Wilson saw at a glance the suggestive connection between Mahat and the Phoenician Mot, or Mut , who was female with the Egyptians -- the Goddess Mout, the "Mother" -- "which, like Mahat," he says, "was the first product of the mixture (?) of Spirit and matter, and the first rudiment of Creation": "Ex connexione autem ejus spiritus prodidit Mot .
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From whose seed were created all living things" -- repeats Brucker (I., 240) -- giving it a still more materialistic and anthropomorphic colouring.
Nevertheless, the esoteric sense of the doctrine is seen through every exoteric sentence on the very face of the old Sanscrit texts that treat of primordial Creation.
"The Supreme Soul, the all permeant (Sarvaga) Substance of the World, having entered ( been drawn ) into matter (prakriti) and Spirit (purusha), agitated the mutable and the immutable principles the season of Creation (manvantara) having arrived."* .
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[[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * The nous of the Greeks, which is (spiritual or divine) mind, or mens , "Mahat," operates upon matter in the same way; it "enters into" and agitates it: "Spiritus intus alit, totamque infusa per artus, Mens agitat molem, et magno se corpore miscet." In the Phoenician Cosmogony, "Spirit mixing with its own principles gives rise to [[Footnote continued on next page]] [[Vol.
1, Page]] 452 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
Esoteric doctrine teaches that the Dhyan Chohans are the collective aggregate of divine Intelligence or primordial mind , and that the first Manus -- the seven "mind-born" Spiritual Intelligences -- are identical with the former.
Hence the "Kwan-shi-yin" -- "the golden Dragon in whom are the seven," of Stanza III.
-- is the primordial Logos, or Brahma, the first manifested creative Power; and the Dhyani-Energies are the Manus, or Manu-Swayambhuva collectively.
The direct connection, moreover, between the "Manus" and "Mahat" is easy to see.
Manu is from the root man , "to think"; and thinking proceeds from the mind.
It is, in Cosmogony, the pre-nebular period.
(II.) "The second Creation," "Bhuta," was of the rudimental principles (Tanmatras), thence termed the elemental creation ( Bhuta-sarga ) .* It is the period of the first breath of the differentiation of the pre-Cosmic Elements or matter.
Bhutadi means literally "the origin of the Elements," and precedes Bhuta-sarga -- the "creation" or differentiation of those Elements in primordial "Akasa" (Chaos or Vacuity).** In the "Vishnu Purana" it is said to proceed along, and belong to, the triple aspect of Ahankara , translated Egotism, but meaning rather that untranslateable term the " I -AM-NESS," that which first issues from "Mahat," or divine mind; the first shadowy outline of Self-hood, for "pure" Ahankara becomes "passionate" and finally "rudimental" [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- [[Footnote continued from previous page]] creation" also; ( Brucker , I., 240); the Orphic triad shows an identical doctrine: for there Phanes (or Eros), Chaos , containing crude undifferentiated Cosmic matter, and Chronos (time), are the three co-operating principles, emanating from the Unknowable and concealed point , which produce the work of "Creation." And they are the Hindu Purusha (phanes), Pradhana (chaos), and Kala (Chronos) or time.
The good Professor Wilson does not like the idea, as no Christian clergyman, however liberal, would.
He remarks that "as presently explained,.
the mixture (of the Supreme Spirit or Soul) is not mechanical; it is an influence or effect exerted upon intermediate agents which produce effects." The sentence in Vishnu Purana: "As fragrance affects the mind from its proximity merely, and not from any immediate operation upon mind itself , so the Supreme influenced the elements of creation," the reverend and erudite Sanscritist correctly explains .
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: "As perfumes do not delight the mind by actual contact, but by the impression they make upon the sense of smelling, which communicates it to the mind," adding: "The entrance of the Supreme into spirit, as well as matter, is less intelligible than the view elsewhere taken of it, as the infusion of spirit, identified with the supreme, into Prakriti or matter alone." He prefers the verse in Padma Purana: "He who is called the male (spirit) of Prakriti .
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that same divine Vishnu entered into Prakriti." This "view" is certainly more akin to the plastic character of certain verses in the Bible concerning the Patriarchs, such as Lot ( Gen.
xix.
, 34-38) and even Adam ( iv ., v.
1), and others of a still more anthropomorphic nature.
But it is just that which led Humanity to Phallicism , Christian religion being honeycombed with it, from the first chapter of Genesis down to the Revelation.
* All these sentences are quoted from "Vishnu Purana," Book I., ch.
v.
** Vishnu is both Bhutesa, "Lord of the Elements, and all things," and Viswarupa , "Universal Substance or Soul." [[Vol.
1, Page]] 453 THE SEVEN CREATIONS.
(initial); it is "the origin of conscious as of all unconscious being," though the Esoteric school rejects the idea of anything being "unconscious" -- save on this (our) plane of illusion and ignorance.
At this stage of the Second Creation, the second hierarchy of the Manus appear, the Dhyan Chohans or Devas, who are the origin of Form (rupa): the Chitrasikhandina (bright-crested) or the Riksha -- those Rishis who have become the informing souls of the seven stars (of the Great Bear).* In astronomical and Cosmogonical language this Creation relates to the first stage of Cosmic-life, the Fire-Mist Period after its Chaotic stage,** when atoms issue from Laya.
(III.) The third (the Indriya ) was the modified form of Ahankara , the conception of "I," (from " Aham ," "I") termed the organic Creation, or creation of the senses ( Aindriyaka ) .
Attributing human characteristics, emotions, or form to the divine; embodied divine imagery.
The passage explicitly critiques anthropomorphic readings of creation myths, noting that Brucker gives the doctrine 'a still more materialistic and anthropomorphic colouring' and that Wilson's preferred verse is 'more akin to the plastic character' of biblical anthropomorphisms.
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 systematically maps structural parallels across traditions: Mahat/Mot/Mut, the Orphic Phanes/Chaos/Chronos to Hindu Purusha/Pradhana/Kala, and the Greek nous to the Sanskrit Mahat.
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 entire passage is a comparative cosmogonic narrative, detailing the pre-nebular period, the Bhuta-sarga (elemental creation), the Indriya (sensory creation), the Orphic triad of Phanes/Chaos/Chronos, and the Phoenician Cosmogony.
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.
The Supreme Soul is described as 'all-permeant (Sarvaga) Substance of the World' that 'enters into' matter and spirit, suggesting a pervading presence within 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 lays out a clear cascading hierarchy: Supreme Soul → Mahat (divine mind) → Ahankara (I-AM-NESS) → Tanmatras (elemental principles) → Indriya (senses), with the Dhyan Chohans and Manus as successive levels of manifestation.
Esoteric teachings reserved for those ready to receive them; outer meaning conceals an inner liberating truth.
The passage explicitly states that 'the esoteric sense of the doctrine is seen through every exoteric sentence on the very face of the old Sanscrit texts,' indicating a concealed inner meaning beneath the outer doctrinal surface.
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 traces a directional descent from the unconditioned Supreme Soul through Mahat, Ahankara, and the Tanmatras down to the sensory plane, naming each stage of the cosmic process of spirit entering matter.
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 the 'Kwan-shi-yin' as 'the primordial Logos, or Brahma, the first manifested creative Power' and discusses the Greek nous as operating on matter in the same way.