Father-Mother

Father-Mother is a compound term used by H. P. Blavatsky in some different ways. She defines it as the "primordial Substance or Spirit-matter". In this sense, Father-Mother is related to svabhavat. In other passages "father-mother" is used to refer to the more concrete emanation akasha. In yet another sense, "father-mother" refers to the second Logos.

General description

The Father-Mother (or Mother-Father) is generally represented as matter (or space) when coming out of the laya condition in its first stage of differentiation, but before it actually separated into opposite poles:

. . . Matter had begun to differentiate, but had not yet assumed form. Father-Mother is a compound term which means primordial Substance or Spirit-matter. When from Homogeneity it begins through differentiation to fall into Heterogeneity, it becomes positive and negative; thus from the “Zero-state” (or laya) it becomes active and passive, instead of the latter alone; and, in consequence of this differentiation (the resultant of which is evolution and the subsequent Universe),—the “Son” is produced, the Son being that same Universe, or manifested Kosmos, till a new Mahapralaya.

The Worlds, including our own, were of course, as germs, primarily evolved from the ONE Element in its second stage (“Father-Mother,” the differentiated World’s Soul, not what is termed the “Over-Soul” by Emerson).

The Father-Mother contained the germ for the differentiation of all the planes in the universe, and, therefore, the seven fundamental manifestations of force, consciousness, etc. For this reason, the Stanzas of Dzyan portray it as "seven-Skinned":

Q. What, then, are the seven layers of Space, for in the “Proem” we read about the “Seven-skinned Mother-Father”?
A. Plato and Hermes Trismegistus would have regarded this as the Divine Thought, and Aristotle would have viewed this “Mother-Father” as the “privation” of matter. It is that which will become the seven planes of being, commencing with the spiritual and passing through the psychic to the material plane. The seven planes of thought or the seven states of consciousness correspond to these planes. All these septenaries are symbolized by the seven Skins.

Father-Mother of the gods

In The Secret Doctrine, that from which the manifested Logos is born is translated by the “Eternal Mother-Father”; while in the Vishnu-Purâna it is described as the Egg of the World, surrounded by seven skins, layers or zones.

Latent, during Pralaya, and active, during Manvantara, the “Primordial” proceed from “Father-Mother” (Spirit-Hyle, or Ilus); whereas the other manifested Quaternary and the Seven proceed from the Mother alone.

“The ‘Primordial’ proceed from ‘Father-Mother’.”

Q. Is Father-Mother here synonymous with the Third Logos?

A. The first primordial seven are born from the Third Logos. This is before it is differentiated into the Mother, when it becomes pure primordial matter in its first primitive essence, Father-Mother potentially.

The Manvantaras should not be confounded. The fifteen-figure Manvantaric cycle applies to the solar system; but there is a Manvantara which relates to the whole of the objective universe, the Mother-Father, and many minor Manvantaras. The slokas relating to the former have been generally selected, and only two or three relating to the latter given.

Svābhāvat

The Svabhavat of the Buddhists, the Father-Mother (a compound word) of The Secret Doctrine and the Mûlaprakriti of the Vedântins.

DARKNESS ALONE WAS FATHER-MOTHER, SVÂBHÂVAT, AND SVÂBHÂVAT WAS IN DARKNESS.

FATHER-MOTHER SPIN A WEB WHOSE UPPER END IS FASTENED TO SPIRIT (Purusha), THE LIGHT OF THE ONE DARKNESS, AND THE LOWER ONE TO MATTER (Prakriti) ITS (the Spirit’s) SHADOWY END; AND THIS WEB IS THE UNIVERSE SPUN OUT OF THE TWO SUBSTANCES MADE IN ONE, WHICH IS SWÂBHÂVAT.

In Esotericism it [Svabhavat] is called “Father-Mother”. It is the plastic essence of matter.

Neïth is the “Father-mother” of the Stanzas of the Secret Doctrine, the Swabhâvat of the Northern Buddhists, the immaculate Mother indeed, the prototype of the latest “Virgin” of all.

As for Svabhavat, the Orientalists explain the term as meaning the Universal plastic matter diffused through Space, with, perhaps, half an eye to the Ether of Science. But the Occultists identify it with “father-mother” on the mystic plane.

Second Logos

“The last vibration of the Seventh Eternity” is the first which announces the Dawn, and is a synonym for the First or unmanifested Logos. There is no Time at this stage. There is neither Space nor Time when beginning is made; but it is all in Space and Time, once that differentiation sets in. At the time of the primordial radiation, or when the Second Logos emanates, it is Father-Mother potentially, but when the Third or manifested Logos appears, it becomes the Virgin-Mother.

There seems to be great confusion and misunderstanding concerning the First and Second Logos. The first is the already present yet still unmanifested potentiality in the bosom of Father-Mother; the Second is the abstract collectivity of creators called “Demiurgi” by the Greeks or the Builders of the Universe. The third logos is the ultimate differentiation of the Second and the individualization of Cosmic Forces, of which Fohat is the chief; for Fohat is the synthesis of the Seven Creative Rays or Dhyan Chohans which proceed from the third Logos.

The point within the circle which has neither limit nor boundaries, nor can it have any name or attribute. This first unmanifested Logos is simultaneous with the line drawn across the diameter of the Circle. The first line or diameter is the Mother-Father; from it proceeds the Second Logos, which contains in itself the Third Manifested Word.

The first geometrical figure after the Circle or the Spheroid is the Triangle. It corresponds to Motion, Color and Sound. Thus the Point in the Triangle represents the Second Logos, “Father-Mother,” or the White Ray which is no color, since it contains potentially all colors. It is shown radiating from the Unmanifested Logos, or the Unspoken Word.

Akasa

After Pralaya, whether the great or the minor Pralaya (the latter leaving the worlds in statu quo), the first that re-awakes to active life is the plastic A’kâsá, Father-Mother, the Spirit and Soul of Ether, or the plane on the surface of the Circle. Space is called the “Mother” before its Cosmic activity, and Father-Mother at the first stage of re-awakening.

Fohat is the “Son of Ether” in its highest aspect, Akâsa, the Mother-Father of the primitive Seven, and of Sound or LOGOS. Fohat is the light of the latter.

All the Kabalists and Occultists, Eastern and Western, recognise the identity of “Father-Mother” with primordial AEther or Akasa, (Astral Light)