This is
the third chapter of the book “The Secret Doctrine of the
Rosicrucians.”
THE
SOUL OF THE WORLD
In the Secret Doctrine of the
Rosicrucians we find the following Second Aphorism:
“The Germ within the Cosmic Egg takes unto itself Form. The Flame is
re-kindled. Time begins. A Thing exists. Action begins. The Pairs of Opposites
spring into being. The World Soul is born, and awakens into manifestation. The
first rays of the new Cosmic Day break over the horizon.”
In this Second Aphorism of Creation
the Rosicrucian is directed to apply his attention to the concept of the World
Soul — the First Manifestation of the Eternal Parent. This World Soul —the
First Manifestation— is represented by the Rosicrucians by the symbol of a
circle containing at its centre a black dot or point.
Figure 4. Symbol of the New-Born
World Soul (“The Germ within the Egg”)
The circle, of course, represents
the Infinite Unmanifest, and the black dot or point represents the Focal Point
of the new Manifestation — the "Germ within the Cosmic Egg," as the
old occultists poetically expressed the idea.
The Rosicrucian concept of the World
Soul —the First Manifestation— corresponds to similar conceptions found, in
various forms, in most of the ancient occult teachings of the several great
esoteric schools of philosophy. In some philosophies it is known as the
"Anima Mundi," or Life of the World, Soul of the World, or World
Spirit. In others it is known as the Logos, or Word. In others, as the
Demiurge. The spirit of the concept is this: that from the unconditioned
essence of Infinite Unmanifestation there arose an Elemental and Universal
Soul, clothed in the garments of the most tenuous, elemental form of Matter,
which contained within itself the potency and latent
possibility of all the future universes of the new Cosmic Circle, or Cosmic
Day.
This World Soul is spoken of in the
Second Aphorism as "The Germ within the Cosmic Egg," inasmuch as it
is regarded as the tiny germ within the egg which gradually increases in size
and complexity, and takes upon itself Form and Activity.
The symbol of the Cosmic Egg, of
which the World Soul is the Animating Germ, is a very old one, and one widely
spread in usage in the ancient world. As a prominent occultist has said:
«
Whence this universal symbol?
The Egg was incorporated as a sacred
sign in the cosmogony of every people on the earth, and was revered both on
account of its form and its inner mystery. From the earliest mental conceptions
of man, it was known as that which represented most successfully the Origin and
Secret of Being. The gradual development of the imperceptible Germ within the
closed shell; the inward working, without any apparent outward interference of
force, which from a latent nothing produced an active something, needing nought
save heat; and which, having gradually evolved into a concrete, living
creature, broke its shell, appearing to the outward senses of all a
self-generated, and self-created being — must have been a standing miracle from
the beginning.
The secret teaching explains the
reason for this reference by the symbolism of the prehistoric races. The “First
Cause” had no name in the beginnings. Later, it was pictured in the fancy of
the thinkers as an ever invisible Bird that dropped an Egg into Chaos, which
Egg became the Universe. Hence, Brahm was called “Kalahansa,” the Swan of
Eternity which laid at the beginning of each Mahamanvantara a “Golden Egg.” It
typifies the great Circle, or O, itself a symbol for the universe and its
spherical bodies.
. . .
The first manifestation of the
Kosmos in the form of an egg was the most widely diffused belief of antiquity.
It was a symbol adopted among the Greeks, the Syrians, Persians, and Egyptians.
In the Egyptian Ritual, Seb, the god of Time and of the Earth, is spoken of as
having laid an egg, or the Universe. Ra is shown like Brahma gestating in the
Egg of the Universe. With the Greeks the Orphic Egg was a part of the Dionysiac
and other mysteries, during which the Mundane Egg was consecrated and its
significance explained.
The Christians —especially the Greek
and Latin Churches— have fully adopted this symbol, and see in it a
commemoration of life eternal, or salvation and resurrection. This is found in
and corroborated by the custom of “Easter Eggs.” From the “Egg” of the pagan
Druids, to the red Easter Egg of the Slav, a cycle has passed. And, yet,
whether in civilized Europe, or among the abject savages of Central America, we
find the same archaic, primitive thought; if we only search for it and do not
disfigure —in the haughtiness of our fancied mental and physical superiority— the
original idea of the symbol. »
(This occultist is Blavatsky and the
text above is an excerpt from The Secret Doctrine I, p.359)
The concept of the World Soul, in
some form of interpretation and under some one of many names, may be said to be
practically universal. Among many of the ancient schools of philosophy it was
taught that there was an Anima Mundi, or World Soul, of which all the
individual souls were but apparently separated (though not actually separated)
units. The conviction that Life was One is expressed through nearly all of the
best of ancient philosophies; and, in fact, in subtly disguised forms, may be
said to rest at the base of the best of modern philosophies.
