THE THREE LOGOI

There is, perhaps, no single point of the esoteric philosophy about which cluster so many vague ideas as around the teaching concerning the logoi. The word logos, commonly used in ancient Greek mystical thought, was adopted by the early Christians, as for instance by John of the Fourth Gospel, and used with their own understanding of its meaning. Logos originally meant reason, and finally also came to mean word. Certain schools of Greek philosophy transferred it as a figure of speech to cosmic processes: in the beginning there was divine reason, divine thought, which in order to communicate life and intelligence within itself needed a vehicle, a 'word,' to pass itself on. And the word was produced by the functioning of divine reason, just as human speech is produced by the functioning of human reason or thought.
Now then, each hierarchy, each plane in other words, has its own three Logoi: the unmanifest, the partially manifest, and the manifest, or the First, Second, and Third Logos — although, because the entire universe is constructed of and in hierarchies which repeat each other on the different planes, an almost incalculable number of minor logoi exist in any universe as rays therefrom.
Considered as a triadic unity, the conception of the three primordial Logoi gave to the Christians their Holy Trinity, even if in somewhat distorted form; and the same concept gave to other religious and philosophical systems of antiquity the three individuals of their respective triads. Thus the First Logos, called by H.P.B. the Unmanifest Logos, is equivalent to the Pythagorean cosmic monad, the Monas monadum, which remains forever in what is to us silence and darkness — although it is the most utter and perfect light of the world. In the archaic Hindu Trimurti it is represented by Brahman; and in the Christian scheme by the Father.
This First or Unmanifest Logos is the Primordial Point or Ancient of Days of the Qabbalah; and from one aspect, as when we are considering the very first stage in the opening drama of evolution, it is the primeval seed out of which all the hierarchy — imbodying all subsequent hierarchies — of the universe flows forth into manifestation. Such emanational evolution takes place through the First Logos clothing itself with a veil of spiritual light, which is at one and the same time cosmic intelligence and cosmic life, becoming the Second or manifest-unmanifest Logos, and to which different schools of philosophy gave different names.
In the ancient Pythagorean mystical system this Second Logos was the cosmic Duad, conceived of as a feminine power or veil of the First Logos or Monad of monads, while in Greek mythology it was spoken of as Gaia, the consort or veil of Ouranos or heaven, the First Logos. Similarly, certain mystical schools of the Orient spoke of the Second Logos as Pradhana, the veil of Brahman or the First Logos; or again, as in esoteric Buddhism, as Alaya or mahabuddhi, which is the summit or root of cosmic akasa. The original Christian conception of the Trinity, as still held in the Orthodox or Greek Church, looked upon this Second Logos as a feminine power which is the Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost (cf. H.P.B.'s article "Notes on the Gospel according to St. John," Lucifer, February and March, 1893).
This Second Logos, the cosmic womb of Space, being as it were the generative and productive field of lives, or seeds of life, brought forth the Third Logos. It was conceived of as the Son, as in the original Greek Christian scheme, the Third Person of the Trinity born of the Holy Spirit. In the ancient Brahmanical system it was Siva born from the essence of Vishnu. Another name given in early Hinduism to this Third Logos was Brahma, the Creator, the reproduction of Brahman, the First Logos, by and through the intermediary feminine power Pradhana or the Second Logos.
With the cosmic appearance of the Third Logos, the evolutional unfolding of the universe has reached its third stage, and then and there begins the emanation of the innumerable minor hierarchies which, in their aggregate, compose the complex mystery of the manifold cosmos in all its interwoven activities and substances.
Many and various were the names given to the Third Logos by the philosophical and religious systems of antiquity. The Greeks gave this Third or formative Logos the title Demiourgos, a word mystically signifying the supreme cosmic Architect of the universe. This same idea always has been held by the Christians as well as by modern speculative Freemasonry, as indicated by their title The Grand Architect of the Universe. In Hinduism another aspect of the Third Logos was called Narayana or Purusha, supposed to be involved in its accompanying cosmic veil, prakriti. Narayana means the cosmic man moving in and on the waters of Space (the cosmic waters of Genesis),and these cosmic waters, by the way, are but another name for the Second Logos, otherwise the vast womb of cosmic entities.(1)
In connection with the Logoi the following question and answer from the Transactions of the Blavatsky Lodge (p. 113) may be of value:

