Space

Space is often conceived to consist of three linear dimensions in which objects and events occur.

In classical mechanics space is one of the few fundamental quantities in physics, which means it cannot be defined via other quantities because nothing more fundamental is known at the present.

Before Einstein's work on relativistic physics, time and space were viewed as independent dimensions. His discoveries showed that our space and time can be mathematically combined into one object, forming a boundless four-dimensional continuum known as "spacetime". In Einstein's general theory of relativity, it is postulated that space-time is geometrically distorted -curved- near to gravitationally significant masses.

In cosmology, it appears that space was created in the Big Bang, 13.7 billion years ago and has been expanding ever since very rapidly due to the Cosmic Inflation.

In Theosophical literature "space", when treated as an abstract metaphysical principle, is used as symbol for the Absolute Reality and actually seen as one aspect of it:

The One All is like Space—which is its only mental and physical representation on this Earth, or our plane of existence—neither an object of, nor a subject to, perception. Space is neither a “limitless void”, nor a “conditioned fulness”, but both: being, on the plane of absolute abstraction, the ever-incognisable Deity, which is void only to finite minds, and on that of mayavic perception, the Plenum, the absolute Container of all that is, whether manifested or unmanifested: it is, therefore, that ABSOLUTE ALL.

Absolute abstract space

In the first Fundamental Proposition found in the Proem of The Secret Doctrine, H. P. Blavatsky says that the ultimate Reality is symbolised under two aspects, one of whis is "absolute abstract Space, representing bare subjectivity, the one thing which no human mind can either exclude from any conception, or conceive of by itself":

Now, for us, space is a word which has no meaning unless we limit and condition it; but in reality, space is the most abstract thing, and space containing all is just that unknown deity which is invisible and which we cannot understand, which we can but intellectually sense.

Space, in its absolute, sense is different from the relative physical space we know of:

. . . Space, which is an abstraction too, and is equally without beginning or end. It is in its concretency and limitation only that it becomes a representation and something. Of course the distance between two points is called space; it may be enormous or it may be infinitesimal, yet it will always be space. But all such specifications are divisions in human conception. In reality Space is what the ancients called the One invisible and unknown (now unknowable) Deity.

Thus, space is seen as the one eternal and immutable principle:

“What is that which was, is, and will be, whether there is a Universe or not; whether there be gods or none?” asks the esoteric Senzar Catechism. And the answer made is—SPACE.

Pre-cosmic space

In the first cosmological Stanza Mme. Blavatsky talks about the "Eternal Parent". This refers to the space in its unmanifested condition, before the manifestation of the cosmos:

Q. What aspect of Space, or the unknown deity, called in the Vedas “THAT,” which is mentioned further on, is here called the “Eternal Parent”?

A. It is the Vedantic Mulaprakriti, and the Svabhavat of the Buddhists, or that androgynous something of which we have been speaking, which is both differentiated and undifferentiated. In its first principle it is a pure abstraction, which becomes differentiated only when it is transformed, in the process of time, into Prakriti. If compared with the human principles it corresponds to Buddhi, while Atma would correspond to Parabrahm, Manas to Mahat, and so on.

The sloka describes that before the re-awakening of the universe the "eternal parent" is "wrapped in her ever invisible robes." These refer to the "the substance . . . on the seventh plane of matter counting upwards, or rather from without within." At this stage, space has the germ for all the septenaries that will be manifested. This is frequently called the seven-skinned "Mother-Father":

Space is called in the esoteric symbolism “the Seven-Skinned Eternal Mother-Father.” It is composed from its undifferentiated to its differentiated surface of seven layers.

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.

Cosmic space

Space is called the “Mother” before its Cosmic activity, and Father-Mother at the first stage of re-awakening.

Scientific view of space

The current scientific view of space is changing, and seems to be getting closer to the occult view:

Albert Einstein was the first person to realize that empty space is not nothing. Space has amazing properties, many of which are just beginning to be understood. The first property that Einstein discovered is that it is possible for more space to come into existence. Then one version of Einstein's gravity theory, the version that contains a cosmological constant, makes a second prediction: "empty space" can possess its own energy. Because this energy is a property of space itself, it would not be diluted as space expands. As more space comes into existence, more of this energy-of-space would appear.

Robert Betts Laughlin, Nobel Laureate in Physics, endowed chair in physics, Stanford University, had this to say about space in contemporary theoretical physics:

Space is more like a piece of window glass than ideal Newtonian emptiness. It is filled with 'stuff' that is normally transparent but can be made visible by hitting it sufficiently hard to knock out a part. The modern concept of the vacuum of space, confirmed every day by experiment, is a relativistic ether. But we do not call it this because it is taboo.”

Further reading

• Space at Theosopedia