The Book of Dzyan by Madam Helena Petrovna Blavatsky All Text in Blue Are HPB’S Synopsis for Each of the Stanzas
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The Annotated Book of Dzyan by Frater Apollonius 4◦=7▫ AA COSMIC EVOLUTION In Seven Stanzas translated from the Book of Dzyan By Madam Helena Petrovna Blavatsky All text In Blue are HPB’s Synopsis for each of the stanzas. Liber Tetragrammaton is an exceptionally similar document to this book and works as a marvelous compliment. Selected verses will be included in green, below. STANZA I Stanza -1- describes the state of the ONE ALL during Pralaya, before the first flutter of reawakening Manifestation. A moment's thought shows that such a state can only be symbolized; to describe it, is impossible. Nor can it be symbolized except in negatives; for, since it is the state of Absoluteness per se, it can possess none of those specific attributes which serve us to describe objects in positive terms. Hence that state can only be suggested by the negatives of all those most abstract attributes which men feel rather than conceive, as the remotest limits attainable by their power of conception. 1. THE ETERNAL PARENT WRAPPED IN HER EVER INVISIBLE ROBES HAD SLUMBERED ONCE AGAIN FOR SEVEN ETERNITIES. 0/1 (Number Zero/First Trigram) * * * Here is Nothing under its three forms. It is not, yet informeth all things. 2. TIME WAS NOT, FOR IT LAY ASLEEP IN THE INFINITE BOSOM OF DURATION. 3. UNIVERSAL MIND WAS NOT, FOR THERE WERE NO AH-HI TO CONTAIN IT. 4. THE SEVEN WAYS TO BLISS WERE NOT. THE GREAT CAUSES OF MISERY WERE NOT, FOR THERE WAS NO ONE TO PRODUCE AND GET ENSNARED BY THEM. 5. DARKNESS ALONE FILLED THE BOUNDLESS ALL, FOR FATHER, MOTHER AND SON WERE ONCE MORE ONE, AND THE SON HAD NOT AWAKENED YET FOR THE NEW WHEEL, AND HIS PILGRIMAGE THEREON. 6. THE SEVEN SUBLIME LORDS AND THE SEVEN TRUTHS HAD CEASED TO BE, AND THE UNIVERSE, THE SON OF NECESSITY, WAS IMMERSED IN PARANISHPANNA, TO BE OUTBREATHED BY THAT WHICH IS AND YET IS NOT. NAUGHT WAS. 7. THE CAUSES OF EXISTENCE HAD BEEN DONE AWAY WITH; THE VISIBLE THAT WAS, AND THE INVISIBLE THAT IS, RESTED IN ETERNAL NON-BEING -- THE ONE BEING. 8. ALONE THE ONE FORM OF EXISTENCE STRETCHED BOUNDLESS, INFINITE, CAUSELESS, IN DREAMLESS SLEEP; AND LIFE PULSATED UNCONSCIOUS IN UNIVERSAL SPACE, THROUGHOUT THAT ALL- PRESENCE WHICH IS SENSED BY THE OPENED EYE OF THE DANGMA. 9. BUT WHERE WAS THE DANGMA WHEN THE ALAYA OF THE UNIVERSE WAS IN PARAMARTHA AND THE GREAT WHEEL WAS ANUPADAKA? STANZA II Stanza -2- describes a stage which, to a Western mind, is so nearly identical with that mentioned in Stanza I., that to express the idea of its difference would require a treatise in itself Hence it must be left to the intuition and the higher faculties of the reader to grasp, as far as he can,the meaning of the allegorical phrases used. Indeed, it must be remembered that all these Stanzas appeal to the inner faculties rather than to the ordinary comprehension of the physical brain. 1. WHERE WERE THE BUILDERS, THE LUMINOUS SONS OF MANVANTARIC DAWN? . IN THE UNKNOWN DARKNESS IN THEIR AH-HI PARANISHPANNA. THE PRODUCERS OF FORM FROM NO-FORM -- THE ROOT OF THE WORLD -- THE DEVAMATRI AND SVABHAVAT, RESTED IN THE BLISS OF NON-BEING. 2. WHERE WAS SILENCE? WHERE THE EARS TO SENSE IT? NO, THERE WAS NEITHER SILENCE NOR SOUND; NAUGHT SAVE CEASELESS ETERNAL BREATH, WHICH KNOWS ITSELF NOT. 3. THE HOUR HAD NOT YET STRUCK; THE RAY HAD NOT YET FLASHED INTO THE GERM; THE MATRIPADMA HAD NOT YET SWOLLEN. 4. HER HEART HAD NOT YET OPENED FOR THE ONE RAY TO ENTER, THENCE TO FALL, AS THREE INTO FOUR, INTO THE LAP OF MAYA. 5. THE SEVEN SONS WERE NOT YET BORN FROM THE WEB OF LIGHT. DARKNESS ALONE WAS FATHER-MOTHER, SVABHAVAT; AND SVABHAVAT WAS IN DARKNESS. 6. THESE TWO ARE THE GERM, AND THE GERM IS ONE. THE UNIVERSE WAS STILL CONCEALED IN THE DIVINE THOUGHT AND THE DIVINE BOSOM. 1H/2 * * — Now cometh the glory of the Single One, as an imperfection and stain. STANZA III Stanza -3- describes the Reawakening of the Universe to life after Pralaya. It depicts the emergence of the Monads from their state of absorption within the One,the earliest and highest stage in the formation of Worlds - the term Monad being one which may apply equally to the vastest Solar System or the tiniest atom. 1. THE LAST VIBRATION OF THE SEVENTH ETERNITY THRILLS THROUGH INFINITUDE. THE MOTHER SWELLS, EXPANDING FROM WITHIN WITHOUT, LIKE THE BUD OF THE LOTUS. 