In the philosophical concept of the
Logos, we find another, and more advanced, form of this same fundamental
concept. The term, Logos, first became prominent in the philosophy of
Heraclitus of Ephesus, where it appears as the Law of Nature, objective in the
world, giving order and regularity to the movement of things. The Logos formed
an important part of the Stoic System of Philosophy. The Active Principle,
abiding in the world, they called the Logos, the term being likewise applied to
the Universal Productive Cause. An authority on the history of philosophy has
said of the concept of the Logos:
« The Logos, a being
intermediate between God and the World, is diffused through the world of the
senses. The Logos does not exist from Eternity like God, and yet its genesis is
not like our own and that of all other created beings. It is the First-Begotten
of God, and is for us imperfect beings almost as a God. Through the agency of
the Logos, God created the World. »
(This historian is Friedrich Ueberweg
and this excerpt was taken from his book “The History of Philosophy from Thales
to the Present Time.” And the Logos in theosophical teaching is the Creator God
who arises cyclically from the Unmanifest God.)
In the philosophical concept of the
Demiurge, we find another form of the same fundamental concept. The Demiurge
was the name given by the Platonian philosophers to an exalted and mysterious
agent by whom God was supposed to have created the universe. He was akin to the
Nature-God of the Pantheists, and to the "Living Nature" of other
schools of philosophy. The Demiurge was the Life of the World, or Universal
Life, of which all the innumerable lives of finite creatures are but sparks in
the flame or drops of water in the ocean. And, yet, in its true sense, the
concept of the Demiurge was not identified with that of God, but was rather a
concept of the First Great Manifestation of God, by means of which He creates
and sustains the World.
The idea of a Universal Will, a
primal manifestation of God, existing at the Heart of Nature, and operating to
build up and sustain the Universe, is found in many modern philosophies.
Cudsworth, the English philosopher has sought to indicate this conception in
his idea of "Plastic Nature," of which he says:
« It seems not so agreeable that
Nature, as a distinct thing from the Deity, should be quite superseded or made
to signifying nothing, God Himself doing all things immediately and
miraculously; from whence it would follow also that they are all done either
forcibly and violently, or else artificially only, and none of them by any
inward principle of their own.
This opinion is further confuted by
that slow and gradual process that in the generation of things, which would
seem to be but a vain and idle pomp or a trifling formality if the moving power
were omnipotent; as also by those errors and bungles which are committed where
the matter is inept and contumacious; which argue that the moving power be not
irresistible, and that Nature is such a thing as is not altogether incapable
(as well as human art) of being sometimes frustrated and disappointed by the
indisposition of matter. Whereas an omnipotent moving power, as it could
dispatch its work in a moment, so would it always do it infallibly and
irresistibly, no ineptitude and stubbornness of matter being ever able to
hinder such a one, or make him bungle or fumble in anything.
Therefore, since neither all things
are produced fortuitously, or by the unguided mechanism of matter, nor God
himself may be reasonably thought to do all things immediately and
miraculously, it may well be concluded that there is a Plastic Nature under
him, which, as an inferior end subordinate instrument, doth drudgingly execute
that part of his providence which consists in the regular and orderly motion of
matter; yet so as there is also besides this a higher providence to be
acknowledged, which, presiding over it, doth often supply the defects of it,
and sometimes overrules it, forasmuch as the Plastic Nature cannot act
electively nor with discretion. »
Other schools of philosophy, notably
that founded by Schopenhauer, have postulated the presence of a Universal
Spirit (whose chief attribute is Desire-Will) from whom the universe of
creatures has proceeded. This Universal Spirit is held to be filled with a
longing, craving, seeking, striving desire to express itself in phenomenal
existence. Schopenhauer calls it "The Will to Live." It is described
as instinctive rather than
intellectual, and as creating intellect with which to better serve its purposes
of self-expression.
Other philosophers have proceeded
along the main lines of the concept of Schopenhauer, with various
modifications. The same idea is expressed by some of the old Buddhistic
philosophers, the very term "The Will-to-Live" being used to express
the essential nature of the Universal Spirit. But, it must be noted, in such
philosophies the Universal Spirit is considered rather as the Eternal Parent
than as its First Manifestation. In the same way a certain school of thinkers
postulate the existence of a "Living Nature," which expresses itself
in innumerable living creatures and things — all Things in the universe being
held to possess Life in some form and degree, as, indeed, the Rosicrucian
creatures also hold.