Q. What is the difference between Spirit, Voice and Word?

A. The same as between Atma, Buddhi and Manas, in one sense. Spirit emanates from the unknown Darkness, the mystery into which none of us can penetrate. That Spirit — call it the "Spirit of God" or Primordial Substance — mirrors itself in the Waters of Space — or the still undifferentiated matter of the future Universe — and produces thereby the first flutter of differentiation in the homogeneity of primordial matter. This is the Voice, pioneer of the "Word" or the first manifestation; and from that Voice emanates the Word or Logos, that is to say, the definite and objective expression of that which has hitherto remained in the depths of the Concealed Thought. That which mirrors itself in Space is the Third Logos.

There is an interesting series of ideas here relating to the Second Logos, the Voice, which in the Sanskrit is generally termed either Vach or Swara. Both these words meaning Sound, or Breath in another sense, are used mystically for Voice — and occasionally for Word — and are invested with a feminine attribute because being the carrier or mother of the Third Logos.
To recapitulate: we have the cosmic ideation or cosmic Father, i.e. the cosmic thought, the First Logos. This surrounds itself with and reproduces itself in the Second Logos, which is the cosmic Mother, carrying within itself the essence of the First Logos or divine thought and reproducing it as the Third Logos, the cosmic Son or Word. Thus we have: Idea — First; Sound — Second; Word — Third, which last is the manifested or creative Logos of the universe. Therefore Vach or Swara is the mystic Sound of the divine creative activity, the vehicle of the divine thought, of which the Word or Verbum is the manifested expression.
In applying Vach or Swara to a human being, we find that either term corresponds in man's constitution to the buddhi born of the atman, and reproducing the atmic individuality from its buddhic womb as the manas. The same thought is found among several peoples, for example, among the Qabbalists, ancient and modern, who speak of Bath Qol, the daughter of the Voice. Now this Bath Qol was said to be the divine inspiration guiding some highly evolved human individual, whether it be prophet or seer; and signifies the manas of the man enlightened by the buddhi within him, the buddhic transmitting ray being Bath Qol.
Turning again to the cosmic scale, we find ancient mystical Hebrew thought also referring to the divine Voice or Sound as being logoic in character, as instanced in Job, xxxviii, 4-7:

Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding.

Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it?

Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof;

When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

There is a distinct reference here to a very archaic thought that the world in all its cosmic planes was brought into being by sound, by singing, an idea likewise found among the ancient Druids and Germanic peoples. Here in Job, we see that the stars at the beginning of the manvantara, called the morning, sang together, at which time the sons of God, who were the divinities of the highest cosmic plane, shouted or sang the worlds into being.
As H.P.B. has written:

It is said that "Marcus had it revealed unto him that 'the seven heavens'. . . sounded each one vowel, which, all combined together, formed a complete doxology"; in clearer words: "the Sound whereof being carried down (from these seven heavens) to earth, became the creator and parent of all things that be on earth." (See "Hippolytus," vi., 48, and King's Gnostics, p. 200.) Translated from the Occult phraseology into still plainer language this would read: "The Sevenfold Logos having differentiated into seven Logoi, or creative potencies (vowels) these (the second logos, or "Sound") created all on Earth. — The Secret Doctrine, II, 563

