THE PHYSICS OF THE SECRET DOCTRINE
BY
WILLIAM KINGSLAND
LONDON
THE THEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING SOCIETY
161 NEW BOND STREET, W.
1910
ELECTRONICLY REPRODUCED
AND REVISED BY
THEOSOPHY COMPANY OF ARIZONA
2012
FACSIMILE OF THE
ORIGINAL EDITION OF 1888
THE THEOSOPHY COMPANY
LOS ANGELES CALIF.
November 17, 1947
The changes are
marked after each quote (Oe.) for the older version and (Ne.) for the
newer version of the Secret Doctrine quotes. The only other change is
with the font and print, as in the book and other electronic versions
the font and print is messy and smugged
and difficult to read.
THE PHYSICS OF THE SECRET
DOCTRINE
PREFACE
The Secret Doctrine,
by Madame H. P. Blavatsky, published in 1888, and other modern
Theosophical Works, contain a very large amount of information
concerning the nature of the phenomenal universe in which we live
concerning the nature of Matter (or Substance) and Force (or Energy).
Much of the
information thus given is, however, in a very scattered
and fragmentary form, and it appears desirable, not merely that it
should
be collected and collated so as to compare it with the more recent
results
of modern Science, but also for a further elucidation of the many veiled
hints and references so plentifully to be found……………………………….
Very much of
this information is clearly anticipatory of a great deal which has since
become accepted fact by modern orthodox Science, but there still remains
much which modern Science has not yet reached, and which, indeed, is
beyond the reach of research by purely inductive methods and mechanical
appliances such as modern scientists rely upon………………………………………………...
The
distinctive difference between modern and occult Science lies in the
first place in the point of view from which the whole question of
phenomenon or
objectivity is approached,
and in the second place in the methods of investigation which are
employed……………………………………………………………………...
Modern Science
regards the phenomenal or material universe as a definite
reality which may be
investigated and known altogether independently of any question as to
the nature of Life and Consciousness, and it approaches the great
question as to the nature of that objective reality from
below, by inductive methods
which proceed from particulars to universals. It also seeks to penetrate
further and further into the unseen and unknown by the method of
constant improvement and invention of
mechanical appliances and
instruments of observation, to be used by our normal physical senses and
faculties.
Occult
Science, on the other hand, approaches the question from above,
recognizing in the first place as a fundamental principle that all
phenomena are modes of manifestation of
Life— the operation and play
of the One Life which is the
Universe. In the second place its methods are diametrically opposed to ,
those of modern Science, for it does not rely upon mechanical
contrivances, but works by the development within the individual himself
of higher powers and faculties, by an expansion of consciousness whereby
phenomena may be investigated and known on a higher Plane. Occult
Science gets behind phenomena as known to the mere physical senses, and
sees and knows it in a much larger and deeper relation and proportion
than is otherwise possible……………………………...
We have no
intention here of entering into any controversial questions as to the
value of occult scientific methods as opposed to those of orthodox
Science. Occult Science is its own justification for those who study it,
and our main object is to set forth in as clear and concise a form as
possible certain concepts which it presents as to the nature of Matter
and Force (or Substance and Motion), so far as these concepts have been
presented to the public in theosophical literature within the last
twenty-five years or so.
It goes
without saying, that no infallibility is claimed for any theory or
theories now advanced. These must be regarded more or less as being of
the nature of an hypothesis, subject to modification as the result of
further information or increased capacity to understand what has already
been given………………..
Our first
business will be to elucidate clearly the modern scientific views as to
the nature of Matter and Energy. We may then pass on to the Occult
teachings, dealing first of all with the general question as to the
nature of phenomena and their Root in Primordial Substance, and
after-wards with some special phenomena such as heat, light, sound,
electricity, etc……………………………..
It will be
shown incidentally in what respects the more recent discoveries of
modern Science have been largely anticipated by, and are confirmatory
of, the teachings of Occult Science ; how indeed modern scientific
theories are now rapidly approaching those which Occult Science has
advanced long ago. We might instance, in this connection, the very
recent pronouncements as to the possibility of a transmutation of
elements ; a possibility, as is well known, so long since advanced by
Medieval Alchemists, but until quite recently—since the discovery of
Radium—denied by orthodox Science………………………………….
Occult Physics
are so closely connected with Metaphysics that it is almost impossible
to deal with the one without the other. While, therefore, we shall be
compelled to present somewhat of the Metaphysical basis upon which the
whole of the teachings rest, we shall at the same time endeavour to
subordinate this as much as possible to what is more generally
understood as Physics. All Physics, however, all physical inquiry when
pushed far enough, must necessarily end in a metaphysical region. Matter
can have no ultimate explanation in and by itself, or without its
correlative, Mind or Consciousness.
It is hardly
possible to make a work of this kind in any sense elementary ;
nevertheless, it will be made as little technical as possible ; and it
is hoped that the subject has
been presented in such a manner as to be readily understandable by the
average non-technical reader………………………………………………….
It is also
hoped that what is herein set forth will serve, in some little degree,
as a tribute to the remarkable genius and knowledge of the gifted woman
to whom we owe The Secret
Doctrine.
W. KINGSLAND.
London,
December 1909.
