Blavatsky Net
Foundation

Blavatsky Net - Theosophy

We now have several relevant differences between the version of cosmology according to the ancient wisdom and that of the "God did it" varieties.

One difference is a more abstract cosmic ultimate. Vastly different. A second difference is that the Absolute, and even consciousness, are not separate from the universe. "They" (It?) do not create something separate from themselves. God creates something separate from "Himself" but the absolute does not.

Furthermore, we are fundamentally not distinct from the consciousness that underlies the universe. With the God-did-it version we are separate creations from the creator. Under that version we have a quite different place in the universe.

But yet another difference comes under the heading of "hierarchies". In a theistic religion, at least as standardly perceived, God does it all. The ancient wisdom says differently. The ancient wisdom has a hierarchy of intelligences involved. We also should note they are involved in varying degrees. Her words:

This hierarchy of spiritual Beings, through which the Universal Mind comes into action, is like an army - a "Host," truly - by means of which the fighting power of a nation manifests itself, and which is composed of army corps, divisions, brigades, regiments, and so forth, each with its separate individuality or life, and its limited freedom of action and limited responsibilities; each contained in a larger individuality, to which its own interests are subservient, and each containing lesser individualities in itself. (SDi38)

In the next passage Blavatsky refers to a "septenary hierarchy". This is the Dhyan Chohans referred to above as an early stage in the evolution of consciousness into a material world.

Stanza IV. shows the differentiation of the "Germ" of the Universe into the septenary hierarchy of conscious Divine Powers, who are the active manifestations of the One Supreme Energy. They are the framers, shapers, and ultimately the creators of all the manifested Universe, in the only sense in which the name "Creator" is intelligible; they inform and guide it; they are the intelligent Beings who adjust and control evolution, embodying in themselves those manifestations of the ONE LAW, which we know as "The Laws of Nature." Generically, they are known as the Dhyan Chohans, though each of the various groups has its own designation in the Secret Doctrine. This stage of evolution is spoken of in Hindu mythology as the "Creation" of the Gods. (SDi21-22)

In the next passage she makes an analogy between the earliest consciousness and the actual working out of the universe - an analogy between the Architect that never touches one stone of the building and the actual masons.

... we hope to have proven so far the following facts: ... (2) It admits a Logos or a collective "Creator" of the Universe; a Demi-urgos-in the sense implied when one speaks of an "Architect" as the "Creator" of an edifice, whereas that Architect has never touched one stone of it, but, while furnishing the plan, left all the manual labour to the masons; in our case the plan was furnished by the Ideation of the Universe, and the constructive labour was left to the Hosts of intelligent Powers and Forces. But that Demiurgos is no personal deity,-i.e., an imperfect extra-cosmic god,-but only the aggregate of the Dhyan-Chohans and the other forces.

Notice in this next quote that Blavatsky is referencing sentient Beings that have not yet reached the stage of man as well as sentient beings that have passed the stage of man.

The whole Kosmos is guided, controlled, and animated by almost endless series of Hierarchies of sentient Beings, each having a mission to perform . . . They vary infinitely in their respective degrees of consciousness and intelligence; and to call them all pure Spirits without any of the earthly alloy "which time is wont to prey upon" is only to indulge in poetical fancy. For each of these Beings either was, or prepares to become, a man, if not in the present, then in a past or a coming cycle (Manvantara). They are perfected, when not incipient, men... (SDi274-5)