Fohat
Fohat is a term of unknown origin, although H. P. Blavatsky claims it comes from the Tibetan language.
Fohat, during the process of manifestation is the cosmic energy which produces the differentiation of primordial cosmic matter to form the different planes. In the manifested Universe, Fohat is the link betwenn spirit and matter, subject and object.[1]
In her Theosophical Glossary Mme. Blavatsky defined it as follows:
Fohat (Tib.) A term used to represent the active (male) potency of the Sakti (female reproductive power) in nature. The essence of cosmic electricity. An occult Tibetan term for Daiviprakriti primordial light: and in the universe of manifestation the ever-present electrical energy and ceaseless destructive and formative power. Esoterically, it is the same, Fohat being the universal propelling Vital Force, at once the propeller and the resultant.[2]
At the beginning of a manvantara Fohat is the active power through which the plan for the new universe present in the Logos is impressed in the cosmic matter:
It 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.[3]
Thrilling through the bosom of inert Substance, Fohat impels it to activity, and guides its primary differentiations on all the Seven planes of Cosmic Consciousness. (SD I, p. 328)
Thus from Spirit, or Cosmic Ideation, comes our consciousness; from Cosmic Substance the several vehicles in which that consciousness is individualised and attains to self—or reflective—consciousness; while Fohat, in its various manifestations, is the mysterious link between Mind and Matter, the animating principle electrifying every atom into life. (SD I, p. 16)
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). Thrilling through the bosom of inert Substance, Fohat impels it to activity, and guides its primary differentiations on all the Seven planes of Cosmic Consciousness. (SD I, p. 328)
Fohat, being one of the most, if not the most important character in esoteric Cosmogony, should be minutely described. In the phenomenal and Cosmic World, he is that Occult, electric, vital power, which, under the Will of the Creative Logos, brings together the elemental atoms and makes them aggregate and combine. Fohat, running along the seven principles of AKASA, acts upon manifested substance or the One Element and by differentiating it into various centres of Energy, sets in motion the law of Cosmic Evolution, which, in obedience to the Ideation of the Universal Mind, brings into existence all the various states of being in the manifested Solar System. Fohat, then, is the personified electric vital power, the transcendental binding Unity of all Cosmic Energies, on the unseen as on the manifested planes. In his secondary aspect, Fohat is the Solar Energy, the electric vital fluid, and the Electricity[4]. (SD I, pp. 109-112)
Fohat, in his capacity of DIVINE LOVE (Eros), the electric Power of affinity and sympathy, is shown allegorically as trying to bring the pure Spirit, the Ray inseparable from the ONE absolute, into union with the Soul, the two constituting in Man the MONAD, and in Nature the first link between the ever unconditioned and the manifested. (SD I, p. 119)
Few world-symbols are more pregnant with real occult meaning than the Swastica. It is the emblem of the activity of Fohat, of the continual revolution of the “wheels”, and of the Four Elements, the “Sacred Four”. One initiated into the mysteries of the meaning of the Swastica, say the Commentaries, “can trace on it, with mathematical precision, the evolution of Kosmos and the whole period of Sandhya.” Also “the relation of the Seen to the Unseen”, and “the first procreation of man and species”. (SD II, p. 587)
Thrilling through the bosom of inert Substance, Fohat impels it to activity, and guides its primary differentiations on all the Seven planes of Cosmic Consciousness. There are thus Seven Protyles (as they are now called), while Aryan antiquity called them the Seven Prakriti, or Natures, serving, severally, as the relatively homogeneous basis[15], which in the course of the increasing heterogeneity (in the evolution of the Universe) differentiate into the marvellous complexity presented by phenomena on the planes of perception. (SD I, p. 328)
Notes