The Cosmic Tradition

 

 

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The 'cosmic' writings are so called because they deal with the science of all the degrees of cosmic substance. This science, which is akin to the science of numbers, was unknown to the official bible exegists of the various religions. In fact, these interpreters endeavoured to introduce connections between the formless and the physical state, while neglecting the invisible degrees between them, or confusing them with one another. That is, they freely replaced the qualities of one number with another number and took formal manifestations for the non-manifested.

Pascal Themanlys, introduction to Visions of the Eternal Present, edited by Argaman in Jerusalem, 1991

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"The Tradition"

The Theons authored an extraordinary body of work, which he simply called "The Tradition".  Theon claimed that this constituted knowledge that pre-dated both the Kabbalistic and  Chaldean tradition of the West, and the Vedas of India, and from which both these latter were derived.   As I see it though, The Tradition is straight Gnostic cosmology, similiar to that of the Classical or Hellenistic Gnostics, although differing in certain respects.
The Mother's references to The Tradition are ambiguous.  Sometimes it seems as if Theon is the author; at other times as if The Tradition is something he in some way aquired or stumbled upon.

"...he formulated a tradition which he called the "cosmic tradition" and which he claimed to have  received - I don't know how - from a tradition anterior to that of the Cabala and the Vedas."

[Mother's Agenda, vol 1 (1958), p.219]

The real source of Theon's Tradition is obvious from the above passage.  It is something which Theon received.  In other words, it was a "channeled" communication.  This places it in the same category as the Chaldean Oracles, the Enochian Calls, the so- called Hopi Prophecies, the Alice Bailey/"Tibetan" material, the Seth and Ramtha material, the Ohapse and Urantia books, and indeed innumerable other spiritual and occult material of quality ranging from atrocious to (very rarely) magnificent.
What is more, the person responsible for this channelling may well have been Madame Theon, as the Mother often speaks of her clairvoyant and occult capacity.  As is so often the case with this sort of material, it is a woman who is responsible for bringing it through (the only two notable exceptions to this being the Chaldean Oracles and the Enochian material, the former produced by a father and son team in the early century after Christ (or so contemporary sources claim); the latter by the Elizabethan occultists John Dee and Edward Kelly (the latter serving as the medium)).
It is not unlikely that, having received the basic transmission, Theon proceeded to elaborate and build upon it.  Thus The Tradition is made up of (at least) two distinct strata, and this would explain any obvious inconsistencies within the work.
Sujita relates the Mother (Mirra)'s part in the composing of this extraordinary teaching.

As for the stories from the Tradition, "They are not to be taken as concrete truths, they are simply first-rate images," Mother told Satprem. "Through them I really got hold, very concretely, of the truth of what caused the world's distortion.... The essence isn't evil, but the functioning is faulty.

"The words are so childish that if you tell this story to intelligent people, they look pityingly at you; but it gives such a concrete grasp of the problem! It helped me a lot."

A slow smile spread across her face. "It was written in English and I am the one who translated it into French - into horrid French, perfectly horrid, because I put in all the words Théon had dreamed up. Then again, what words! He made a detailed description of all the faculties latent in man, and it was remarkable - but with such barbaric words! You can make up new words in English and get away with it, but in French it's utterly ridiculous. And there I was, very conscientiously putting them all in! Yet in terms of experience, it was splendid. It really was an experience - it was the account of Madame Théon's experiences in exteriorization. She had learned to do what Théon' taught me also - to speak while you are in the seventh heaven: the body goes on speaking, rather slowly, in a low voice, but it works quite well. She would speak and a friend of hers, another English woman who was their secretary - I think she knew shorthand - would note it all down as she went along. And afterwards it was made into stories, told as stories. It was all shown to Sri Aurobindo and it greatly interested him. He even adopted some of the words into his own terminology.

"The divisions and subdivisions of the being were described down to the minutest detail and with such perfect precision! I know, because I did the experience again, I did it on my own, without any preconceived ideas, the very same: going out of one body after the other, one body after the other, and so on twelve times, and my experience - apart from certain quite negligible differences, doubtless due to differences in the receiving brain - was exactly the same."

References and Links

Sujata Nahar, Mother's Chronicles, book three - Mirra the Occultist,  Institut de Recherches Évolutives, Paris
Max Théon et la philosophie cosmique by Pascal Thémanlys
Corpus Mmothra: La Tradition Cosmique- Via Antiquities of the Illuminati and Kheper blog by Jonathan Sellers (Monday, March 21, 2005), includes interesting comments on Theon and the Tradition, and reference to my essay on Theon (this section)
spiritus93 - English transaltion of volume 1 of The Cosmic Tradition.

