Cosmic Ideation
Cosmic Ideation is the Universal Mind (Mahat) or Divine Thought in which lies the plan for the manifestation of the universe. Using this as a "blueprint", the hosts of Dhyāni-Chohans build the new cosmos:
The plan [for the Cosmos] was furnished by the Ideation of the Universe, and the constructive labour was left to the Hosts of intelligent Powers and Forces.[1]
The Cosmic Ideation is also source of consciousness and intelligence in human beings:
Universal Ideation—or Mahat, if you like it—sends its homogeneous radiation into the heterogeneous world, and this reaches the human or personal minds through the Astral Light.[2]
Origins
During pralaya, Cosmic Ideation is latent in the universal space, but "becomes active at the beginning of every new life-cycle":[3]
Cosmic Ideation is said to be non-existent during Pralayic periods, for the simple reason that there is no one, and nothing, to perceive its effects. There can be no manifestation of Consciousness, semi-consciousness, or even “unconscious purposiveness,” except through the vehicle of matter.[4]
In describing the stages of manifestation of the Cosmic Ideation, it is said that at the dawn of a new manvantara the Great Breath becomes the unmanifested "Pre-Cosmic Ideation", which later manifests as the Cosmic Ideation:
The great Breath assumes the character of precosmic Ideation. It is the fons et origo of force and of all individual consciousness, and supplies the guiding intelligence in the vast scheme of cosmic Evolution. . . .[5]
The manifestation of Cosmic Ideation is coeval with that of Cosmic Substance:
During the period of Universal Pralaya, Cosmic Ideation is non-existent; and the variously differentiated states of Cosmic Substance are resolved back again into the primary state of abstract potential objectivity.
Manvantaric impulse commences with the re-awakening of Cosmic Ideation (the “Universal Mind”) concurrently with, and parallel to the primary emergence of Cosmic Substance—the latter being the manvantaric vehicle of the former—from its undifferentiated pralayic state. Then, absolute wisdom mirrors itself in its Ideation; which, by a transcendental process, superior to and incomprehensible by human Consciousness, results in Cosmic Energy (Fohat).[6]
Apart from Cosmic Substance, Cosmic Ideation could not manifest as individual consciousness, since it is only through a vehicle of matter that consciousness wells up as “I am I,” a physical basis being necessary to focus a ray of the Universal Mind at a certain stage of complexity. Again, apart from Cosmic Ideation, Cosmic Substance would remain an empty abstraction, and no emergence of consciousness could ensue.[7]
There can be no manifestation of Consciousness, semi-consciousness, or even “unconscious purposiveness,” except through the vehicle of matter. . . And as Matter existing apart from perception is a mere abstraction, both of these aspects of the ABSOLUTE—Cosmic Substance and Cosmic Ideation—are mutually inter-dependent.[8]
With the manifestation of the pair Cosmic Ideation/Cosmic Substance the highest celestial beings (Ah-hi) appear and the Ideation becomes active through them the Universal Mind.
Activity
It is said that the plan for the formation of the cosmos is concealed in the Cosmic Ideation. The ideas in the "Divine Thought" are then impressed on the Cosmic Substance by means of Fohat:
Fohat . . . is the “bridge” by which the “Ideas” existing in the “Divine Thought” are impressed on Cosmic substance as the “laws of Nature.” Fohat is thus the dynamic energy of Cosmic Ideation; or, regarded from the other side, it is the intelligent medium, the guiding power of all manifestation, the “Thought Divine” transmitted and made manifest through the Dhyan Chohans, the Architects of the visible World.[9]
Cosmic Ideation is also the source of our consciousness. The ways in which it manifests depend on the type of vehicle of expression that is being used:
Cosmic Ideation focussed in a principle or upadhi (basis) results as the consciousness of the individual Ego. Its manifestation varies with the degree of upadhi, e.g., through that known as Manas it wells up as Mind-Consciousness; through the more finely differentiated fabric (sixth state of matter) of the Buddhi resting on the experience of Manas as its basis—as a stream of spiritual INTUITION.[10]
See also
Additional Resources
- Cosmic Ideation in Theosophy World
- Divine Ideation in Theosophy World
Articles
- Kosmic Mind by H. P. Blavatsky
- The Mind in Nature by H. P. Blavatsky
Notes
- ↑ Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Secret Doctrine vol. I, (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 279.
- ↑ Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Collected Writings vol. X (Adyar, Madras: Theosophical Publishing House, 1964), 252.
- ↑ Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, The Theosophical Glossary (Krotona, CA: Theosophical Publishing House, 1973), 883.
- ↑ Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine vol. I, (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 328-329.
- ↑ Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Secret Doctrine vol. I, (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 15.
- ↑ Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine vol. I, (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 328.
- ↑ Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Secret Doctrine vol. I, (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 15.
- ↑ Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine vol. I, (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 328-329.
- ↑ Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Secret Doctrine vol. I, (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 16.
- ↑ Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine vol. I, (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 329, fn.