CONTENTS
CHAP. PAGE
1. FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES ....... 1
2. MATTER AND MOTION . . . . . . . .18
3. PRIMORDIAL SUBSTANCE ....... 30
4. THE SUBSTANTIAL NATURE OF FORCE . . . . .39
5. THE DAWN OF EVOLUTION 46
6. THE COSMIC ELEMENTS . . . . . . .56
7. THE EVOLUTION OF HUMANITY AND THE EVOLUTION OF THE ELEMENTS .........
79
8. PHYSICAL PLANE MATTER ....... 92
9. THE SUN AND SOLAR SYSTEM . . . . . .109
10. FOHAT, ELECTRICITY, AND CORRELATED FORCES . . .129
CHAPTER I
FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES
At the root of all our thinking, of all human endeavour to penetrate and
understand the great triple mystery of Matter, Force, and Life (or
Consciousness), to solve if possible the great Riddle of the Universe,
to go behind the mere appearance of things into the arcane region of
Primal Causes: there lies a fundamental necessity—expressed in different
ways in Religion, Philosophy, and Science—to unify all diversity under
some one general term or concept to postulate the existence of some One
Root Principle, existing eternally as the Cause, the Source, or the
Container of all things.
In Religion
this Primal Cause is expressed under some concept of a Divine Being.
In Philosophy
we have the concept of an Absolute, or such terms as the Unknowable, or
the Unconscious.
Science,
however, can hardly be said as yet to have such a concept ; indeed in
the modern sense of the term Science, such a concept is not strictly
speaking within its province, at all events it is not within the
province of physical science, for physical science cannot deal with
metaphysical questions; it has nothing to do with the question of the
ultimate relation of subject and object,
2 THE PHYSICS OF THE SECRET DOCTRINE
of
It is true
that the attempt has been made by some scientists to include the
phenomena of life and consciousness within the mechanical laws of matter
and force ; to make of matter, with its intrinsic energy, the
fons et origo of all things
in the Universe. This attempt is what is commonly known as Materialism ;
and, in its very inadequacy, it is but one example of the fundamental
necessity of the human mind to which we have alluded.
Deeply
implanted within us there lies a sense of the unity and uniformity of
Nature; we are compelled to conceive of a substantial
Something which may change in
appearance, in its modes of action or manifestation, but which in itself
and by itself must be Self-existent. Infinite, and Eternal.
The objective
and visible symbol, the appearance, the manifestation of that
Something, we know as Matter
; and although no one has ever proved that Matter exists
per se, or apart from the
Consciousness by which it is known or cognized, yet Matter at least
stands for us as the representative of that basic
Something which can neither
spring out of nothing, nor can ever be conceived of as being
annihilated.
The knower
(Consciousness) and that which is known (Matter or Phenomena) must both
in the end be this same basic
Something if our intuition of a final Unity has any foundation in
fact. Possibly, therefore, we may find in a final analysis that it is
all one whether we say that without Matter there can be no
Consciousness, or that without Consciousness there can be no Matter.
These two are possibly so related as poles, or aspects, or modes of the
One Reality, that either of them must disappear with the other —not of
course in any individual form in which they may exist for the time
being, but in their cosmic
relationship.
FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES 3
In other words, we would suggest—without entering into any metaphysical
discussion of the matter—that that which wells up within us as
individual Consciousness must have a
cosmic origin just as
necessarily as that which manifests as individual forms of matter, or
physical phenomena.
This concept,
indeed, is a fundamental one in Occult Science, which sees in all
Phenomena the expression of a Cosmic Life, and in all selves or
individual forms of consciousness the reflection of the One Universal
Self.
The history of
modern Science, the Science of the nineteenth century, will always be
associated with three great generalizations (a) the indestructibility of
matter, (b) the conservation of energy, and (c) the law of evolution.
These three
great principles have gradually assumed the character of scientific
axioms. Strictly speaking, they are only demonstrable within very narrow
limits of observed phenomena; but as the result of our sense of
uniformity and unity in Nature, they have further assumed the character
of universal laws. Scientific men believe that they are operative in
every part of the Cosmos.
We shall have
to deal with each of these in turn in the following pages, as they are
fundamental concepts of Occult Science as well as of Modern Science ;
indeed they are only restatements of some of the oldest teachings in the
world; they have been rediscovered, or reformulated, in an age and
civilization only just emerging from centuries of intellectual darkness
and thraldom. The proof of this, the various glyphs, and the symbology
and terminology embodying these principles in the ancient Scriptures and
Occult Records of the world—all these are voluminously dealt with in
Madame Blavatsky's great work,
The Secret Doctrine, This part of the subject, however, belongs to
the literary and historical side of the question, with which we are not
now concerned.
The first of
these three great principles—the indestructi-
4 THE PHYSICS OF THE SECRET DOCTRINE
bility of matter—means something very different to-day from what it did
at the commencement of last century, or indeed even a few years ago. All
through last century Physical Science was dominated with the idea of the
absolute indestructibility of physical matter as such, or of the
chemical atom. At the commencement of the century Physical Science was
largely overshadowed by the genius of Sir Isaac Newton, and Newton had
written of Matter as follows :
" It seems
probable to me that God in the beginning formed matter in solid, massy,
hard, impenetrable, movable particles, of such sizes and figures, and
with such other properties, and in such proportion to space as most to
conduce to the end for which He formed them ; and that these primitive
particles being solids,
are incomparably harder than any porous body compounded of them ; even
so very hard as never to wear or break to pieces ; no ordinary power
being able to
divide what God himself made one in the first creation."
