Cosmogenesis
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Cosmogenesis is the origin and development of the cosmos. This term "Cosmogenesis" was used by Helena P. Blavatsky to describe the content of Volume I of her two-volume The Secret Doctrine, published in 1888; volume II was called "Anthropogenesis" or the origin of humanity.
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[edit] Blavatsky usage
In Cosmogenesis, Blavatsky describes that the first fundamental principle of the cosmos is "an omnipresent, eternal, boundless and immutable principle on which all speculation is impossible." She uses the term "Absolute" to describe it.
Within this Absolute is the germ of manifestation, which in itself is unmanifested. She uses the term First Logos, or the First Cause. It is equivalent to the Hindu Brahman, and the Ain Soph of the Kabbalah. It may be equated with the Godhead of early Christian mystics.
At the dawn of manifestation, there is a stage which she describes as the Second Logos, still unmanifest, which has now the principle of dualistic differentiation: Puruşa-Prakŗiti, Spirit-Matter, Father-Mother.
Only on the third stage, or the Third Logos, does manifestation of the Cosmos actually begin. It is called by various names: Mahat, Cosmic Ideation, Adam Kadmon of the Kaballah, Brahmā of the Hindus. From this Third Logos is emanated the manifested universe, starting from the Seven Planetary Logoi and then the hierarchy of divine intelligences, down to the other beings or entities in the physical world.
Blavatsky states that the mythology and scriptures of the world have many correspondences with this view of cosmogenesis. She devoted the first volume of her Secret Doctrine to the comparison of the above cosmogenetical view with those of ancient cultures and beliefs.
[edit] de Chardin usage
Cosmogenesis is the term also used by the French Jesuit Priest and Scientist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin to describe the cosmological process of the creation of the Universe. Other processes included biogenesis and Noögenesis, culminating in an Omega Point.
