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[Popeyesays]

"Matrix" as Abd'ul Baha uses the term refers to the womb.
There are five times that it is used in the compilation "Baha`i World Faith":
p.266, it appears twice in the same paragraph:
"In the matrix of the mother we were the recipients of endowments and blessings of God, yet these were as nothing compared to the powers and graces bestowed upon us after birth into this human world. Likewise if we are born from the matrix of this physical and phenomenal environment into the 267 freedom and loftiness of the life and vision spiritual, we shall consider this mortal existence and its blessings as worthless by comparison."
(Abdu'l-Baha, Baha'i World Faith - Abdu'l-Baha Section, p. 266)

On pg 299, he uses it to describe the development of this planet in the universe, a kind of "womb".
"In the same manner it is evident that this terrestrial globe having once found existence, grew and developed in the matrix of the universe, and came forth in different forms and conditions, until gradually it attained this present perfection, and became adorned with innumerable beings, and appeared as a finished organization."
(Abdu'l-Baha, Baha'i World Faith - Abdu'l-Baha Section, p. 299)

On pg. 310 the use of the metaphor is made clear:
"To recapitulate: as man in the womb of the mother passes from form to form, from shape to shape, changes and develops, and is still the human species from the beginning of the embryonic period -- in the same way man, from the beginning of his existence in 310 the matrix of the world, is also a distinct species, that is, man, and has gradually evolved from one form to another."
(Abdu'l-Baha, Baha'i World Faith - Abdu'l-Baha Section, p. 309)

And on page 312: "So also the formation of man in the matrix of the world was in the beginning like the embryo; then gradually he made progress in perfection, and grew and developed until he reached the state of maturity, when the mind and spirit became visible in the greatest power."
(Abdu'l-Baha, Baha'i World Faith - Abdu'l-Baha Section, p. 312)

Regards,
Scott