We find an
echo of this, tinged also with the theological bias, in the celebrated
" Discourse on Molecules " by Professor Clerk Maxwell, delivered before
the British Association at Bradford in 1873. Professor Maxwell says :
“Though in the
course of ages catastrophes have occurred and may yet occur in the
heavens, though ancient systems may be dissolved, and new systems
evolved out of their ruins, the molecules out of which these systems are
built—the foundation stones of the material universe—remain unbroken and
unworn.
They continue this day as they were created—perfect in number, and
measure, and weight."
We might also
quote the following, taken from a book published as late as 1899 by
Professor Dolbear, entitled
Matter, Ether, and Motion. It serves to show how the idea of the
indestructibility of physical matter
per se has been an article of
faith with some scientific men down to the very end of the last century.
“There is
nothing to indicate that attrition among atoms or molecules ever removes
any of their material. It appears as if
FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES
5
one might affirm in the strongest way that the atoms of matter never
wear out. ... So one may be led to the conclusion that whatever else may
decay, atoms do not, but remain as types of permanency through all
imaginable changes—permanent bodies in form and all physical qualities,
and permanent in time, capable
apparently of enduring through infinite time. Presenting no evidence of
growth or decay, they are in strong contrast with such bodies of visible
magnitude as our senses directly perceive. . . . There appears to be
nothing stable but atoms."
But
notwithstanding this conservative tendency, the indestructibility of the
chemical atom has long been doubted by some few leading scientists ;
and, finally, the discovery of radioactivity, and of Radium itself, has
practically placed the matter beyond any doubt; for in Radium we have an
actual case of the break-up or disintegration of the chemical atom.
It is now
absolutely certain that the atom is an exceedingly complex body, that it
is in fact built up of varying numbers or aggregations of much smaller
bodies, that these smaller bodies have some very intimate relation to
what we know as electricity, and that the atom contains within itself an
enormous store of intrinsic energy.
It was perhaps
quite natural that without the comparatively intimate knowledge of the
structure of physical bodies which we now possess, the earlier
conceptions of the atom should be wholly based upon the very evident
properties of matter in bulk.
Thus, without
passing into a purely metaphysical region, it is comparatively easy to
conceive of the atom as being only a very small piece of the matter with
which we are so familiar ; to conceive of the atom as being an
exceedingly minute body having both mass, or inertia, and size, or
extension in space.
But this
conception of the atom as a " solid, massy, hard, impenetrable particle"
is not one with which either Science or Philosophy could really remain
satisfied. Religion might rest on the assumption that the atom was a "
created "
6 THE PHYSICS
OF THE SECRET DOCTRINE
article, though even authoritative Religion must finally bow to the
evidence of irrefutable
fact.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
But it is
quickly seen that the hard particle theory raises many difficulties of
its own of a scientific as well as of a philosophical nature, and leaves
many things unexplained or unaccounted for on the principle of
uniformity or unity. It could not in fact be a final or Root
Concept.-------------------------------------------------------
Anything which
occupies space, however small, may conceivably be subdivided
ad infinitum. But to admit
that the atom may be subdivided to infinity is practically to annihilate
it altogether ; or, as Buchner says, " to deny altogether the reality of
matter." On the other hand Herbert Spencer considers that we must admit
such infinite divisibility………………………………………………………….
The scientist,
however, who refuses to pass over the imaginary line which he himself
draws between physics and metaphysics, must feel compelled to cling to a
material particle of some kind or other, and accordingly we find, as a
modification of the original concept of the indestructibility of the
chemical atom, the hypothesis that there may be some minute primordial
particle or ultimate atom or atoms, all these atoms being absolutely
alike, and the various chemical atoms with which we are familiar being
built up of varying numbers and combinations of these primitive
particles.
These
particles, however, are still conceived of as having mass and extension,
the two irreducible and inalienable characteristics of matter as such,
to which the physicist must cling.
Under this
hypothesis all phenomena are supposed to be due, in their last analysis,
to the motions and impacts of these ultimate or primordial particles.
This theory,
however, only shifts one of the primary difficulties a little further
back, from the chemical atom to the primordial particle.
It is
necessary that this primary difficulty should be very
FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES
7
clearly understood, since it largely affects our ideas as to the nature
of Force or Energy, as well as those of matter. Any physical theory
which may be advanced as to the nature of Matter must be in consonance
with the second of our great generalizations, i.e., the Conservation of
Energy.
The phrase "
the Conservation of Energy " means simply that the sum-total of Energy
in the Universe is a constant and indestructible quantity, just as the
quantity of matter was conceived to be under the old ultimate particle
theory.
Energy may be transformed, or transmuted from one form to another, but
Energy, considered as a quantity, can never be destroyed.
Now the two
indispensable factors in the manifestation of what we know as Energy are
mass and
motion. Energy is the product
of these two, and any body or particle moving with a certain velocity
possesses a definite amount of energy,
or momentum, expressible as
the mass multiplied by the velocity, or m x v.
