The mystery of space

by Robert T. Browne

A stage has now been reached in the description of our symbolism when it may be assumed, upon the basis of the foregoing, that the meta-self has become manifest, i.e., in potential and dynamic appearance, as a result of the triple process of pyknosis hereinbefore outlined. The meta-self may then be identified with the Supreme Manifest Deity; for there is ever a subtle identification of the manifest with the unmanifest. Out of their action and interaction the universe is made manifest and phenomenal and is thereby sustained. The reciprocity of action between these two kosmic polars, is the metamorphotic key to creation; it is the symbol of the procedure of Creative Will in the act of creating. It is the transitional process whereby the passage is made from non-being to being; from the unconditioned to the conditioned; from undifferentiation to differentiation and is reflected and symbolized in every natural process wherein matter is transformed from one state to another, or life and mind and spirit diffused, centralized and organized into ever new and higher forms and expressions.

Another important notion to be gained in this connection is the fact that it appears as a logical sequence to the foregoing that the being of the manifested Logos must necessarily fill all space, yea more, is that space in every conceivable essentiality. His limitations are the limitations of space. His qualities, properties and attributes are the qualities, properties and attributes of space and are only different from the original spatial character when manifested through a diversity of forms by whose very inner constitution and exterior form the modifications are accomplished. All matter in the universe, all energy, and indeed, all manifestations or emanations of whatsoever character, hue, tone or quality are, in reality, His being and nothing but His being. There is, therefore, no form nor ensouling principle whether of life, mind or sheer dynamism which can exist outside of His being and be, even in the slightest degree, absolved from an eternal identity therewith. Once this idea is grasped and its varied implications noted it then is no longer conceivable that any other order or schematism can be possible in our universe, and that, too, despite the multiform conceptions peculiar to the varied systems of philosophy.

The matutinal dawn of creation came at the close of the tripyknotic movement which resulted in the elaboration of materials, the initiation of principles, processes and types, and the final preparation of the field of evolution. The three processes or aspects of non-manifestation projected in preparation for manifestation, namely, monopyknosis, duopyknosis and tripyknosis represent the earliest stages of germinal development. When these had closed, the Great Kosmic Egg began to germinate; the first faint, indescribable signs of manifested life began to appear. Involution set in. The fourth or quartopyknotic stage, though only slightly differentiated, or rather representing that period of kosmic involution when that which is to become the manifested universe first begins to fall under the sway of kosmic order, is nevertheless the basis of all great world processes. It is just midway between the poles—manifestation and non-manifestation. During this stage the life elements are receiving the imprints of character, being endowed with directive tendencies and stored with such dynamism as will persist throughout the Great Life Cycle in which they are to manifest. It is here that begins the movement of involution, the storing away of those elements and factors, no more and no less, that are to show forth on the upward path of evolution; it is here that matter begins to assume form; electrons, ions and atoms created, or, that those minute processes which on the evolutionary side are to culminate in these are originated. This is the metamorphotic stage. It is the laboratory of the universe wherein Fohat, the Creative Logos, prepares the materials out of which and in which the vast diversity of morphons or forms is created. Quartopyknosis, accordingly, is the first active step, on the plane of manifestation, which results in the appearance of perceptual space and consequently of physical matter itself as well as all the other grades of matter in the kosmos. Space, brought into existence by the act of the Creative Logos in imposing limitation upon His being, is in its primordial form composed of quartopyknons or quadruplicate principles and tendencies which act in unison and to the accomplishment of a single end or purpose. On this plane or during the continuance of this period of space-creation, the roots of universal law and order are produced. In it are planted the principles of good and evil and a sharp line of demarkation established between all the conceivable pairs of opposites which exist. It accounts for the duality of life and form. Male-female; father-mother; positive-negative; Rajah-Tamas (action-inaction)—all these find in this process their eternal origination. It is the stage of harmony, bliss, ideality, perfection, perfect equilibrium and balance. Here, innumerable ages before they actually appear, the glow-worm and the daisy, the amoeba and the dynosaur, man and the planetary gods alike abode their time awaiting the toppling of the scales of kosmic potency when all would be plunged headlong into the endless labyrinth of becoming.

The quartopyknotic process is similar in all details to the three preceding processes, these latter being prototypes of all succeeding stages of involution. The quintopyknon, accordingly, symbolizes the quintuplicative action of life in its descending movement toward the creation of matter in its densest form. That is, it is a five-fold principle acting in unison and kosmic consistency, infolding in the universal wherewithal that which is to become mental matter on the side of evolution. Just, as may be seen in the diagram, Figure 17, the quartopyknotic process symbolizes, on the involutionary side of the life current that which is to become on the evolutionary side, spiritual essence, so the quintopyknotic deposits the seeds of that which is to become mental matter. During both the quartopyknotic and the quintopyknotic processes all the potencies and promises, residing on the plane of non-manifestation and destined to show forth as spirit and mind are brought into a fuller and more marked degree of manifestation and become the seeds of spirituality and mentality which are to ripen and be ladened with the fruitage thereof many ages hence.

