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.

The Cosmic Ideation is the origin of all consciousness and intelligence in the manifested universe:

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.

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.

During pralaya, Cosmic Ideation is latent in the universal space, but "becomes active at the beginning of every new life-cycle":

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.

It is only when the highest celestial beings (Ah-hi) appear that Cosmic Ideation becomes manifested. Sloka I.3 of Cosmogenesis says:

Universal Mind was not, for there were no AH-HI (celestial beings) to contain (hence to manifest) it.

Mme. Blavatsky explains:

The meaning of this sloka is, I think, very clear; it means that, as there are no finite differentiated minds during Pralaya, it is just as though there were no mind at all, because there is nothing to contain or perceive it. There is nothing to receive and reflect the ideation of the Absolute Mind; therefore, it is not. Everything outside of the Absolute and immutable Sat (Be-ness), is necessarily finite and conditioned, since it has beginning and end. Therefore, since the “Ah-hi were not,” there was no Universal Mind as a manifestation. A distinction had to be made between the Absolute Mind, which is ever present, and its reflection and manifestation in the Ah-hi, who, being on the highest plane, reflect the universal mind collectively at the first flutter of Manvantara.

In describing the statges of manifestation of the Cosmic Ideation, it is said that at the danw 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. . . .

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).

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.

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.

The plan concealed in the Cosmic Ideation is impressed on the Cosmic Substance through 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.