The Secret Doctrine
The Synthesis of Science, Religion, and Philosophy
by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky
volume 1 Cosmogenesis, part 1 Cosmic Evolution, stanza 3 The Awakening of Kosmos, sloka 10
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- 10. 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 (a).
(a) In the Mandukya (Mundaka) Upanishad it is written, “ As a spider throws out and retracts its web, as herbs spring up in the ground . . . so is the Universe derived from the undecaying one ” (I. 1. 7). Brahmâ, as “ the germ of unknown Darkness,” is the material from which all evolves and develops “ as the web from the spider, as foam from the water,” etc. This is only graphic and true, if Brahmâ the “ Creator ” is, as a term, derived from the root brih, to increase or expand. Brahmâ “ expands ” and becomes the Universe woven out of his own substance.
The same idea has been beautifully expressed by Goethe, who says :
“ Thus at the roaring loom of Time I ply, |