Formerly it
was supposed that all the various forces light, heat, electricity, etc.,
—were imponderables. They
were something else than matter. But with the growth of a purely
mechanical idea of the Universe these imponderables were banished, and
finally the idea of the substantial nature of Force has been totally
repudiated. Brought into line with the atomo-mechanical theory of the
Universe,
the term Force has been replaced by that of Energy ; Energy being simply
the result of the motion of mass,
whilst Force is only considered to be a convenient term for the rate of
change of motion, and has thus no claim to any substantial or objective
existence.1
We shall see
later on, however, that the substantial nature of Force is in a fair way
to be re-established. It is one of the fundamental doctrines of Occult
Science.
Energy, then, being dependent on the two factors
mass
1 See P. G. Tait,
Recent Advances in Physical Science (1876), Lecture xiv., on
Force.
8 THE PHYSICS OF THE SECRET DOCTRINE
and motion, it is evident
that if either of these disappears or is annihilated, Energy must be
destroyed, and the doctrine of the Conservation of Energy abrogated.
This is why the modern scientist clings so desperately to his idea of
ultimate mass. The more
philosophical view of the ultimate nature of Substance has not yet
penetrated into the region of orthodox physics. Indeed it is not needed
for the
practical manipulation of matter and energy on the physical plane. Just
as Dalton's atomic theory will serve all the practical requirements of
Chemistry up to a certain point, so also will a purely mechanical idea
of the nature of Matter
and Force serve the physicist in all his practical or experimental
investigations. But when he seeks to penetrate further into the very
ultimate nature and constitution of things, nay even when he seeks to
penetrate only so far as the nature of Matter in its next remove from
the physical Plane—Matter on the Etheric Plane—he is met with a state of
things in which all physical analogies fail. Take away the fundamental
idea of mass as a definite
concrete material something,
and his whole scheme of the Universe vanishes into a metaphysical region
where he cannot possibly follow with his mathematical formulae. Thus he
clings tenaciously to the idea of mass as an ultimate and indestructible
factor in phenomena; in other words, he conceives that any final
analysis of matter—whether it be into Ether or some more primordial form
of substance must still reveal the presence of mass.
Mass or
inertia, we are told by modern physicists, is an irreducible minimum of
material qualities. This may be granted as applicable to
physical matter, which is all
that we can take cognizance of with our physical senses. Whatever other
forces or forms of matter there may be in the universe, we can only take
cognizance of them in physical science by their effects in or upon
physical matter, and in that respect they must be associated in some
way, or translated as it were, into that particular mode of
manifestation
FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES 9
which we call energy, and
which is indissolubly associated with the idea of
mass or
inertia. The real fact is
that the conception of mass is absolutely necessary for any physical or
mechanical explanation of phenomena because it is part of our mental
image of matter : it is indissolubly associated with our
sensation of matter ; and the
business of the physicist being to give a
physical explanation of
phenomena, he cannot do without it. We must remember that to give a
physical explanation of phenomena means that we must do so in terms of
the familiar things of our everyday life and consciousness.
Nevertheless, physical matter being an effect, not a cause, we can never
really explain the Universe in terms of material phenomena.
Now in order
to understand where the ultimate particle theory of Matter breaks down
in its connection with the doctrine of the conservation of Energy let us
take a concrete illustration. Suppose a body such as a cannon-ball or a
rifle-bullet collides with a target, whereby its motion as a body is
wholly annihilated. The energy of the body as a whole thereby ceases,
but it is not lost or destroyed.
According to the law of the conservation of energy, it must be handed on
or transmuted into something else, it must reappear in some other form.
As a matter of fact we know that in this case the energy which
previously existed as a
mass motion of the cannon-ball or bullet, is converted into molecular
motion and reappears as heat.
Apply this to
the ultimate particle theory. That theory postulates that all phenomena
whatsoever are due to the motions of the ultimate particles. Now if
these ultimate particles are really indivisible and indestructible, we
have at once assured ourselves that one of the necessary factors in the
conservation of energy, that of mass, is conserved and cannot be
destroyed, or even changed into something else. But how does the matter
stand with the other necessary factor, i.e., motion ?
If we suppose
that our ultimate particles are hard, rigid,
10 THE PHYSICS
OF THE SECRET DOCTRINE
and inelastic, then we are face to face with the serious difficulty that
they must be constantly losing their motion, and consequently their
energy, by collision with each other. Two particles meeting in opposite
directions with the same velocity would have their respective motions
absolutely destroyed; for, being absolutely rigid and inelastic, there
could be no rebound, neither could the motion be
converted into internal molecular motion as in the case of the bullet;
for our ultimate particle, as already defined, has no internal
construction. In this case, therefore, motion would be absolutely
destroyed, and the law of the conserva-
tion of energy abrogated.
We see,
indeed, as a matter of fact, that unless some amount of energy is to be
lost with every collision, the ultimate particle cannot be anything less
than absolutely elastic, that is to say that two particles meeting in
collision would rebound with exactly the same velocity as they met. This
supposition, however, only involves us in an
impasse, for elasticity must,
according to all our physical ideas, imply a structure for the ultimate
particle ; it must imply that the particle can be strained, and that it
can recover from the strain ; it implies a movement of component parts.
But our ultimate particle has no component parts. If we
are to conceive of it as elastic, therefore, we stultify our fundamental
conception of it.
Yet motion
must be conserved somehow. Instinctively and intuitively we feel that
the Primum Mobile of the
Universe cannot be diminished or depreciated. In some sense the Universe
must be a perpetual-motion machine. If it were in any sense running down
like a clock that has been wound up—well, it has already had an eternity
to run down in. Such a conception may be applicable to a
part, such as a Solar System, or to this Physical Plane only, but it
cannot be true of the whole.
