The Synthesis of Science, Religion, and Philosophy
by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky
volume 1 Cosmogenesis, part 1 Cosmic Evolution, stanza 3 The Universe, a Flitting Shadow, sloka 10
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- 10. Father-Mother spin a Web, whose upper end is fastened to Spirit,* the Light of the One Darkness, and the lower one to its shadowy end, Matter;† and this Web is the Universe spun out of the Two Substances made in One, which is Svabhâvat.
In the Mândukya 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,” Brahmâ, for 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 the term Brahmâ, the “Creator,” is 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, |
* Purusha.
† Prakriti.
‡ I, I. 7.