The Secret Doctrine vol. 1, Stanza III.7
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7. Behold, O Lanoo!† the radiant Child of the two, the unparalleled refulgent Glory, Bright Space, Son of Dark Space, who emerges from the depths of the great Dark Waters. It is Oeaohoo, the Younger, the * * * (whom thou knowest now as Guān-shì-yīn.—Commentary) (a). He shines forth as the Sun; he is the blazing Divine Dragon of Wisdom. The One (Eka) is Four (Catur), and Four (Catur) takes to itself Three (Tri), and the Union produces the Seven (Sapta), in whom are the seven which become the Trice-Ten (Tridaśa),‡ the Hosts and the Multitudes (b). Behold him lifting the Veil and unfurling it from East to West. He shuts out the above and leaves the below to be seen as the Great Illusion. He marks the places for the shining ones (stars), and turns the upper (space) into a shoreless Sea of Fire, and the One manifested (element) into the Great Waters (c).
(a) "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 Judæus. He is called the "Blazing Dragon of Wisdom,"
Footnotes
† Lanoo is a student, a chela who studies practical Esotericism.
‡ "Tri-daśa," or three times ten (30), alludes to the Vedic deities, in round numbers, or more accurately 33—a sacred number. They are the 12 Adityas, the 8 Vasus, the 11 Rudras, and 2 Aswins—the twin sons of the Sun and the Sky. This is the root-number of the Hindu Pantheon, which enumerates 33 crores or over three hundred millions of gods and goddesses.
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because, firstly, he is that which the Greek philosophers called the Logos, the Verbum of the Thought Divine; and secondly, because in Esoteric philosophy this first manifestation, being the synthesis or the aggregate of Universal Wisdom, Oeaohoo, “the Son of the Son,” 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 Mâyâ.”
Kwan-Shai-Yin is identical with, and an equivalent of the Sanskrit Avalôkitêshwara, and as such he is an androgynous deity, like the Tetragrammaton and all the Logoi* of antiquity. It is only by some sects in China that he is anthropomorphized and represented with female attributes,† when, under his female aspect, he becomes Kwan-Yin, the goddess of mercy, called the “Divine Voice.”‡ The latter is the patron deity of Thibet and of the island of Puto in China, where both deities have a number of monasteries.§ (See Part II. Kwan-Shai-Yin and Kwan-yin.)
Footnotes
* Hence all the higher gods of antiquity are all “Sons of the Mother” before they become those of the “Father.” The Logoi, like Jupiter or Zeus, Son of Kronos-Saturn, “Infinite Time” (or Kâla), in their origin were represented as male-female. Zeus is said to be the “beautiful Virgin,” and Venus is made bearded. Apollo is originally bisexual, so is Brahmā-Vâch in Manu and the Purânas. Osiris is interchangeable with Isis, and Horus is of both sexes. Finally, St. John’s vision in Revelation, that of the Logos, who is now connected with Jesus—is hermaphrodite, for he is described as having female breasts. So is the Tetragrammaton-Jehovah. But there are two Avalôkitêshwaras in Esotericism; the first and the second Logos.
† No religious symbol can escape profanation and even derision in our days of politics and Science. In Southern India the writer has seen a converted native making pujah with offerings before a statue of Jesus clad in woman’s clothes and with a ring in his nose. When asking the meaning of the masquerade we were answered that it was Jesu-Maria blended in one, and that it was done by the permission of the Padri, as the zealous convert had no money to purchase two statues or “idols” as they, very properly, were called by a witness—another but a non-converted Hindu. Blasphemous this will appear to a dogmatic Christian, but the Theosophist and the Occultist must award the palm of logic to the converted Hindu. The esoteric Christos in the gnosis is, of course, sexless, but in exoteric theology he is male and female.
‡ The Gnostic Sophia, “Wisdom” who is “the Mother” of the Ogdoad (Aditi, in a certain sense, with her eight sons), is the Holy Ghost and the Creator of all, as in the ancient systems. The “ father ” is a far later invention. The earliest manifested Logos was female everywhere—the mother of the seven planetary powers.
§ See “Chinese Buddhism,” by the Rev. J. C. Edkins, who always gives correct facts, although his conclusions are very frequently erroneous.