Herbert
Spencer and other Philosophers have conceived that while it is running
down in one place it is being wound
FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES
11
up in another, and that this process constitutes what we know as
evolution and devolution. But the difficulty of conceiving of this on
any purely physical basis is insurmountable.
Most of the
energy which this Earth possesses,
or which comes to it from the Sun or other sources, is ultimately
radiated away into space, and there
apparently irretrievably
lost, passing out into the infinity of space, travelling on and on, for
ever and ever, as a mode of motion on the Ether. And if it be
postulated—as indeed has been done in order to get over the
difficulty—that at some inconceivably remote point it is turned back,
that in fact Space is not infinite—some have even conceived that it is
curved—then at once we have left the region of physics, and are face to
face with the metaphysical question as to the nature of Space itself.
Now it is very
clear that all these difficulties arise simply from the fact that we are
trying to explain the whole Universe from top to bottom
in terms of the physical Plane only ; in terms, that is to say, of
our limited physical senses and consciousness.
We would lay
particular stress upon this, because the first and foremost principle of
Occult Science is a full and complete recognition of the fact that no
question of ultimates can be solved from mere physical Plane data or
phenomena. The physical Plane is a Plane of
effects, not of causes ; it
is in fact a Plane many times removed from the Plane of Primal Cause,
and the effects or phenomena discernible thereon are not primary, nor
even secondary effects, but effects many times removed from the ultimate
Cause or Noumenon.
We shall deal
more fully with this, and with the question of Planes, later on : but,
meanwhile, we must note how Modern Science is coming into line with this
fundamental concept of Occult Science.
Let us return,
therefore, for a moment to our ultimate particle theory. Supposing that
all matter does consist of
12 THE
PHYSICS OF THE SECRET DOCTRINE
these ultimate particles, these " solid, massy, hard, impenetrable"
objects, which are moving about in space in all directions, and mutually
exchanging their motions, and supposing that we have shut our eyes to
the little difficulty about elasticity, etc., we have still to ask—What
else does Space contain ?
To this
question there is at present only one answer given by Modern Science
—Space is filled with the Ether.
Now the
existence of the Ether was guessed at by Newton, but was regarded as
altogether hypothetical by many scientists even down to the middle of
last century. Its existence was really credited in the first instance as
the result of the celebrated undulatory theory of light enunciated in
1801 by Thomas Young ; indeed, the only function which the Ether was at
first supposed to perform was to serve as the medium for the
transmission of light-waves, its only activity was to undulate.
Gradually,
however, the important part which the Ether plays in all physical
phenomena was recognized. Its connection with electric and magnetic
phenomena was clearly demonstrated ; and, indeed, the history of the
Science of the nineteenth century may be said to be the history of the
discovery of the all-importance of the Ether. The Ether literally
ensouls physical matter; no physical phenomena whatsoever can take place
without its agency.
But what is
Ether, and what is its connection with physical matter ?
One of the
main objections to any ultimate particle theory of matter—viewed in the
light of our desire to unify all phenomena, to relate everything in the
Universe to some one Root Principle—is the fact that we have thus in
Matter
and Ether two apparently distinct substances, differing totally in their
characteristics and properties, and seemingly absolutely independent of
each other. Matter, as such, was postulated to be indestructible and
eternal, and certainly nothing less could be said of the Ether.
FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES 13
The first
scientist to attempt to break down this duality was Lord Kelvin. In 1867
he put forward his celebrated vortex-atom theory, in which he postulated
that the atom of physical matter might possibly be some form of
vortex-ring motion in and of the substance of the Ether.
This theory
obtained little or no support from contemporary scientists ; it was in
fact several decades in advance of its time, and there was hardly any,
perhaps we might say no actual scientific evidence to support it.
Nevertheless, it was a theory destined to bear fruit later on ; indeed,
we might possibly date the decline and fall of the hard particle theory
from that time. Various lines of research
were gradually pointing to the fact that the chemical atom at all events
was not simple in its nature, that it was conceivably built up of
something much more elementary. Then came the discovery of the Cathode
Rays; later on the discovery of Radio-activity, of Electrons, and
finally of Radium : the phenomena connected with this substance being
ultimately ascertained to be due to the actual disintegration or
break-up of the chemical atom.
Thus, as the
final achievement of the Physical Science of the nineteenth century, we
have broken down the old atomic barrier to further advance, the
seemingly impenetrable wall of " hard, massy particles " which barred
the way, and have advanced at least a few steps into the arcane region
beyond.
What, then,
has Modern Science discovered there ?
First and
foremost, the corpuscle or electron.
The principal fact connected with the phenomena of the cathode rays, and
with all radio-active substances, is the existence of exceedingly minute
particles to which the name of corpuscle or electron has been given. In
1897 Professor Sir J. J. Thomson succeeded in ascertaining the mass of
these particles, and found it to be only
1/500th
or
1/1000th
that of the lightest atom hitherto known, i.e., the hydrogen atom.
At first,
then, it was thought that the atom of hydrogen
14 THE PHYSICS OF THE SECRET DOCTRINE
might be
composed or built up of some 800 or 1000 of these smaller particles, but
this supposition appears to have been somewhat too hasty a conclusion.