It is noteworthy that Swara in Sanskrit, in one of its significances, also means seven. This reveals an esoteric thought which the earliest Hindu writers attached to the term: that the cosmic Swara evolves itself forth into a series of seven sounds, each corresponding directly to one of the seven cosmic planes, thus giving each plane its own keynote or swabhava. As for Vach, this is often described as being satarupa, hundred-formed; and if we view the evolved universe as having ten cosmic planes, and each plane as being tenfold, we then have one hundred individual keynotes. Such a denary construction of the universe takes for granted the supreme cosmic plane of the unit by which it is linked with the Infinite, as well as the very lowest cosmic plane, which is the physical universe — the mere shell or carrier of all the others — thus making up the twelvefold universe mentioned by many ancient philosophers, including Plato.
If we apply the above to a solar chain (or a planetary chain of twelve globes), we see that every such chain is a manifestation of a logoic hierarch, which is its supreme logos. Each of the twelve globes of the solar chain is the product, and in a sense the dwelling, of one of the twelve rays from the solar logos or solar hierarch. The analogy with the constitution of man is perfect: our atman is our supreme hierarch, and the different foci, in each of which dwells a monad, are the centers of the rays emanating from the atman.
Taking again our sun as an instance in point, each one of the twelve rays emanating from this solar logos is in itself a minor logos, which in turn, being duodenary, is the solar ray guiding and watching over one of the sacred planetary chains. Every globe of such planetary chain is likewise the especial dwelling of one of the twelve minor rays in each such minor logos.
The Latin poet Martianus Capella spoke of the sun "whose sacred head is encircled with twice six rays." These rays represent the twice six powers or globes of the solar chain. There are, of course, as in the case of all the planetary chains, actually ten globes and two 'polar links.' Now these twelve powers of the sun are the twelve forces of the solar logos — the manifest solar divinity — and naturally they must have their own spheres of action as well as the appropriate substances through which to work. As a matter of fact, they are themselves their own homes. Even as a snail builds its own shell, they build their own dwelling places with a portion of themselves, remaining, notwithstanding, apart; as the spirit and the soul of a man remain apart from his body, in it yet above it, and in a true sense not of it. These twelve forces represent and are, in fact, the twelve planes of the solar system.
One of the mystic names of the sun in ancient Hindu literature is dwadasatman, literally twelve-selved. Surya, the sun, is therefore stated to be both twelvefold and sevenfold. These twelve (or seven) selves can be looked upon either as individual logoi or, collected as a unity, as the solar logos or hierarch — very much as a ray of sunlight is composed of the seven colors of the spectrum — and are sometimes called adityas, meaning born of Aditi, or Space; each such aditya or minor solar logos being the ruling spiritual genius of its planetary chain, and therefore its hierarchical chief.
In The Secret Doctrine (II, 29) we find:

"As it is above so it is below" is the fundamental axiom of occult philosophy. As the logos is seven-fold, i.e., throughout Kosmos it appears as seven logoi under seven different forms, or, as taught by learned Brahmins, "each of these is the central figure of one of the seven main branches of the ancient wisdom religion"; and, as the seven principles which correspond to the seven distinct states of Pragna, or consciousness, are allied to seven states of matter and the seven forms of force, the division must be the same in all that concerns the earth.

In conclusion, then, remember that the First Logos is the cosmic consciousness, the summit or Brahman of any hierarchy, and these Brahmans are numberless in boundless Space. Every solar system is one such Brahman on the solar system scale; every galaxy represents or is one on the galactic scale; this is also the case with every planetary chain. Every human being has his own individual Brahman, the highest point of his being, his First Logos.
We are all children of the First Logos, life of its life, consciousness of its consciousness. The more we ascend into the higher parts of our being, the more we become self-conscious of our identity with it. Yet all these cosmic Brahmans, cosmic consciousnesses, 'First Logoses,' are offspring of the Boundless, "sparks of Eternity," coming and going throughout endless Duration. This is why Parabrahman is spoken of as being both conscious and unconscious, manifesting and unmanifesting, spirit and matter, because it is both and neither. It is both, because the Boundless gives birth to these points of its being throughout Infinitude and then receives them back — just as the spirit within us is that root which produces us, yet we are not it. We are but its feeble ray, which one day will be withdrawn into the Brahman within us, our First Logos. And therein the manifested being will lie latent for a time, but to reappear.
Thus are worlds born out of the depths of the Boundless and re-enter it, just as men are born from the Brahman within them, from their auric egg, and re-enter therein. When the solar system shall have come to its end, all beings whatsoever within it will be withdrawn into the Boundless for a still higher rest, to reissue forth again as logoic rays when a new cosmic drama of life begins.

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