacred order through a formal rite of passage — testing, ordeal, or ceremony — marking a definite before/after threshold in the initiate's status and access. Distinct from hidden_sayings (the doctrine being concealed, not the rite of admission to it) and esoteric_lineage (the historical chain of transmission across generations, not a single individual's admission).
The passage states that 'the philosophers themselves had to be initiated into perceptive mysteries, before they could grasp the correct idea of the ancients' and that without initiation there is a limit mapped by intellectual capacity, making initiation a necessary threshold for true understanding.
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 references 'the subsequent evolution' and the differentiation from the undifferentiated state ('when the one becomes two'), implying a directional process from unity into multiplicity, though the full staged descent is not elaborated here.
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 Primordial Substance is defined as 'the Upadhi of DIVINE THOUGHT' and 'COSMIC IDEATION — Spirit,' identifying the fundamental reality as mind/thought rather than an unspecified substance, with matter as its vehicle or predicate.
The absolutely simple, undivided first principle from which all multiplicity and existence flows.
The passage describes 'the one Absolute Existence' from which Spirit and Matter are 'but the two facets,' and the symbolic chart shows 'the first central point in white' on boundless darkness, representing the undivided first principle before differentiation.
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).
Spirit (Cosmic Ideation) and Matter (Cosmic Substance) are presented as 'the Alpha and the Omega of Being' yet 'but the two facets of the one Absolute Existence,' expressing the Hermetic principle that apparent opposites are one in nature differing in degree.
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 asserts that 'the noblest ideal to which the religious Spirit of one age can soar, will appear but a gross caricature to the philosophic mind in a succeeding epoch,' implying that truth claims are valid on their own plane of intellectual development while the Absolute remains beyond them.
The doctrine that all existence is ultimately one substance or one divine reality; non-duality as a theological claim.
The passage's central thesis is that Spirit and Matter, the Alpha and Omega of Being, are 'but the two facets of the one Absolute Existence,' making non-dual unity the foundational metaphysical claim of the entire section.