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The Subtle Physical

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reality: Inner / Subtle Aspect of the Physical, and vice versa

objective qualities: "Yogic anatomy", chakras, nadis, etc

subjective qualities: Inner Facet of Body / Matter, inner elemental presence, Tantric and Taoist states of physical transformation, Awareness of Body, Inner Physical Consciousness, Spontaneous action ("Zen and the art of archery")

Introduction

The Subtle Physical refers to the inner, etheric and formative regions of the physical, as opposed to the lower dense physical or the objective outer physical. However, all these regions and subdividions intergrade, and the Subtle Physical itself includes a vast number of different realities.
At its densest and most objective, this region corresponds to paraphysics, alternative healing modalities, auras and the etheric or subtle bodies, orgone energy, Earth energies, Anthroposophy, and other phenomena on the fringes of science, considered quackery because they don't fit within the secular-reductionistic paradigm that recognises only the material-physical.
At a more subtle level, this shades into the region of dreams, astral travel, shamanic vision, clairvoyance, and so on.
In Ishraqi and Sufi cosmology, this is the Imaginal Realm - Barzakh (Interworld) of Suhrawardi, the Mithal (Imaginal realm) of Ibn Arabi, "the 8th Clime" of islamic geography and cosmology. It is the region of pure Forms intermediate between the higher spiritual and Divine hypostasis of Light and Divine logoi, and the Cosmic Physical reality.

Descriptions

Barbara Brennan's description of the auric levels is suggested as the Type Description (although the higher auric bodies seem to pertain to spiritual realities, which implies either vertical divisions of physical, astral, and spiritual nature.)
It is mentioned by the Theosophists or by Rudolf Steiner. Higher mystic states of martial arts training would seem to derive from here, also states of Tantric development.
Sri Aurobindo would call (in his Letters on Yoga - Planes and Parts of Being) refers to it as the Subtle Physical. There is also the Inner Physical; presumably the two overlap
Suhrawardian and later derived concepts regarding the Interworld / Barzakh; but these also might include the Inner Gross reality, or at least aspects of it
Jung's account of the collective unconscious, divested of its biological reductionism ("racial memory") might be a good example of the Subtle Reality. Jung is very weak on metaphysics; his strength lies in his superb phenomenological descriptions - taken from classic mythological, alchemical, and esoteric literature as well as the accounts of his patients and later, his own experiences as well, provide a rich source of material on the phenomena and dynamics of the Subtle reality inasmuch as it interacts with the outer human psyche or physical consciousness (Gross Being). However, some of what he describes also pertains to the Eso and Inner Gross reality; also the vague quality of what defines an archetype means that archetypes could pertain to anything of transpersonal nature (e.g. mystical experiuences are experiences of archetypes).
As with all the regions, the Subtle Physical itself could be thought of as consisting of a number of resonances or subplanes.  One might for example postulate subplanes such as: the Divine, Higher Spiritual, Illumined, Higher Mental, Mental, Emotional, Vital, Mundane Physical, Chthonic or Subphysical, and Hylic or Inconscient. (Subconscient and Inconscient are useful terms borrowed from Sri Aurobindo but possibly deriving from Theon's Tradition). As in all these cases, the higher planes are only poorly understood, pertaining as they do to very elevated and spiritual states of existence.  Those who are familiar with the teachings of Theosophy or of Anthroposophy (Rudolf Steiner), will have come across the distinction between the Physical or "Gross Physical" and the Etheric or "Subtle Physical" Planes, but the lower two planes are not mentioned in those teachings, although they are indicated to in writings of Sri Aurobindo

Archetypal Attributes

The Physical Plane can also be described in terms of the four or five archetypal attributes or elements.

The Four Elements
Earth	Water	Air	Fire
Ether-Akasha-Spirit - the fifth element

The Chinese system of Elements is somewhat different

Correspondences according to Stan Gooch

In the psychological system of Stan Gooch it is "System B" taht corresponds to the Eso being and "System A" to the Outer being The polarity between these two modes of consciousness is described in detail by in his book Total Man. Gooch uses a physiological explanation, whereas I agree with the Islamic esotericists in suggesting a metaphysical one. Nevertheless the following pairs of opposites proposed by Gooch are good poetic indicators for these two realities (of course there are other realities too)

Subtle Physical Outer Physical System B System A Self Ego Unconscious Conscious Dream Waking Dark Light Female Male subjective objective personal impersonal emotion, feeling thought, thinking irrational rational faith fact belief proof magic (`illogic') logic religion art science involvement detachment sexual asexual left-wing politics (Labour, Communism) right-wing politics (Fascism) [from Stan Gooch, Total Man, Abacus, 1972, pp.82-3]

The exploration of the eso or inner realities, via clairvoyance, lucid dreaming, and shamanic visioning, can serve as the basis for new State-Specific Sciences, of the type proposed by Dr Charles T Tart in the 1970s.