The really
important fact, however, about the electron is this, that it is found to
consist of, or to carry with it, a definite charge of electricity, and
in this respect all electrons, from whatever source obtained, are found
to be identical.
Thus the
electron has not merely the smallest mass of anything known, but it is
also, so to speak, a unit atom of electricity.
Now it is well
known that a body charged with electricity acquires, as the result of
that charge, and when moving through space, an additional apparent mass
or inertia ; over and above its legitimate physical mass. Up to a
velocity
of about 18,000 miles per second—about one-tenth the velocity of
light—this additional mass is not subject to any apparent variation. But
at higher velocities it increases rapidly, and at the velocity of light
itself—185,000 miles per second—it would be infinite.
If, then, the
electron is a very small particle of matter having, or carrying with it,
a definite electric charge, its mass would be expected to vary with
varying velocities, and such an effect has, in fact, been actually
observed by Kauffmann : the mass of the electron in some of his
observations being found to be at least three times as great as that
which was measured at the slower velocities.
But at this
point a very interesting speculation comes in. May not the
whole mass of the
electron—its apparent mass at the slower speeds, as well as its added
mass at the higher speeds—be due simply to its electric nature ; may not
the
electron in fact be wholly an
electric charge, with no real solid nucleus of matter at all ?
In this
view—which is known as the
electronic theory of matter—the electron is considered to be a unit
or atom of electricity, and matter—the chemical atom—to be built up of
electrons.
FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES
15
But what,
then, is electricity itself ?
Electricity is
certainly an etheric phenomenon ; and the electron is conceivably some
sort of a " knot," " twist," or " nucleus of intrinsic strain " in the
Ether. Matter, therefore, according to this theory, is in substance
etheric in its nature ;
physical matter in fact is Ether, a special mode or form of motion in
and of the substance of the Ether.
This theory is
as yet by no means proved ; nevertheless it holds the field as a working
hypothesis, and one moreover which appears to offer the best prospects
of further advance. Some leading scientists appear to have definitely
accepted it. Professor Sir J. J. Thomson tells us that " All mass is
mass of the ether ; all momentum, momentum of the ether ; all kinetic
energy, kinetic energy of the ether " ; 1 in other words,
every physical phenomenon whatsoever, including matter itself, has its
origin and source in the Ether.
As far back as
1882 Sir Oliver Lodge wrote of the Ether and its functions as follows :
" One continuous substance filling all space : which can vibrate as
light ; which can be sheared into positive and negative electricity ;
which in whirls constitutes matter; and which transmits by continuity,
and not by impact, every action and reaction of which matter is capable.
This is the modern view of the
Ether and its functions." 2
Here, then, we
reach the borderland at which Modern Science now stands. Physical matter
is resolvable back into the Ether : into a continuous, homogeneous
Substance filling all space. This Substance is, therefore, for Modern
Science, the Primordial Substance, the
Urstoff of the Universe.
And since
physical matter is resolvable back into this Substance, it has
presumably been evolved therefrom…………………………………………………...
1
Electricity and Matter,
p. 51.
2
Lecture on " The Ether and its Functions delivered at the London
Institution, Dec. 28, 1 882. See reprint in
Modern Views of Electricity,".
16 THE PHYSICS OF THE SECRET DOCTRINE
Quite possibly, as Science has now discovered the disintegration of
matter, it may not be long before the integration or formation of our
physical atoms is also discovered. Possibly scientists may be able to
track Nature's process into some region as yet unsuspected, and there
discover the secret of the formative process. We shall see later on that
Occult Science has many hints to give in this direction.
One thing is
certain : the old rigid particle theory has gone by the board ; the
atomo-mechanical theory is as dead as the atoms themselves were supposed
to be, even if it has not as yet had a decent burial. As Sir Oliver
Lodge has said,
" We cannot go back to mere impact of hard bodies after having allowed
ourselves a continuous medium."
We see,
therefore, that Science has now reached a much wider and deeper
generalization than any which was possible so long as the phrase "the
indestructibility of matter " meant nothing more than the
indestructibility of
physical matter, or the chemical atom. Science is, indeed, now within a
measurable distance of a really unitary concept, even if not quite of a
philosophical concept of that One Primordial Substance which is the
Eternal Root
Principle and indestructible Cause of all phenomena.
It would be
asking too much of Modern Science, however, to regard Primordial
Substance—whether that Substance be the Ether, or something still
further removed from our physical Plane—as anything else than a
dead substance, as anything
else than a material something, using the word " material " in a purely
mechanical sense. For the physicist, matter in itself or by itself is
inert and passive it is dead
in every sense of the word. It is only in very complex combinations of
physical atoms and molecules, in protoplasm for example, that it
commences to exhibit the phenomena which we commonly associate with the
term life—i.e.,
self-initiated movement.
For the
physicist pure and simple the question of life
FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES 17
does not exist, and it is perhaps only natural that, just as the first
ideas as to the nature of atoms were derived from what is so obvious to
us when dealing with matter in bulk, so also the first conceptions as to
the nature of Substance
should be based upon the mere mechanical properties and mathematical
formulas with which the physicist deals. How, indeed, can the physicist
ascribe to the Ether— not to speak of that which lies beyond the
Ether—any properties or modes of motion of which he has no physical
analogies whatsoever ?
