Water (symbol)

Water is a symbol used in several ways depending on the context. In is one of the elements in ancient Greek philosophy, in Hinduism, and in the Chinese cosmology. In contemporary esoteric traditions it is commonly associated with emotions and sometimes with intuition. In Theosophical literature there are at least three levels of manifestation of what we can call "water." One is the primordial matter from which everything proceeds, another one is water as one of the cosmic elements. Finally, we have water as the chemical compound known in our planet.

Primordial Waters

Stanza III.2 of The Secret Doctrine refers to “the slumbering Waters of life.” Mme. Blavatsky explain that these "primeval waters" represent "primordial matter with the latent Spirit in it." Then she adds:

The Waters of Life, or Chaos—the female principle in symbolism—are the vacuum (to our mental sight) in which lie the latent Spirit and Matter.

Blavatsky also speaks of "the dark waters of undifferentiated Space" over which the Spirit broods. "The Waters" thus symbolize the cosmic basis or origins of matter:

Water [is] the first principle of things, according to Thales and other ancient philosophers. Of course this is not water on the material plane, but in a figurative sense for the potential fluid contained in boundless space.

In all Cosmogonies “Water” plays the same important part. It is the base and source of material existence. Scientists, mistaking the word for the thing, understood by water the definite chemical combination of oxygen and hydrogen, thus giving a specific meaning to a term used by Occultists in a generic sense, and which is used in Cosmogony with a metaphysical and mystical meaning.

The “Waters” is another name of the “Great Deep,” the primordial Waters of space or Chaos, and also means “Mother,” Amba, meaning Aditi and Akâsa, the Celestial Virgin-Mother of the visible universe.

See also

• Chaos