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The '''Egg''' is a universal symbol representing the primordial source from which the Deity comes into existence. It is an image frequently found in the cosmogonies of many cultures and civilizations, including Hindu, Chinese, Egyptian, Greek, Syrian, Persian, and Finnish.<ref>Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, ''The Secret Doctrine'' vol. I, (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 359.</ref>
#redirect [[Egg (symbol)]]
 
In [[Theosophy|Theosophical]] literature it represents the primordial substance and the germ of consciousness in it, in their various stages, from undifferentiatied to manifested. To distinguish among the different stages the egg is qualified as "eternal", 'virgin", and "mundane".
 
== General description ==
 
In reference to this universal symbol, [[H. P. Blavatsky]] wrote:
 
<blockquote>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 second reason for its having been chosen as the symbolical representation of the Universe, and of our earth, was its form. It was a Circle and a Sphere; and the ovi-form shape of our globe must have been known from the beginning of symbology, since it was so universally adopted.<ref>Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, ''The Secret Doctrine'' vol. I, (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 359.</ref></blockquote> 
 
There are several "eggs" responding to the different stages the primordial substance and the germ of consciousness go through during the awakening of the cosmos. There are also different "eggs" according to the plane they belong to. Mme. Blavatsky wrote:
 
<blockquote>You must remember that there are both the Universal and Solar Eggs (as well as others), and that it is necessary to qualify any statement made concerning them.<ref>Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, ''Collected Writings'' vol. X (Adyar, Madras: Theosophical Publishing House, 1964), 352.</ref></blockquote>
 
<blockquote>Thus the Egg, on whatever plane you speak of, means the ever-existing undifferentiated matter which strictly is not matter at all, but, as we call it, the Atoms. Matter is destructible in form while the Atoms are absolutely indestructible, being the quintessence of Substances. And here, I mean by “atoms” the primordial divine Units, not the “atoms” of modern Science.<ref>Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, ''Collected Writings'' vol. X (Adyar, Madras: Theosophical Publishing House, 1964), 353.</ref></blockquote>
 
== Eternal egg ==
 
The “eternal egg” is the pre-cosmic or undifferentiated matter, before the ray from the [[Logos#First Logos|Logos]] fecundated it:
 
<blockquote>The eternal egg is a pre-differentiation in a laya or zero condition; thus, before differentiation it can have neither attributes nor qualities.<ref>Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, ''Collected Writings'' vol. X (Adyar, Madras: Theosophical Publishing House, 1988), 367.</ref></blockquote>
 
<blockquote>The egg means the ever-eternal, existing, undifferentiated matter, which is not strictly matter as we ordinarily use the term, but which, as we say, is the [ultimate] atoms.<ref>Michael Gomes (transcriber), ''The Secret Doctrine Commentaries'' (The Hague: I.S.I.S. foundation, 2010), 136-137.</ref></blockquote>
 
In [[Stanzas of Dzyan#Cosmogenesis|Stanza II.3]] the word "mātripadma" (from ''mātṛ'', "mother" and ''padma'', "lotus") is used. According to Blavatsky this refers to the eternal egg:
 
<blockquote>Q. Is the Matri-Padma the eternal or the periodical Egg?<br>
A. The eternal Egg; it will become periodical only when the ray from the first Logos shall have flashed from the latent Germ in the Matri-Padma which is the Egg, the Womb of the Universe which is to be.<ref>Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, ''Collected Writings'' vol. X (Adyar, Madras: Theosophical Publishing House, 1988), 353.</ref></blockquote>
 
== Virgin egg ==
 
Once the the ray from the [[Logos#First Logos|Logos]] is radiated and "penetrates" in the eternal egg, the latter begins to differentiate and becomes the "virgin egg".<ref>Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, ''Collected Writings'' vol. X (Adyar, Madras: Theosophical Publishing House, 1964), 367.</ref> This Egg corresponds, at the level of the solar system, with what at a universal level is called [[chaos]]:
 