It will be
seen from what follows that Occult Science is not thus restricted. For
Occult Science the Substance of the Universe is
living substance, and it is
only "down here," in the form of physical matter, that that Substance
takes on the appearance—to our limited physical senses of a dead, inert
thing.
Occult Science
joins with Modern Science in asserting that Matter is indestructible;
only the Matter of Occult Science is not even the Ether, much less
physical matter. Occult Science joins with Modern Science in asserting
that Energy is indestructible; only that Energy is something much more
than the mere product of mass and velocity.
Occult Science
joins with Modern Science in upholding the great law of Evolution ; but
its understanding of the scope and operation of this law is infinitely
wider and deeper than any to which Modern Science has yet attained.
CHAPTER II
MATTER AND MOTION
Let us conceive now, in accordance with the teachings of both Modern
Science and Occult Science, that all Space is filled with
Something, the most
philosophical term for which would be Primordial Substance, because the
term Substance means
literally that which sub-stands, or stands under, as a root or basic
Principle. It is that from which the phenomenal Universe is evolved,
that by reason of which it exists
or comes into ex-istence
(from ex, out, and
sisto, to stand), i.e., that
which appears or is manifested of an otherwise concealed Cause or
Principle.
Considering
this Principle, however, in a somewhat more restricted sense, as merely
the Root of Matter, we may give other names to it; and the name which
Modern Science gives to it is Ether.
The Ancients
also called it
Æther
; only their
Æther
was not the Ether of Modern Science, but something very much further
removed from physical Plane phenomena. We may retain the distinctive
spelling of the word in order to
indicate the difference.
Now it is not
difficult to postulate the existence of " one universal substance,
perfectly homogeneous and continuous and simple in structure, extending
to the furthest limits of space of which we have any knowledge, existing
equally
everywhere" (Sir Oliver Lodge). Such a substance, we see, must be
practically identical with space itself. It is
MATTER AND MOTION 19
not difficult to form some sort of a mental concept of this, because to
our physical senses the invisible air, which we know occupies the space
in which we move, appears to be continuous and homogeneous. In water
also we have another example of an apparently homogeneous and continuous
substance.
It is not
difficult, further, to conceive of certain forms of motion existing in
such a substance. We may form vortex-rings in air or water ; though,
unless we use a little smoke or some coloured liquid, these rings are
not distinguishable
to our sight from the medium itself in which they are formed. We are
also familiar with waves, undulations, and vibrations in such mediums,
and indeed our present ideas of the possible motions of the Ether appear
to be wholly based upon these familiar forms. We know for certain that
the phenomena of light, heat, electricity, magnetism, etc., are due to
certain specific forms or modes
of motion in and of the Ether; but whether all these phenomena—and that
of matter itself—are nothing more
than " modes of motion " of a simple homogeneous space-filling Substance
is quite another question. The general
tendency now is to regard the Ether as structural, even if not atomic :
in which case we shall have to go further back for our real
space-filling or Primordial Substance. In other words, just as we have
to distinguish between the Ether itself and that mode of motion of the
Ether which we know phenomenally as physical matter, so also we may
possibly have to distinguish between Primordial Substance itself, and
that mode of motion of it which we now know as the Ether.
The
difficulties which lie in the way of a clear knowledge of the nature and
functions of the Ether are, in fact, very great ; for when we endeavour
to realize what the Ether must be in itself, in its own intrinsic nature
and properties, the
simple and gross physical analogies to which we have referred fail us
entirely. We have no such thing on the physical
20 THE PHYSICS OF THE SECRET
DOCTRINE--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
plane as a continuous, homogeneous substance ; the atoms is the nature
of the Ether that it apparently flows quite freely through the very
densest physical bodies, as if they consisted of an open meshwork of the
largest possible
dimensions. Physicists are beginning to teach us, indeed, that atoms and
molecules are comparable, in their relative sizes and distances, to the
Sun and Planets of our Solar System. A single atom of hydrogen might
possibly be
found to consist, if sufficiently magnified, of a few bodies (corpuscles
or electrons) comparable in size to the Planets, and revolving in orbits
round a central nucleus comparable to the Sun. In other words, our Solar
System might
possibly be a mere atom, and our own particular universe—which there is
reason to suppose has its limits—would be merely a compound molecule in
the vast Cosmic Whole.
Now all this
is, of course, the purest speculation on the part of Science, yet it
serves to show, in the first instance, how the mind must necessarily run
into these wider generalizations for its own satisfaction. Even the
scientific mind cannot rest contented with bare facts ; the imagination
must always outrun the limitations of actual knowledge.
In the second
place, we see in this wider outlook the recognition by Modern Science of
a principle which has always been a fundamental one with Occult Science.
This principle is known as that of correspondence and analogy " as
above, so below." It teaches that the Microcosm is a copy or reflection
of the Macrocosm ; that in both small and great we shall find not merely
the same fundamental principles at work, not merely a fundamental unity
and uniformity in nature, even as it appears to our limited senses, but
something much more fundamental even than that, something for the proper
apprehension of which we must even get outside of our limited
conceptions of time
MATTER AND MOTION 21
and space. This would lead us, however, too far into the metaphysical
side of the question.