But it must be always noted that in
the Secret Doctrine of the Rosicrucians the World Soul is not regarded as the
Infinite Reality, but merely as the First Manifestation thereof, from which all
subsequent manifestations proceed and into which they are finally resolved. The
World Soul is not Eternal, but, on the contrary, appears and disappears
according to the rhythm of the Cosmic Nights and Days.
The Second Aphorism states: "The Flame is rekindled." The
Dark Light once more bursts into Flame throughout the form of the World Soul,
and the new Universe begins.
It also states: "Time begins." This is seen
to be true because Change has begun, and Change is the essence of Time, and
Time the measure of Change.
Again: "A Thing exists." This because the World Soul is truly a
Thing, with all the characteristics of Thingness. It can be defined and
described in positive terms; it can be thought of logically and in terms of
intellect, though perhaps not capable of being pictured in the imagination.
(This that William Atkinso says is false
since the Creator God at the beginning is only Consciousness that later is
partially transformed into energy in order to create the Universe.)
Again: "Action begins." This because from the very inception of
the Germ in the Cosmic Egg there is the manifestation of Activity, Motion, and
Change. The World Soul is in constant and uninterrupted activity from the
moment of its faintest dawn until the moment of its expiring quiver.
(This is also false since the Creator
God remains immobile and it is the part of his essence that is energized to
transform into energy that begins to move.)
Again: "The Pairs of Opposites spring into being." As all
Thingness is accompanied by the presence of the Pairs of Opposites — the
contrasting sets of qualities, it follows that from the first faint breath of
the World Spirit differentiation begins, and the polarity of qualities exhibit
themselves.
Again: "The World Soul is born, and awakens into manifestation."
The World Soul awakens into active manifestation from the very moment of its
birth. Finding within itself the impelling urge of the Will-to-Live and of
Expression, it proceeds at once, along the lines of elementary Instinct to
prepare for manifestation of higher and more complex forms of life and action.
Again: "The first rays of the new Cosmic Day break over the horizon."
With the coming of the World Soul the new Cosmic Day is indeed begun, and
proceeds without interruption until the shades of the Cosmic Night once more overtake
it in cyclic sequence.
~ * ~
The Rosicrucian Teaching is that the
World Soul is not a soul lacking a body, but that, on the contrary, it is
clothed in the garments of the most tenuous and ethereal substance — a
substance as much finer and more ethereal than the Ether of Space, of the
material scientists, as the latter is much finer and more ethereal than the
hardest steel or granite.
(Scientists had already discarded the
"Ether of Space" theory for more than twelve years when William
Atkinson published this book.)
From this ethereal substance the
World Soul weaves bodies for its manifestations, even the densest forms of
matter — and even the tenuous bodily form of the highest forms of life, far
removed from our comparatively gross earth-plane.
The Rosicrucians further hold that
it is not correct to think of the World Soul as having been created "out
of nothing" by the Eternal Parent, and still less so think of it having
been created from the substantial essence of the Eternal Parent by division,
separation, or partition (such ideas being held to be logically impossible and
fallacious). On the contrary, it is held that the World Soul exists as an IDEA
of the Eternal Parent — just as, in a day dream, or a reverie, or a full dream,
we may picture a Thing as in being. Or in other terms, even the World Soul
exists merely as a PICTURE in the Infinite Imagination of the Eternal Parent,
and at the last is but a SHADOW of Reality, and not Reality itself.
(This is not the Rosicrucian theory,
this is the opinion of William Atkinson, which is incorrect since the
Unmanifest God is beyond any vibration because he is immutable; and it is still
a great mystery how the Creator God arises from the Unmanifest God.)
The World Soul, at the Dawn of the
Cosmic Day, may be said to be like a dreamer freshly awakened from a deep
sleep, and striving to regain consciousness of himself. It does not know what
it is, nor does it know that it is but an Idea of the Eternal Parent. If it
could express its thought in words it would say that it has always been, but
had been asleep before that moment.
It feels within itself the urge
toward expression and manifestation, along unconscious and instinctive lines — this
urge being a part of its nature and character and implanted into it by the
content of the Idea of the Eternal Parent which brought it into being. Like the
newborn babe, it struggles for breath and begins to move its limbs. And as it
struggles and moves, there comes to it a response from all of its nature, and
its active life begins.
(This is also being imagined by William
Atkinson because the early stages that the Creator God goes through are also a
great mystery.)
And here we leave the World Soul,
for the moment, struggling for breath and striving to move its limbs (figuratively
speaking, of course). Its future is related in the succeeding Aphorisms.
OBSERVATIONS
It is noted that William Atkinson continued to
instruct himself because in his book The
Kybalion he described God simply as being the "ALL," and now he
is more specific distinguishing the Creator God from the Unmanifest God, but he
still makes mistakes and lacks more knowledge about this theme.
No comments:
Post a Comment