Shakti and Shâkta : essays and addresses on the Shâkta Tantrashâstra, str. 161

CHIT-SHAKTI

not, how the admitted appearance of unconsciousness is to be explained consistently with the unity of the Brahman.

Such then is Chit, truly known as it is in Itself only in Yoga and Moksha; known only through Its manifestations in our ordinary experience, just as, to use the simile of the Kaivalya Kalika Tantra, we realise the presence of R&hu or Bhfichchhaya by hisactions on the sun and moon.The Eclipse is seen but not the cause of it. Chit-Shakti is a name for the same changeless Chit when associated in creation with its operating M&ya-Shakti. The Supreme Chit is called Parfsamvit in the scheme of the Thirty-six Tattvas which is adopted by both the Shaiva and Shakta Agamas.

According to Shangkara, the Supreme Brahman is defined as pure Jnana without the slightest trace of either actual or potential objectivity. The Advaita Shaiva-Sh&ktas regard this matter differently in accordance with an essential principle of the Agamic School with which I now deal.

All occultism whether of East or West posits the principle that there is nothing in any one state or plane which is not in some other way, actual or potential, in another state or plane. The Western Hermetic maxim runs “ As above so below.” This is not always understood. The saying does not mean that what exists in one plane exists in that form in another plane. Obviously if it did the planes would be the same and not different. If Ishvara thought and felt and saw objects, in the human way, and if he was loving and wrathful, just as men are, He would not be ishvara but Jiva. The saying cited means that a thing which exists on one plane exists on all other planes, according either to the form of each plane, if it be an intermediate causal body (Karanavantarasharfra) or ultimately as the mere potentiality of becoming which exist in Atma in its aspect as Shakti, The Hermetic maxim is given in another form in the Vishvaséra Tantra “ what is here is

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