The mystery of space

by Robert T. Browne

To follow the ramifications of the symbolism above would involve a survey of all branches of knowledge, and indeed, would be out of place in this book. Only the widest general outlines can be suggested here and it is believed that this is sufficient to enable the reader to grasp the magnitude of the symbol and to understand its purpose and intent.

It would appear, therefore, that if it is possible for the intellect to traverse by means of a study of kosmic symbolism, used as a standard of reference, the entire length of the bridge which engages the antipodes into an eternal unity, something may be gained in the way of a more definite and clearer understanding of the essential nature of space in its relation to kosmogenesis.

In the diagram, figure 17, is shown a table which represents the stages of space-genesis. It will be noted that the whole scheme is divided into seven stages. It is not an arbitrary division simply but a symbolic one and represents fullness, completeness, entirety. The names given, namely, "monopyknotic, duopyknotic," etc., represent the symbolic characteristics of each stage in its relation to the universe in the process of becoming. The terms "monadic," "duadic," "triadic," etc., are representative of the seven planes of matter in the universe.

A pyknon is a kosmic principle and represents the typal aspect of kosmogenesis. It is a generic term and may be identified in its relation to the various stages by the prefix. The monopyknon belongs to the ulterior pole of the antipodes on the side of non-manifestation. So do the duopyknon and the tripyknon. Pyknosis is a process of kosmic condensation, or limitation for purposes of manifestation. It is a stage in the descent of the kosmic Spirit-Life, a degradation of non-manifestation into manifestation, and is, therefore, the cardinal causative principle of creation. The term pyknon being generic is applicable alike to a particle of matter, a state of being, a condition of existence, a process or a principle. The monopyknon is, accordingly, the primary aspect of the process of kosmic pyknosis. It is the archetype and therefore all inclusive and omnipotential. But whether regarded as a singularity or as a whole it should never be divorced in thought from the primal act of creation. It represents the first act of material differentiation in the being of the creative Logos on the plane of non-manifestation. It is the beginning of every great planetary or kosmic manvantara or period of manifestation. During either a planetary, solar or kosmic pralaya, or gestatory period, the kosmic plasm is in a quiescent, undifferentiated condition. This undifferentiated plasm when acted upon by the will of the Creative Logos, Fohat, as He is sometimes called in Eastern Philosophies, begins to become conditioned, begins to differentiate. The primal act or stage in such a process is the formation or appearance of a monopyknon. It then becomes the characteristic aspect of that stage.

Monopyknons are the quiescent, unawakened, though potential and archetypal principles peculiar to the monopyknotic period of space-genesis which are ultimately to become, on the physical plane, singularities of life of whatsoever kind. Thus the lineage of every single life-form or principle in the universe runs unbroken back from the present of the Now to the present of monopyknosis. So great is the design of the kosmos that the entity which is now man or the atom was started on its journey to this culmination at the break of the Great Kosmic Day when the omni-pregnant wheels of monopyknosis first began to turn. Duopyknons and tripyknons constitute the two remaining stages on the plane of non-manifestation. And their correspondences in every stage of involution or the descent of spirit into matter are eternal and kosmic. Likewise the lineage of the dual and triple aspects of all life forms on the path of evolution may be traced rearward to the duopyknotic and tripyknotic stages of kosmogenesis.

The metamorphosis by which the monopyknon becomes a duopyknon contrives the differentiation of the pristine plasm of kosmic being so that the first becomes the ensouling or vitalizing principle of the second; and, in turn, the second becomes the vitalizing or inner principle of the third; the third of the fourth and the fourth of the fifth and so on throughout the series until the last is reached which is the septopyknon. The septopyknon is, therefore, a seven-principled form. It is both unitary and septenary—unitary in the sense that the seven are really one and septenary for the reason that each of the seven principles, in the course of evolution, becomes a separate process specially adapted to functioning upon its peculiar plane of matter. Thus it is seen that the utmost significance attaches to this septenary pyknosis of the kosmic plasm of life. The implications of this conception are, of course, too vast and multifarious to be set down here. We shall have to dismiss it with one observation only, and that is: every single appearance of life and form in the totality of such appearances is rooted in kosmic pyknosis where it has received its inner vitalizing force, its form and the law of its mode and manner of appearance together with the metes and bounds of its existence.

