Cosmological Symbols
Creation and Destruction of the Universe
Upon inaugurating an active period, says the Secret Doctrine, an expansion of the divine Essence from without inwardly and from within outwardly, occurs in obedience to eternal and immutable law, and the phenomenal or visible universe is the ultimate result of the long chain of cosmical forces thus progressively set in motion. In like manner, when the passive condition is resumed, a contraction of the divine Essence takes place, and the previous work of creation is gradually and progressively undone. The visible universe becomes disintegrated, its material dispersed; and 'darkness' solitary and alone, broods once more over the face of the 'deep.' To use a metaphor from the Secret Books, which will convey the idea still more clearly, an out-breathing of the 'unknown Essence' produces the world; and an inhalation causes it to disappear. This process has been going on from all eternity, and our present universe is but one of an infinite series, which had no beginning and will have no end." - (See Isis Unveiled, Vol. II pp. 264-265; also Secret Doctrine, Vol. I "The Days and Nights of Brahma" in Part II.)
This passage will be explained, as far as it is possible, in the present work. Though, as it now stands, it contains nothing new to the Orientalist, its esoteric interpretation may contain a good deal which has hitherto remained entirely unknown to the Western student.
The first illustration being a plain disc 
the second one in the Archaic symbol shows
, a disc with a point in it – the first differentiation in the periodical manifestations of the ever-eternal nature, sexless and infinite "Aditi in That" (Rig Veda), the point in the disc, or potential Space within abstract Space. In its third stage the point is transformed into a diameter, thus
it now symbolises a divine immaculate Mother-Nature within the all-embracing absolute Infinitude.
When the diameter line is crossed by a vertical one
, it becomes the mundane cross. Humanity has reached its third root-race; it is the sign for the origin of human life to begin. When the circumference disappears and leaves only the
it is a sign that the fall of man into matter is accomplished, and the Fourth race begins. The Cross within a circle symbolises pure Pantheism; when the Cross was left uninscribed, it became phallic. It had the same and yet other meanings as a Tau inscribed within a circle 
or as a "Thor's hammer," the Jaina cross, so-called, or simply Svastica within a circle 
.
By the third symbol -- the circle divided in two by the horizontal line of the diameter -- the first manifestation of creative (still passive, because feminine) Nature was meant. The first shadowy perception of man connected with procreation is feminine, because man knows his mother more than his father. Hence female deities were more sacred than the male. Nature is therefore feminine, and, to a degree, objective and tangible, and the spirit Principle which fructifies it is concealed. By adding to the circle with the horizontal line in it, a perpendicular line, the tau was formed
the oldest form of the letter. It was the glyph of the third root-race to the day of its symbolical Fall i.e., when the separation of sexes by natural evolution took place when the figure became the circle
, or sexless life modified or separated -- a double glyph or symbol. With the races of our Fifth Race it became in symbology the sacr', and in Hebrew n'cabvah, of the first-formed races; then it changed into the Egyptian
(emblem of life), and still later into the sign of Venus,
Then comes the Svastica (Thor's hammer, or the "Hermetic Cross" now), entirely separated from its Circle, thus becoming purely phallic. The esoteric symbol of Kali Yuga is the five-pointed star reversed, thus
the sign of human sorcery, with its two points (horns) turned heavenward, a position every Occultist will recognise as one of the "left-hand," and used in ceremonial magic.
It is hoped that during the perusal of this work the erroneous ideas of the public in general with regard to Pantheism will be modified. It is wrong and unjust to regard the Buddhists and Advaitee Occultists as atheists. If not all of them philosophers, they are, at any rate, all logicians, their objections and arguments being based on strict reasoning. Indeed, if the Parabrahmam of the Hindus may be taken as a representative of the hidden and nameless deities of other nations, this absolute Principle will be found to be the prototype from which all the others were copied. Parabrahm is not "God," because It is not a God. "It is that which is supreme, and not supreme (paravara)," explains Mandukya Upanishad (2.28). IT is "Supreme" as Cause, not supreme as effect. Parabrahm is simply, as a "Secondless Reality," the all-inclusive Kosmos – or, rather, the infinite Cosmic Space – in the highest spiritual sense, of course. Brahma (neuter) being the unchanging, pure, free, undecaying supreme Root, "the One true Existence, Paramarthika," and the absolute Chit and Chaitanya (intelligence, consciousness) cannot be a cogniser, "for That can have no subject of cognition." Can the flame be called the essence of Fire? This Essence is "the Life and Light of the Universe, the visible fire and flame are destruction and death."
- Elena P. Blavatsky, Secret Doctrine I, p.6.