The mystery of space

by Robert T. Browne

Some may be inclined to argue that since space and mind are one and the same thing it must necessarily follow that whatever possibilities of measurement may be found to exist in the mind would logically be found to exist in space; and that since all the necessary conditions of hyperspatial operations are proved to be existent in the mind the case of the hyperspatiality of perceptual space is proved thereby. In other words, if the fourth dimension can be proved to be mentally construable it is also possible in perceptual space. But these hypotheses are not granted, and neither will they be acceptable to those minds who choose to take that view when it is known that there is a marked difference between the mind that is purely intellectual and mind that is purely intuitional or mind a priori. The intellect is fashioned for matter only; it is so constructed as to fit squarely into every nook and cranny, every groove and interstice in matter; yet for the generating element, life, it has no aptitude nor suitable congruence.

The attainment of the space-mind or kosmic consciousness would then imply a mastery of all fundamental possibilities pertaining to all degrees of matter. Thus by becoming conscious in the matter of all the planes one makes a certain definite approach to this ultimate state of consciousness until all the barriers between ordinary self-consciousness and the consciousness of the space-mind have been entirely obliterated.

Pyknosis, in all of its septenary aspects, is concerned primarily with involution or the preparation of the chaogenetic elements for the work of kosmic evolution. It may be thought of as being divided into two great divisions, namely: chaogeny and chaomorphogeny. It is concerned with the organization of chaos, the establishment of kosmic geometrism in the formless, void, arupic substance and preparation for evolution. Chaogeny, of course, is that kosmic process by virtue of which space itself becomes manifest and in which there is no established order. Chaomorphogeny (from Chaos + Morphe + Geny) signifies the activities of the creative Logos in laying the foundations in primordial space-matter of the various star-forms, including nebulæ, worlds, planets, suns, etc., of which Canopus, Jupiter, Fomalhaut and Sirius and our own sun are examples, giving direction and general tendence to their varied life-processes. Both these processes are concerned with the preparation of the field and its consequent fertilization in anticipation of its cultivation and harvest. These two constitute kosmic involution or the great life wave's passage on the downward arc of the Great World Egg or Circle. It is during the chaomorphogenic cycle that the constitution of the universe of manifestation is promulgated; when laws for its government during that manvantara are sketched out in the world of nascent spatiality; when the archetype of every imaginable or possible form is projected upon the impregnated screen of creation, then folded in, pushed toward the center, involved, awaiting that time when the life wave begins its passage upon the upward arc and evolution ensues, calling forth all that has been enfolded in the bosom of the pyknotic centers of manifestation. It is easily conceivable that here during the troublous times of the chaomorphogenic enfoldment the now known six directions of space were among the eternal edicts of space-genesis and that that law which now makes it appear that three coördinates, and only three, are sufficient for the determination of a point position in space was imprinted in the very nature of that which was to become space.

The kosmic field having been prepared as a result of the chaomorphogenic activities, lowly and scarcely organized forms begin to appear and the ascent upon the upward arc of the Great Cycle commences. Evolution begins. Its scope is likewise divided into two great stages, namely: (a) Morphogeny, the purpose of which is the development of life-forms or pyknons which are to appear on the various planets, stars, worlds and suns of the universe. It embraces the whole span of the life-aspect on the evolutionary side of manifestation. In this aspect is included also every conceivable adaptation of the universal principle of life from the beginning of its movement to the end. The universe is now functioning in and progressing through the vicissitudes of this stage. That is, all the present observable adaptations which the life-pyknon or principle is making, has made or will make, are embraced within the scope of what is here designated as the morphogenetic aspect of evolution. (b) The second and last division of the arc of evolution is called Kathekos, thus symbolizing the syncretism of the trinitarian aspects of kosmogenesis, Chaos-Theos-Kosmos, perfected and united as a result of the labors of manifestation. In this final summation of the labors of the life-wave as it has progressed from involution through all the devious manifestations of evolution are embodied the perfection and ultimate elaboration and expression of all the pyknotic tendencies which were established during the entire scope of space-genesis.

