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- 1. By the power of the Mother of Mercy and Knowledge (a), Kwan-Yin, * the “ Triple ” of Kwan-Shai-Yin, residing in Kwan-Yin-Tien (b), Fohat, the breath of their progeny, the Son of the Sons, having called forth from the lower abyss (chaos) the illusive form of Sien-Tchan (our Universe) and the seven elements : —
(a.) The Mother of Mercy and Knowledge is called “ the triple ” of Kwan-Shai-Yin because in her correlations, metaphysical and cosmical, she is the “ Mother, the Wife and the Daughter ” of the Logos, just as in the later theological translations she became “ the Father, Son and (the female) Holy Ghost ” — the Sakti or Energy — the Essence of the three. Thus in the Esotericism of the Vedantins, Daiviprakriti, the Light manifested through Eswara, the Logos, † is at one and the same time the Mother and also the Daughter of the Logos or Verbum of Parabrahmam ; while in that of the trans-Himalayan teachings it is — in the hierarchy of allegorical and metaphysical theogony — “ the Mother ” or abstract, ideal matter, Mulaprakriti, the Root of Nature ; — from the metaphysical standpoint, a correlation of Adi-Bhûta, mani- fested in the Logos, Avalokitêshwâra ; — and from the purely occult and
* This stanza is translated from the Chinese text, and the names, as the equivalents of the original terms, are preserved. The real esoteric nomenclature cannot be given, as it would only confuse the reader. The Brahmanical doctrine has no equivalent to these. Vâch seems, in many an aspect, to approach the Chinese Kwan-yin, but there is no regular worship of Vâch under this name in India, as there is of Kwan-Yin in China. No exoteric religious system has ever adopted a female Creator, and thus woman was regarded and treated, from the first dawn of popular religions, as inferior to man. It is only in China and Egypt that Kwan-Yin and Isis were placed on a par with the male gods. Esotericism ignores both sexes. Its highest Deity is sexless as it is formless, neither Father nor Mother ; and its first manifested beings, celestial and terrestrial alike, become only gradually androgynous and finally separate into distinct sexes.
† The “ Theosophist ” of February, 1887, p. 305, first lecture on the Bhagavadgita.
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Cosmical, Fohat, * the “ Son of the Son,” the androgynous energy resulting from this “ Light of the Logos,” and which manifests in the plane of the objective Universe as the hidden, as much as the revealed, Electricity — which is Life.
(b) Kwan-Yin-Tien means the “ melodious heaven of Sound,” the abode of Kwan-Yin, or the “ Divine Voice ” literally. This “ Voice ” is a synonym of the Verbum or the Word : “ Speech,” as the expression of thought. Thus may be traced the connection with, and even the origin of the Hebrew Bath-Kol, the “ daughter of the Divine Voice,” or Verbum, or the male and female Logos, the “ Heavenly Man ” or Adam Kadmon, who is at the same time Sephira. The latter was surely anticipated by the Hindu Vâch, the goddess of Speech, or of the Word. For Vâch — the daughter and the female portion, as is stated, of Brahmâ, one “ generated by the gods ” — is, in company with Kwan-Yin, with Isis (also the daughter, wife and sister of Osiris) and other goddesses, the female Logos, so to speak, the goddess of the active forces in Nature, the Word, Voice or Sound, and Speech. If Kwan-Yin is the “ melodious Voice,” so is Vâch ; “ the melodious cow who milked forth sustenance and water ” (the female principle) — “ who yields us nourish- ment and sustenance,” as Mother-Nature. She is associated in the work of creation with the Prajâpati. She is male and female ad libitum, as Eve is with Adam. And she is a form of Aditi — the principle higher than Ether — in Akâsa, the synthesis of all the forces in Nature ; thus Vâch and Kwan-Yin are both the magic potency of Occult sound in Nature and Ether — which “ Voice ” calls forth Sien-Tchan, the illusive form of the Universe out of Chaos and the Seven Elements.
Thus in Manu Brahmâ (the Logos also) is shown dividing his body into two parts, male and female, and creating in the latter, who is Vâch, Viraj, who is himself, or Brahmâ again — it is in this way a learned Vedantin Occultist speaks of that “ goddess,” explaining the reason why Eswara (or Brahmâ) is called Verbum or Logos ; why in fact it is called Sabda Brahmam : —
* Says the lecturer on p. 306 : “ Evolution is commenced by the intellectual energy of the Logos, not merely on account of the potentialities locked up in Mulaprakriti. This light of the Logos is the link . . . between objective matter and the subjective thought of Eswara (or Logos). It is called in several Buddhist books Fohat. It is the one instrument with which the Logos works.”
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“ The explanation I am going to give you will appear thoroughly mystical ; but if mystical, it has a tremendous significance when properly understood. Our old writers said that Vâch is of four kinds (see Rig Veda and the Upanishads). Vaikhari-Vâch is what we utter. Every kind of Vaikhari-Vâch exists in its Madhyama, further in its Pasyanti, and ultimately in its Para form. * The reason why this Pranava is called Vâch is this, that the four principles of the great Kosmos correspond to these four forms of Vâch. Now the whole manifested solar System exists in its Sukshma form in the light or energy of the Logos, because its energy is caught up and transferred to Cosmic matter. . . . The whole Kosmos in its objective form is Vaikhari-Vâch, the light of the Logos is the Madhyama form, and the Logos itself the Pasyanti form, and Parabrahm the Para form or aspect of that Vâch. It is by the light of this explanation that we must try to understand certain statements made by various philosophers to the effect that the manifested Kosmos is the Verbum manifested as Kosmos ” (see Lecture on the Bhagavadgita, referred to above).