The reader should bear in mind that the processes here described are thought of as taking place at the beginning and as having their roots planted in eternal duration; that they refer to a period long before the universe even resembled anything like its present aspect; at a time even before there were individual minds to perceive it, before even the gods—solar, planetary, super-solar and super-planetary were in existence to take part in the matutinal ceremonials of creation's vast hour of stillness. The mind must accustom itself to go back of appearances, back of time, back of space itself and discern the foundations of time, space and appearances being laid and to perceive that which is no less than the action of the Supreme Deity Himself in brooding over the primordial formlessness which is Himself, and from which will gradually evolve the universe of qualities, conditions and appearances.

The quintopyknon is, therefore, the base of the mind-principle in the kosmos. All the qualities of mind whether in man or in the planetary gods, whether in the moneron or the tyrannosaur, in the mountain or the oak, reside in kosmic potency in the quintopyknon.

Nicholas Malebranche,[25] in one of his very lucid moments, beheld the essential character of the symbology of space and was led to the conclusion that God is space itself. To him it was equally certain that all our ideas of space, geometrical or purely physiological, as well as our notions of the great suprasensual domain of ideas, exist in the kosmic deiform, or body of the Logos of Being. He saw "all things in God." God did not create ideas; they are a part of God Himself; God did not create mind; it is a part of Himself; no kind of matter did He create; it is a veritable part of Himself and indissoluble from Himself. The great outstanding implication of this philosophy is that our consciousness of God is but a part of God's consciousness of Himself; our consciousness of self and the not-self is but God's consciousness of these things. There is no existence of anything, either of the self or the not-self, except in this consciousness. It is refreshing, therefore, to note that although the approach is made from another and entirely different direction, almost the same conclusion as to the ultimate resolution of all chaogenetic elements into what is the very systasis or consistence of the great kosmic deiform, is reached.

But a marvelous vision comes with the dawn of this truth upon the lower mind. It establishes clearly the truth of Kant's notion when he said: "Since everything we conceive is conceived as being in space, there is nothing which comes before our mind from which the idea of space can be derived; it is equally present in the most rudimentary perception and the most complete." The mind cannot get away from the conception of space, because, out of the very essence of space, as a result of the quintopyknotic process, it was produced, created and organized. The idea of space is, therefore, not derived from things in space nor from their relations in space. It sprang up with self-consciousness. As soon as the Thinker became conscious of himself he became aware of space. The very state of self-consciousness implies space. The self in man is a specialized aspect of space. Indeed, it is a projection of space. The moment the self can say: "I am," it also can complete the declaration by saying: "I am Space." When the self looks out from his six-walled cabin of imprisonment into the immensity of what we call space he looks out into that which is himself and his immensity; he perceives the source and the ever-present sustenance of his being and recognizes his identity therewith, provided he does not allow himself to become entangled in the philosophical difficulties which the intellect is prone to throw around the simple, yet marvelously complex, notion of self-consciousness.

This should settle, once for all, the question of apriority. The a priori inheres in quintopyknosis or kosmic psychogenesis. It is the essential nature of mind; it is the mind's lines of organization; it is the law of the mind's being and action. All mental perception originates from things in space. No thought of any detail, of any state or condition, whether limited or unlimited, related or isolated can be conceived except it be of things in space. And this is so, because mind and space are one. It is not so with our conception of time. Time is merely an aspect of consciousness in its limitation and does not inhere in the mind in the same manner that does space. In fact, it is not a part of the mind's nature as it has been shown that space is. It would, therefore, seem to be a grave mistake so to coördinate the two notions. Space is the progenitor of mind and is continually identified with mind. Time is the child of consciousness. That is, it is one of the illusions of consciousness which the ego will shed as his consciousness expands. Duration alone is a coördinate of space.

The mind now recognizes space as something apart and separate from itself only because of its unconsciousness of the identity existing between it and space. Just so, it is not by mind alone that the at-one state of consciousness shall be attained; for although in one form or another it is able to gain some knowledge of the apparent oneness of all life it cannot directly realize this oneness. In order to do this fully it must be able consciously to identify itself with the life, feel what it feels and experience what it experiences and otherwise come into a conscious relationship with the root and source of life. Space-consciousness is a simple, direct cognitive process; while time-consciousness is a complex, and therefore, indirect process. The former cannot be analyzed. That is, no analysis is necessary to its sufficient comprehension; the latter must always be analyzed and categorized for its sufficient apprehension. Every moment of time whether past, present or future, when presented to the consciousness, is determined by its relationship to some other moment of time. Space is indivisible; time is divisible. Space is an intuitional concept; time is an intellectual concept. Time belongs to phenomena. Space is the root and source of phenomena. Time is the leaves of a tree while space is the life of the tree.