"Vertical" Subplanes

In occult psychology there are a number of subgrades that belong here. Here is a rough and tentative association:

Physical subdegree	Greek element Samkhyan Element (tattwa)	projection from Max Theon "Cosmic Tradition" = sub-subdegrees (=macrocosm)	Sri Aurobindo based on "Planes and Parts of Being" vol. 1, pp.351-2 (Letters on Yoga vol.1)	Gurdjieff / Ouspensky	Rudolf Steiner Carl Jung (=microcosm)	Barbara Brennan "Human Energy Field" (aura) (=microcosm)
Spiritual Subplane	Akasha	Essence subdegree of the physical	(Spiritual Physical)	n/a	Consciousness	higher bodies represent different Planes (Astral and Spiritual-Orectic)
Mental Subplane	Air	Mental subdegree of the physical	Mental Physical	Intellectual Center	Thinking	Mental Body
Intuitive Subplane	Fire	Emotional / Heart subdegree of the physical	Psychic Physical	Emotional Center	Intuition, Will	Emotional Body
Emotional Subplane	Water	Nervo / Lower Emotional subdegree of the physical	Vital-Physical	Instinctual Center	Feeling	Etheric body
Objective Physical	Earth	Physical subdegree of the physical	Physical consciousness	Moving Center	Physical body	Physical body

Subplanes - Comparative

Beyond the obvious physical are other planes or subgrades. I would associate these with the lower four of Theon's subdivisions, and the corresponding lower four of Barbara Brennan's sequence of seven energy bodies (the physical body making up the eight body). These can also be associated with the four elements of Greek thought, the four subdivisions of the sefirah Malkut in Hermetic Kabbalah, and so on. This is shown in the following table (the colours are approximately those attributed by Barbara Brennan:

Physical Reality	element	Max Theon "Cosmic Tradition" (=macrocosm)	Blavatsky The Objective Plane	Alice Bailey	Barbara Brennan - "Human Energy Field" (aura) (=microcosm)
Divine Spiritual Physical / Logoic	Spirit	Free Intelligence subdegree of the physical	7. x	Logoic	n/a
Higher Spiritual Physical / Monadic		Pure Spirit subdegree of the physical		Monad
Middle Spiritual Physical		Light subdegree of the physical	6. Spiritual-emotional	Soul (atma-buddhi-higher manas)
Lower Spiritual Physical ("Logoic")		Noeric Intuition subdegree of the physical
Mental Physical	Air	Mental subdegree of the physical	5. Mental-emotional	Personality (lower manas-emotional)	Mental body
Physical Emotional	Water	Soul subdegree of the physical	4. Passional-emotional 3. Physiological-emotional		Emotional body
Etheric Plane	Warmth, Fire (life force)	Nervo / Astral subdegree of the physical	2. Instinctual	Etheric	Etheric body
Mundane Physical	Earth	Physical subdegree of the physical	1. Sensuous	Physical	Physical body

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Correspondences and Correlations

Here are some tentative correspondences and correlations with Theon's cosmic philosophy and four planes:

Neoplatonism

Neoplatonism posits three divine hypostases (underlying states) behind the phenomenal world. Each higher hypostases determines the next one down, in a chain of being. We see the same emanationist pattern here, with the Materialisms world being the result. Of the three hypostases, the One is the limitless Absolute and Source, the original cause or first principle. Iamblichus divided the One into a transcendent and a causal One, a tendency not followed by others of the school. The Nous is the Divine Mind, eternal and perfect but still limited in that it is divided into a multiplicity of divine ideas or seminal forms, whereas the One, as its name indicates, is simply "one". Ther Nous is generally divided into three principles; a tendency that is hinted at in the writings of Plotinus, developed by Iamblichus, and carried to its logical conclusion by Proclus (according to whom the noetic reality is actaully a number of distinct principles (of which the actual Nous is the lowest) rather than a single hypostases). These three principles are Being (ontos), Life (zoe), and Mind (nous). Finally, from Divine Mind, which is still eternal and transcendent, comes manifestation in time, in the form of the Divine World-Soul, or Psyche, the soul of the universe, and equivalent to the demiurge or creator (although for Iamblichus the Demiurge corresponds to the lowest stage of Nous - compare this with Theon's Adonai as the "Pure Spirit of Activity" in the 3rd (Etherisms) world).
The following correspondence with Theon's Tradition is indicated