<blockquote>The “Virgin Egg” is the microcosmic symbol of the macrocosmic prototype—the “Virgin Mother”—Chaos or the Primeval Deep.<ref>Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, ''The Secret Doctrine'' vol. I, (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 65.</ref></blockquote>
 
After the Virgin Egg is fecundated, it is "dropped" to the plane of manifestation, where it becomes the "Mundane Egg":
 
<blockquote>The Virgin-egg being in one sense abstract Egg-ness, or the power of becoming developed through fecundation, is eternal and for ever the same. And just as the fecundation of an egg takes place before it is dropped; so the non-eternal periodical germ which becomes later in symbolism the mundane egg, contains in itself, when it emerges from the said symbol, “the promise and potency” of all the Universe.<ref>Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, ''The Secret Doctrine'' vol. I, (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 64-65.</ref></blockquote>
 
== Mundane egg ==
 
Also known as the "World Egg", this is where manifestation begins:
 
<blockquote>The Mundane Egg is on the plane of differentiation, the first stage if you like; but from the plane of non-differentiation it is the third, as I just told you. The Egg represents the just differentiated cosmic matter in which the vital creative Germ receives its first spiritual impulse, and potentiality becomes potency.<ref>Michael Gomes (transcriber), ''The Secret Doctrine Commentaries'' (The Hague: I.S.I.S. foundation, 2010), 138.</ref></blockquote>
 
The "germ" fecundated by the ray is sometimes referred to as "the point in the mundane egg."<ref>Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, ''Collected Writings'' vol. X (Adyar, Madras: Theosophical Publishing House, 1964), 351.</ref> This point is the [[Logos#Second Logos|Second Logos]] which, after being incubated, emerges as the [[Logos#Third Logos|Third Logos]] or the manifested creator:
 
<blockquote>Appearing with every Manvantara as Narâyan, or Swayambhuva (the Self-Existent), and penetrating into the Mundane Egg, it emerges from it at the end of the divine incubation as Brahmâ or Prajâpati, a progenitor of the future Universe into which he expands.<ref>Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, ''The Secret Doctrine'' vol. I, (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 80-81.</ref></blockquote>
 
In [[Hinduism|Hindu]] philosophy the mundane egg is called ''Hiraṇyagarbha'', meaning "golden womb" or "golden egg".
 
== The germ ==
 
Related to the idea of the Egg is that of the "Germ":
 
<blockquote>The “Germ” is a figurative expression; the germ is everywhere, even as the circle whose circumference is nowhere and whose centre is everywhere. It therefore means all germs, that is to say, unmanifested nature.<ref>Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, ''Collected Writings'' vol. X (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1988), 353.</ref></blockquote>
 
<blockquote>The Germ is eternal, the undifferentiated atoms of future matter—is one with space, as infinite as it is indestructible, and as eternal as space itself.<ref>Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, ''Collected Writings'' vol. X (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1988), 367.</ref></blockquote>
 
<blockquote>Having flashed out from this central point and thrilled through the Germ, the Ray is withdrawn again within this point and the Germ develops into the Second Logos, the triangle within the Mundane Egg.<ref>Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, ''Collected Writings'' vol. X (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1988), 351.</ref></blockquote>
 
<blockquote>The “Germ”—the point in the Mundane Egg, represented by matter in its abstract sense.  But the term “Point” must not be understood as applying to any particular point in Space, for a germ exists in the centre of every atom, and these collectively form “the Germ;”  or rather, as no atom can be made visible to our physical eye, the collectivity of these (if the term can be applied to something which is boundless and infinite) forms the noumenon of eternal and indestructible matter.<ref>Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, ''The Secret Doctrine'' vol. I, (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 57.</ref></blockquote>
 
== Notes ==
 
<references/>
 
==Further reading==
 
*[http://www.theosophy.ph/encyclo/index.php?title=Egg# Egg] at Theosopedia
 
 
[[Category:Theosophical concepts]]
[[Category:Concepts in The Secret Doctrine]]

Latest revision as of 17:29, 11 August 2016

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