2. THE VIBRATION SWEEPS ALONG, TOUCHING WITH ITS SWIFT WING THE WHOLE UNIVERSE AND THE GERM THAT DWELLETH IN DARKNESS: THE DARKNESS THAT BREATHES OVER THE SLUMBERING WATERS OF LIFE. 3. DARKNESS RADIATES LIGHT, AND LIGHT DROPS ONE SOLITARY RAY INTO THE MOTHER-DEEP. THE RAY SHOOTS THROUGH THE VIRGIN EGG, THE RAY CAUSES THE ETERNAL EGG TO THRILL, AND DROP THE NON-ETERNAL GERM, WHICH CONDENSES INTO THE WORLD-EGG. 2A/3 * * - - But by the Weak One the Mother was it equilibrated. 4. THEN THE THREE FALL INTO THE FOUR. THE RADIANT ESSENCE BECOMES SEVEN INSIDE, SEVEN OUTSIDE. THE LUMINOUS EGG, WHICH IN ITSELF IS THREE, CURDLES AND SPREADS IN MILK-WHITE CURDS THROUGHOUT THE DEPTHS OF MOTHER, THE ROOT THAT GROWS IN THE DEPTHS OF THE OCEAN OF LIFE. 5. THE ROOT REMAINS, THE LIGHT REMAINS, THE CURDS REMAIN, AND STILL OEAOHOO IS ONE. The obvious allusion is to IAO, the name of God for the ancient Gnostics. In her comment to Verse 7, Blavatsky writes: "Bright Space, Son of Dark Space," corresponds to the Ray dropped at the first thrill of the new Dawn into the great Cosmic depths, from which it re-emerges differentiated as "Oeaohoo, the Younger" (the "new LIFE"), to become to the end of the LIfe-Cycle the Germ of all things. He is "the Incorporeal Man who contains in himself the Divine Idea," the generator of Light and Life, to use an expression of Philo Judaeus. He is called the "Blazing Dragon of Wisdom," because, first, he is that which the Greek philosophers called the Logos, the Verum of the Thought Divine; and secondly, because in Esoteric Philosophy this first manifestation, begin the synthesis or the aggregate of Universal Wisdom, Oeaohoo, the "Son of the Sun," contains in himself the Seven Creative Hosts (The Sephiroth), and is thus the essence of manifested Wisdom. "He who bathes in the light of Oeaohoo will never be deceived by the veil of Maya." Combining these thoughts with the N.O.X. ideas I've presented in my other post this morning, there's something profound in Blavatsky's commentary to Verse 7: The higher gods of antiquity are all "Sons of the Mother" before they become "Sons of the Father." The Logoi, like Jupiter or Zeus, son of Kronos-Saturn, "Infinite Time" (Kala), in the origin were represented as male-female. Zeus is said to be the "beautiful Virgin," and Venus is made bearded. Apollo was originally bi-sexual, so is Brahma-Vach in Manu and the Puranas. Osiris in interchangeable with Isis, and Horus is of both sexes. Finally in St. John's vision in Revelation, the Logos, who is now connected with Jesus, is hermaphrodite, for he is described as having female breasts. So also is Tetragrammaton=Jehovah. But there are to Avalokiteshvaras in Esotericism: the First and the Second Logos. In Crowley's commentary to AL:I.7 ("Behold! it is revealed by Aiwass the minister of Hoor-paar-kraat.") we find a reference to the Devil Atu per my other post in N.O.X.: Aiwass is the name given by Ouarda the Seer as that of the Intelligence Communicating. See note to Title. Hoor-paar-Kraat or Harpocrates, the "Babe in the Egg of Blue", is not merely the God of Silence in a conventional sense. He represents the Higher Self, the Holy Guardian Angel. The connection is with the symbolism of the Dwarf in Mythology. He contains everything in Himself, but is unmanifested. See II:8. He is the First Letter of the Alphabet, Aleph, whose number is One, and his card in the Tarot is The Fool, numbered Zero. Aleph is attributed to the "Element" (in the old classification of things) of Air. Now as "One" or Aleph he represents the Male Principle, the First Cause, and the free breath of Life, the sound of the vowel A being made with the open throat and mouth. As Zero he represents the female Principle, the fertile Mother. (An old name for the card is Mat, from the Italian 'Matto', fool, but earlier also from Maut, the Egyptian Vulture-Mother-Goddess). Fertile, for the 'Egg of Blue' is the Uterus, and in the Macrocosm the Body of Nuith, and it contains the Unborn Babe, helpless yet protected and nourished against the crocodiles and tigers shown on the card, just as the womb is sealed during gestation. He sits on a lotus, the yoni. which floats on the 'Nile', the amniotic fluid. In his absolute innocence and ignorance he is "The Fool"; he is the 'Saviour', being the Son who shall trample on the crocodiles and tigers, and avenge his father Osiris. Thus we see him as the "Great Fool" of Celtic legend, the "Pure Fool" of Act I of "Parsifal", and, generally speaking, the insane person whose words have always been taken f or oracles. But to be 'Saviour' he must be born and grow to manhood; thus Parsifal acquires the Sacred Lance, emblem of virility. He usually wears the 'Coat of many colours' like Joseph the 'dreamer'; so he is also now the Green Man of spring festivals.