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350 THE SECRET DOCTRINEtaric
vehicle of the former—from its undifferentiated pralayic state.
Then, Absolute Wisdom mirrors itself in its Ideation; which, by a
transcendental process, superior to and incomprehensible by human
Consciousness, results in Cosmic 'Energy, Fohat. Thrilling through
the bosom of inert Substance, Fohat impels it to activity, and guides
its primary differentiations on all the seven planes of Cosmic Consciousness.
There are thus Seven Protyles—as they are now called,
whereas Aryan antiquity named them the Seven Prakritis, or Natures
—serving, severall}^ as the relatively homogeneous bases, which in the
course of the increasing heterogeneity, in the evolution of the Universe,
differentiate into the marvellous complexity presented by phenomena
on the planes of perception. The term "relatively" is used designedly,
because the very existence of such a process, resulting in the primary
segregations of undifferentiated Cosmic Substance into its septenary
bases of evolution, compels us to
regard the Protyle of each plane as
only a mediate phase assumed by Substance in its passage from abstract,
into full objectivity. The term Protyle is due to Mr. Crookes, the
eminent Chemist, who has given that name to pre-mattcr, if one may so
call primordial and purely homogeneous substance, suspected, if not
actually yet found, by Science in the ultimate composition of the atom.
But the incipient segregation of primordial matter into atoms and
molecules takes its rise
subsequent to the evolution of our Seven Protyles.
It is the last of these that Mr. Crookes is in search of, having
recently detected the possibility of its existence on our plane.
Cosmic Ideation is said to be non-existent during pralayic periods,
for the simple reason that there is no one, and nothing, to perceive its
effects. There can be no manifestation of consciousness, semi-consciousness,
or even "unconscious purposiveness," except through a
vehicle of Matter; that is to say, on this our plane, wherein human
consciousness, in its normal state, cannot soar beyond what is known as
transcendental metaphysics, it
is only through some molecular aggregation,
or fabric, that Spirit wells up in a stream of individual or subconscious
subjectivity. And as Matter existing apart from perception
is a mere abstraction, both of these aspects of the Absolute—Cosmic
Substance and Cosmic Ideation—are mutually interdependent. In
strict accuracy, to avoid confusion and misconception, the term
"Matter" ought to be applied to the aggregate of objects of possible
perception, and the term "Substance" to Noumena; for inasmuch as
the phenomena of our plane are the creations of the perceiving Ego