These processes, monopyknosis and duopyknosis, are to be regarded as taking place, each in its own period, everywhere throughout the Body of Being of the Logos but on the plane of non-manifestation. They are states of preparation for manifestation analogous to the germinative period of the seed or the egg. They represent the first stirrings of the kosmic plasm and contain the promise and potency of all that is to succeed them. There is one other stage, coördinate with these two, and that is the tripyknotic which completes the unmanifest trinity and constitutes the archetypal vehicle whence proceeds the manifested universe. The ensouling principle of the tripyknon is the duopyknotic principle. But when the descent has reached the tripyknotic stage the three have been merged into one and the characteristics which were peculiar to each as a separate pyknon are then fused into a single quality having three aspects which are mutually interdependent and coördinate.

The unmanifest trinity, now complete as a result of the triple pyknotic process, is the imperishable and ever sustaining radix, the all-mother of the manifested universe. It is the Golden Egg laid by the god Seb at the beginning of a great life-cycle. It is also Chaos-Theos-Kosmos, i.e., kosmic disorder, divine will or generating element, and kosmic order or space. In it, as in an egg, resides in kosmic potency all that the universe is to become in any "Great Day of Brahma" or any Great Kosmic Life Cycle. Its eldest born is SPACE, physiological and perceptual, and the latter is the eternal father-mother of the universe. Space is, therefore, the male-female principle of manifestation; in its kosmic womb all forms are created, developed, evolved and sustained. Into it again, at the close of the Great Day, all existences, forms and all principles matured and ripened by the vicissitudes of kosmic evolution will be inhaled with the return of the Great Breath of Life. The unmanifest trinity is the archetype, and therefore, the pattern or model for the manifest, embodying in potency all that the manifest may ever become. Forth from the unmanifest proceeds space as a dynamic process endued with the potentiality for generating all that the manifested universe contains.

The terms "unmanifest," "unconditioned" and "unlimited" have a special meaning here and are used in the same sense as the mathematical term "transfinite," and therefore, imply a transcending of any finite or assignable degree or quality of manifestation. Hence they should be distinguished from the term "absolute" which has a different implication. So that although the triple process outlined above may not be viewed except as a characterization of the plane of non-manifestation, and hence of the primordial activity of the Creative Logos, there is nothing in the symbolism to warrant the identification of this process in any way with the Logos in absolution. For on this view Absolute Being is, in a large measure, sacrificed when the monopyknotic process is begun and the monopyknon (kosmic principle) begins to appear. Absolute Being, while it may not be defined, delineated or described may be symbolized by the ideograph: "action in inaction"; "being in non-being"; "manifestation in non-manifestation"; for these are symbols merely and do not describe or delineate.

We have observed the subtle connection which exists between manifestation and non-manifestation and have seen how that, as the roots of a plant sustain the outer growth of stem and flowers, the former being the matrix out of which proceeds the latter, and that in like manner does the unmanifest sustain the manifest; it should, therefore, be clear that the Body of Being of the Unmanifest Logos, in a similar manner, is the basis and cause of all that is manifest or in existence; and yet it is more, it is essentially all that is and all that the all is to be in manifestation at any time throughout the immeasurable process of kosmogenesis. It is the Self of the Universe, the meta-self of the great diversity of selves. The Self, however, although it cannot be said to exist except as a simple, homogeneous quantity is nevertheless, in the very nature of things, a triunity, and in essence, not only the basal element of the All-Space and the concrete forms which exist therein, but is also identical in essence and substance with space.