Max Theon "Cosmic Tradition"	Plotinus (original Neoplatonism)	Iamblichus (theurgic Neoplatonism)	Proclus (theosophical Neoplatonism)
The Cause without Cause	The One	Causal One	The One
1st veiling - Nucleolinis		The Dyad Noetic Monad	Henads?
1st World - Occultisms	Nous	Paradigm (Noetic Being)	Being
2nd veiling - Nucleolus
2nd World - Pathotisms		Spiritual Life	Life (Zoe)
3rd veiling - Nucleus
3rd World - Etherisms		Divine Ideas and Demiurge	Nous
4th veiling - Etherialised Matter	World Soul	Psychic Monad (transitional)
4th World - Materialisms	World Soul in part Cosmos	Noeric Soul, supramundane and mundane gods, daimons, etc Cosmos, Matter	Soul Body

Gnosticism

Gnosticism developed in the same cultural milieu as Neoplatonism, the mingling of diverse philosophies and religions in an age of anxiety (not unlike today's world!). But whilst Neoplatonism was more philosophical, mystical, and theurgic, Gnosticism was more specificically mythopoetic, individually creative, and religious. And although Gnostic teachings indicate profound insights, these are often distorted by the virtually unreadable quality of the texts themselves - like the worst of Blavatsky's Secret Doctrine in their dense jumble of symbolism that is written too badly to ever be made readable (if you doubt me - just try reading the Nag Hammadi!). But for all this, a basic theme shines through, especially in the Sethian and Valentinian schools. Here there are influences not only of Judaism and early Christianity, but of Zervanism and Zoroastrianism, and of Neoplatonism and Hermeticism.
Originally there is only the ineffable Absolute, described in the language of negative theology. From this emanates a pleroma of deities (Aeons), and from the lowest of these (Sophia) as an accident or "abortion" comes the world-creator or demiurge. From this negative (Sethism) or at best only ignorant (Valentenism) , entity is created the lower world, i.e. the cosmos, which is considered a world of darkness as opposed to the light and spirit of the Pleroma. In the context of Theon's teachings, it is interesting that some Sethian Gnostics adapted the Neoplatonic noetic triad, but they termed the principles Kalyptos (the Hidden One), Protophones (the First Appearing), and Autogenes (the Self-Begotten, who in a sense is a sort of original "Good God" (being the impetus from which the Savior (via further emanations) arises, the emanations of Autogenes being the archetypes of the terrestrial saviours), and in that sense perhaps can be compared to (and derived from?) Iamblichus' Demiurge, even if it does not have any demiurgic function in the lower world. Now, what is interesting is that Kalyptos - the Hidden One - means the same as Occultisms (Occult - that which is hidden or concealed)
The lowest aeon, Sophia, in her creative role, would serve as the transitional hypostasis between the Pleroma (Etherisms and higher) and the World of Matter (Materialisms), hence the "4th veil" in Theon's Tradition

Max Theon "Cosmic Tradition"	Earlier Sethism Apocryphon of John	"Neoplatonic" Sethism	Ptolemic Valentinian	Valentinism
The Cause without Cause	"Spirit" or "Father"	"Spirit" or "Father"	The Father, who "emits all things"	"Forefather"
1st veiling - Nucleolinis
1st World - Occultisms	Thought or Barbelo (5-Aeon)	Kalyptos	The Arche (primal principle), also called Nous	Mind and Truth (who alone know the Forefather)
2nd veiling - Nucleolus
2nd World - Pathotisms		Protophanes (first appearing)	Logos and Life
3rd veiling - Nucleus
3rd World - Etherisms	Autogenes-Mirothoe (self-begotten) and further four aeons	Autogenes-Mirothoe (self-begotten) and further emanated aeons		The rest of the Pleroma
4th veiling - Etherialised Matter			Sophia outside the Pleroma	Horos (limit) Sophia outside the Pleroma
4th World - Materialisms	Lower world of matter, planetary heavens,	Lower world of matter	Cosmos, Demiurge, matter	Cosmos, Demiurge, Hyle and Psyche

