Svabhava and Svayambhu

Helena Petrovna Blavatsky · Confusing Words Series · 14 pages

Svabhava is given as the occult term for Kama-Eros — desire manifesting itself through visible creation — and as the One Infinite Life and Law, visible and invisible. The framework in which it operates is set out first: when from within the Circle of Infinity there arises a Circle of Necessity or finiteness, it always does so under immutable law, and that law has three aspects answering to the triple hypostasis of the ever-concealed Unity — Karman or action, Cycles or yugas, and Yajna, sacrifice and compassion. In its highest aspect Svabhava is the divine essence or supreme substance, ever desiring to manifest itself through visible creation by the power of the Word; it is the Mulaprakriti of the Vedantin, the Root-less Root, ineffable because nameless and unpronounceable.

Svayambhu is the second term and the complementary one: self-existence and self-existing, the potentiality of being and the potency of every form of life — Brahma and Man both, the creative energy of our Dhyani-Chohans personified in Prometheus. From himself Svayambhu emanates the creative faculty symbolised by the Abstract Triad, vehicle of an unmanifested Deity and symbol of the universe to be. The geometry is explained: the first triangle forms when Cosmic Substance and Cosmic Ideation, two lines united in heaven, are joined at the base, indicating that the Son — Mahat and Matter, the inner and outer boundaries of the universe to be — is about to be born. Svayambhu is called the greatest secret of creation.

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