The Secret Doctrine
The Synthesis of Science, Religion, and Philosophy
H. P. Blavatsky
The Theosophy Company · Los Angeles · 1925
THE DIVINE UNITY
H. P. Blavatsky’s Text: “The first, the student knows to represent Kosmos in Eternity, before the re-awakening of still slumbering Energy, the emanation of the Word in later systems.” “The one circle is divine Unity, from which all proceeds, whither all returns.” “Its circumference—a forcibly limited symbol, in view of the limitation of the human mind—indicates the abstract, ever incognisable PRESENCE, and its plane, the Universal Soul, although the two are one.”
The Circle — All Things Emerge from the One
Blavatsky describes the circle as a symbol of the primal divine Unity: the undivided source that exists before manifestation. From this Unity, all things originate, and ultimately to it all things return. The circle represents the underlying One. It is the appearance before differentiation, multiplicity, and the manifested universe.
DIVINE UNITY IN MANIFESTATION
Blavatsky describes the Divine essence as going through a cyclical process: “an expansion of this Divine essence from without inwardly and from within outwardly, occurs in obedience to eternal and immutable law.”
She explains that the visible universe comes from this process and compares its recurring appearance and disappearance to breathing: “An out-breathing of the ‘unknown essence’ produces the world; and an inhalation causes it to disappear.” She then emphasizes the scale of this cycle: “This process has been going on from all eternity, and our present universe is but one of an infinite series, which had no beginning and will have no end.”
THE SYMBOL
After establishing this idea she shifts to the visual sequence: “The first illustration being a plain disc ○, the second one in the Archaic symbol shows ⊙, a disc with a point in it—the first differentiation in the periodical manifestations of the ever-eternal nature…” She then describes, “In its third stage the point is transformed into a diameter, thus ⊖. It now symbolises a divine immaculate Mother-Nature within the all-embracing absolute Infinitude.”
THE SYMBOLS OF MANIFESTATION
Continuing directly from the diameter on p. 4: “When the diameter line is crossed by a vertical one ⊕, it becomes the mundane cross.”
Then she gives it a specifically human meaning: “Humanity has reached its third root-race; it is the sign for the origin of human life to begin.”
And the next transformation occurs when the surrounding circle disappears: “When the circumference disappears and leaves only the + it is a sign that the fall of man into matter is accomplished, and the FOURTH race begins.”
Finally, she explains the earlier horizontal diameter more thoroughly: “By the third symbol—the circle divided in two by the horizontal line of the diameter—the first manifestation of creative (still passive, because feminine) Nature was meant.”
In modern English: The symbol was intended to represent the first expression of creative Nature.
The Primordial Sequence — From Unity to Manifestation
Blavatsky describes a progressing symbolic sequence starting with the undifferentiated circle of divine Unity. The central point indicates the first differentiation within it, the horizontal diameter represents the first manifestation. Adding the vertical line forms the cross within the circle, which she associates with the beginning of human life. Lastly, removing the surrounding circle leaves the cross alone, symbolizing humanity’s “fall…into matter.”
She then traces the symbol through additional transformations, linking its evolving forms to successive stages of humanity and material existence.
THE PROBLEM OF THE FIRST CAUSE
Blavatsky quotes the argument: “And yet could such a cause be found and defined, this would only lead to the transferring thereto of the attributes otherwise accruing to space, and thus merely throw the difficulty of origination a step farther back, without gaining additional light as to primary causation.”
She applies this directly to belief in an external Creator: “This is precisely what has been done by the believers in an anthropomorphic Creator, an extracosmic, instead of an intracosmic God.”
THE PARADOX OF CREATION
Suggesting a cause behind existence does not resolve the mystery of creation if that cause itself requires a cause. It only moves the problem “a step farther back.”
The ultimate source must therefore be self-existent, infinite, and eternal. Not just a being created within a previous layer of creation.