Sant Mat

Like Classical Gnosticism, Sant Matis a very creative movement with many variations of standard themes, and Radhasoami Cosmologies of specific gurus and traditions differ in a number of details The following table, adapted and modified from The Genealogical Connection: Kirpal Singh, Paul Twitchell, and Eckankar, compares three variations. I have added the Science of Spirituality Version (Sawan-Kirpal tradition), and what I consider may be equivalent terms in Theon's cosmoloogy in the right-hand column

Version #1 common in Beas related groups	Version #2 common in Beas related groups	Common in Agra related groups, particularly Soami Bagh	Science of Spirituality Version	suggested equivalent from Theon tradition
6. Sach Khand ("Truth Region;" soul/God union)	9. Anami Lok ("nameless")	10. Anami Lok	10. Anami (God realisation)	Causeless Cause (God)
	8. Agam Lok ("inaccessable")	9. Agam Lok	9. Agam Purush	1st Veiling (Nucleolinus)
	7. Alakh Lok ("invisible")	8. Alakh Lok	8. Alakh Purush	1st World - Occultisms (inaccessable to man in his present state)
	--	(Lower Anami)*	--	2nd Veiling (Nucleolus)
	6. Sach Khand	7. Sach Khand	7. Sat Lok (God the Father) (self realisation)	2nd World - Pathotisms (may be identified with either Sat Lok or Bhanwar Gupha)
5. Bhanwar Gupha("whirling vortices/cave")	5. Bhanwar Gupha	6. Bhanwar Gupha	6. Bhawargupha
--	--	5. Maha Sunn ("great void")	5. Maha Sunn	3rd Veiling (Nucleus)
4. Daswan Dwar("tenth door;" beyond mind)	4. Daswan Dwar	4. Daswan Dwar	4. Sunn ("void" - liberation)	3rd World - Etherisms
3. Trikuti("three prominences;" causal region)	3. Trikuti	3. Trikuti	3. Brahmand (Causal)	4th Veiling - (Cosmic Cause)
2. Sahans-dal Kanwal ("thousand petalled lotus" astral region)	2. Sahans-dal-Kanwal	2. Sahans-dal-Kanwal	2. And (Subtle)	4th World - Materialisms
1. Pind ("body" physical region)	1. Pind	1. Pind	1. Pind

*sometimes it is mentioned in Soami Bagh literature that there are two "anamis"-- one right above Sach Khand and the final, great anami at the end
Of interest also is the way that Theon's primary parameter (the four worlds and four veils) seem to nicely align with the Radhasoami worlds. In the Theon cosmology, there is the material world, the region of creation, and beyond that a series of progressively more spiritual worlds. In Sant Mat there is likewise a gradation of physical, subtle, causal, supracausal, and beyond. According to Theon, each world is separated by a barrier (a Lurianic theme). Similarily in Sant Mat there is reference to a sort of barrier like region (Mahasunna). In both the highest region or regions are referred to as inconceivable and inaccessible. In both there is also an intermediate (but still transcendent) region of God or Soul (Sant Mat), or Divine Empathy - Pathotism (Theon). Of course there are many differences as well, and obviously not all the levels precisely match up. Things become even more difficult with the higher worlds in Sant Mat where there is disagreement among the various lineages as to the number of the highest subdivisions.
Other parallels might be suggested as well. Theon refers to four lower States (Physical, Nervous, Psychic, and Intellectual), each with their gods or superphysical beings, the sub-degrees of which consitute ordinary consciousness, and four higher States that refer to little realised Divine consciousness. These eight worlds or planes constitute the subdivisions of the "Material" World (the word Matter here obviously having a much broader interpretation than in science.) Similarily in Sant Mat, the Creation consists of three lower worlds of form (Saguna), which include the heavens of the gods of various religions, which consitute the gross, subtle, and causal aspects of creatred or embodied reality, and two higher ones of formlessness (Nirguna) which represent transcendent (but still subtle material) realms. But wheras Theon refers to two distinct parameters or dimensions of creation (which i have associated with what might be called the "vertical" and "emanational" dimensions or ontoclines), Sant Mat, in keeping with the larger number of esoteric teachings, only allows a single axis of creation.
In both these spiritual traditions there is also the parallel with the Gnostic theme of a lower creation and lower heavens, as opposed to the higher spiritual Pleroma representing (in Gnosticism and Sant Mat, both otherworldly) the goal of the spiritual adept.

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