Thus it will be seen that the first three stages of space-genesis, called chaogeny, encompass the first three pyknotic processes or are analogous thereto while the latter called chaomorphogeny, the organization and ensoulment of space-forms, embraces the latter four, quartopyknosis, quintopyknosis, sextopyknosis and septopyknosis. This division obtains on the involutionary side of the great life-cycle. The upward arc of the Great Kosmic Egg or Cycle is also divided into two great stages, namely, Morphogeny (manifestation of life through the various forms which it assumes) and Kathekos, or the kathekotic plane of perfected triunity which is represented by the evolutionary union of Chaos-Theos-Kosmos. Kathekos would, therefore, symbolize the ultimate elaboration of Chaos into a well-ordered kosmos wherein are expressed all the possibilities which inhered in the archetypal plan of the Creative Logos or Theos and in which all had reached the ultimate perfection in the body of being of the Logos Himself. But the kathekotic plane is to be distinguished from the original Chaos-Theos-Kosmos represented as functionating upon the plane of non-manifestation during chaogeny. Kathekos symbolizes the perfected manifestations of the triune aspects of the Creative Logos through the perfected forms resulting from the labors of kosmic evolution, while Chaos-Theos-Kosmos symbolized, as a triune glyph, the Unmanifest Trinity in the primordial beginnings of space-genesis. One is the seed; the other the fully matured plant; one the egg; while the other is the full grown bird; one the root; the other the fruitage; one Alpha, the other Omega; one the beginning, the other the end. The end, however, is reached only that, in due time, the entire scheme may be commenced again, once more utilizing the results of the preceding scheme of evolution as the basis of the ensuing one. Thus after every Kosmic Day, commences the Kosmic Night. The succession of kosmic days and nights is infinite. This infinity of becomings in the life of the kosmos is a necessary outcome of eternal duration.

The above, thus briefly set down, is the symbolism of space-genesis. It is commended to the reader as a basis for the conception that the real, essential, perceptual space is something far more wonderful, more fundamental than either the geometrician or the metageometrician has ever dreamed of, and yet the latter's consciousness is undoubtedly being appulsed by the fingers of a new species of conceptualizations which, one day in the not too distant future, will arouse in it the faint hungerings after the realization of the real space-nature. These mathetic appetites thus brought into being will finally lead the human mind into the Elysian fields of kosmic consciousness where for another million years, perhaps, it may feed upon the mysteries and hypermysteries to be found in the granaries of the Space-Mind.

The study of space in its wider and deeper meanings is necessary in order that a clearer understanding of its true significance, as the subject of geometric researches, may be gained. It is confessed, however, that there is neither direct evidence nor implicative authority for any assumption that the view herein outlined affords any justification for the notion of the n-dimensionality of space. For, although the line of reasoning indulged in must lead inevitably to the conclusion that the worlds of spatiality, materiality, intellectuality and spirituality, essentially and fundamentally one so far as origins and qualities are concerned, were alike engendered by the same generating element, life; and that spatiality being the primal basis of the others is, nevertheless, under the exigencies of this aspect of the kosmos, highly susceptible to the mensurative requirements of the grossest, there appears to be no necessity for calling upon extraneous considerations for assistance in our efforts to comprehend the various connotations of the symbolism. Then, too, it is easily conceivable that under conditions where these elements, spatiality, intellectuality and materiality, are not only co-extensive but interpenetrative, there is no justification for the assumption that they must exist in layers or manifoldnesses or in discrete degrees, separated from one another as if they were constituted of different substances and occupied different spheres. For every single point in perceptual space is a focus for lines drawn through every conceivable grade of materiality, spatiality or intellectuality in the kosmos. And the same system of coördinates which is necessary and sufficient for the localization of a point in our space is also sufficient for the location of a point anywhere in the entire world of spatiality, intellectuality or spirituality. In fact, the external, visible worlds of materiality and spatiality are nothing more than the mass-termini of lines extending from divinity to physicality; from primordial originality to kosmic modernity and it is intellectually conceivable that progression back over the grooves made by these mass-termini of lines would lead directly and unerringly to originality itself. In spite of the manifold pyknoses which we have shown to characterize the symbolism of space-genesis it is a very simple matter; for the entire scheme could and must have proceeded along strictly tridimensional lines. Tridimensionality must have inhered in the primeval archetype of space or else it could not appear as an outstanding fact of perceptual space now; for all that we can now observe in space as characteristics must have first been included, enfolded, involved, before it could have been evolved. Hence, it is to be remembered that we are to-day dealing with the expressions of tendencies and principles which inhered in the manifested universe as potentialities in the very beginning.

The alphabet of space-genesis consists of five characters, namely, the point, the line, the triangle, the square and the circle. These are the pentagrammaton of space, of intellectuality, materiality and of spirituality. They constitute the basis of kosmic geometrism. With these all geometrical figures may be constructed; with them all magnitudes may be delineated and projected. They describe every conceivable activity of the Creative Logos and designate the bounds of the entire scope of motility of kosmogenesis.

In figure 19, are shown the dot, the line, triangle, square and the circle which together form the kosmic pentoglyph. The point symbolizes kosmic inertia, inactivity or the beginning of motion; the line is the first aspect of motion, the beginning of creation; the triple aspect of kosmogenesis is symbolized by the triangle, Chaos-Theos-Kosmos, the Unmanifest Trinity; the square emblematizes kosmic being in evolution; while the circle is the syncretism of all these and stands for the perfected kosmos, or the kosmos in process of perfection. Very truly did Plato remark: "God geometrizes"; for the pentagrammaton—the point-line-triangle-square-circle—is the deity's way of manifesting Himself. But there is here no need for space-curvature nor for triangles whose value is greater or less than 180 degrees; there is no need even for the mathematical fourth dimension.