Modern
scientists, notwithstanding their general detestation of Metaphysics,
are constantly seeking to interpret phenomena in philosophical terms, to
penetrate with the imagination that super-physical region which lies
beyond the reach of their physical senses and instruments, and the
actual happenings of which can only be inferred from the visible and
palpable effects in physical matter. Scientists have indeed been
accused, not without some show of reason,
of being unconscious metaphysicians.
Physical
Science, however, has no philosophy of Primordial Substance, and the
question of the relation of the Ether, or, in general, of higher or
super-physical Planes of Substance to Life and Consciousness, is one
which at present concerns the science of Psychology or Psychical
Research, rather than what is more generally known as Science.
In Occult
Science, however, as already indicated, it is impossible, when dealing
with the question of the Space-filling Substance, to put on one side the
question of Life and Consciousness. The reason for this can be very
simply stated.
In the view of
Occult Science, Spirit (Life, Consciousness, Ideation) and Matter are
the two poles or contrasted aspects of one and the same thing—of the One
Root Principle, by whatever name it may be called. All phenomena are the
result of contrast, differentiation, discrimination, or opposition.
Apart altogether from the metaphysical question as to the primary
relationship of Consciousness to Phenomenon, or of Subject to Object, we
cannot know any single thing save by its qualities, and these qualities
are in the nature of contrast with other qualities, and always imply an
opposite, a duality. They always imply also a limitation in the thing
itself as cognized.
22 THE PHYSICS OF THE SECRET DOCTRINE
In the
concepts of physical Science, the fundamental duality is Force or
Motion, and Matter ; and Occult Science asserts that Force in its
ultimate analysis and nature is the One Life of the Universe. On the
highest Cosmic Planes, on the Plane of Primordial Substance itself, the
Cause of all that we know
down here as various differentiated forces is a Conscious Intelligence ;
or more correctly perhaps, a Hierarchy of Conscious Intelligences. This,
however, we shall deal with more in detail later on.
We have
already hinted that modern Science is not very far from a recognition of
the substantial nature of Force, an idea which was practically abandoned
last century in favour of the more concrete term Energy. Already the
electrons are spoken of by
some scientists as " centres of force " in the substance of the Ether.
Having done away, indeed, with the atom or ultimate particle as a thing
existing per se, and having
substituted in its place an absolutely space-filling Substance, we see
that the forms or modes of motion in or of that Substance which stand in
the relationship of forces to
that other form or mode of motion which we call physical matter, must be
as substantial as matter
itself. Nay, further, they may even be atomic, in the same sense that
matter is atomic. Already we are told that electricity is atomic, and it
may still be found that the corpuscular theory of light is capable of a
new interpretation.
It is clearly
seen that on the basis of an absolutely space-filling Substance, in
which physical matter—or the matter of any possible Plane of
consciousness—is only a particular mode of motion, or manifestation of
Force, there is in reality no such thing as a material particle at all :
that is to say, a particle which has a distinct mass or inertia of its
own altogether independent of its specific motion. The existence of the
particle is dependent upon motion, and not the existence of the motion
upon the particle. A space-filling Substance such as we have postulated
cannot be densified in order to form it into a material particle, it
MATTER AND MOTION 23
exists equally everywhere; and the apparent density of matter is not due
to more or less substance, but to more or less motion, or Force.
That specific
form of motion of the Ether which constitutes physical matter may
conceivably be transformed into another absolutely dissimilar mode of
motion ; and in that case physical matter would simply disappear, it
would utterly vanish, though motion would remain, inherent in Substance.
That the whole physical universe will thus one day disappear, reabsorbed
or reinvolved into that One Root Substance from or in which it has been
evolved, is one of the fundamental teachings of Occult Science.
Let us
conceive, then, that all space is filled with this Primordial Substance,
whether it be the Ether of Science, or something still further removed
from our present physical consciousness. If we regard this Substance
merely as the Root of Matter, as something which is merely passive and
inert, then it must be something in which something else which we can
only call Force acts to
produce certain specific forms of motion.
We cannot say
that Force acts upon this Substance, because, since it fills all Space,
and is, therefore, practically identical with Space, there is no outside
to it. Force might conceivably act from some still more interior plane,
from something more interior than Space itself ; but here again we touch
the metaphysical question as to the nature of our concept of Space.
Physically, indeed, when we
have postulated an absolutely space-filling Substance, we have reached
the limit of our possible conceptions.
We may
picture, therefore, to ourselves a space-filling Substance, capable of
taking on, as it were, all sorts and forms or modes of motion, of which
the most conceivable to us at present are vortex-rings, and waves or
undulations.
The scientific
man must necessarily form some kind of a mental image of what is
actually taking place in the unseen region which he is endeavouring to
penetrate.
24
THE PHYSICS OF THE SECRET DOCTRINE
Many physicists find it useful to make mechanical models to illustrate
such things as the chemical combinations of atoms and molecules, and the
action of electricity and magnetism. Several mechanical models of the
Ether itself have even been attempted; but in such case the Ether must
of course be conceived of as structural in its nature, and would
therefore not be the Primordial Substance
which we are seeking. " Ether,
whatever Modern Science makes of it, is differentiated Substance."
If now, in
consonance with the doctrine of the conservation of energy, we regard
motion in and of the Primordial Substance as being indestructible—not
individually or separately in its various forms or modes, but as a
whole—we do not need to go beyond Primordial Substance itself for the
origin of Force, nor do we need to set up Force as a separate Entity. We
have, in fact, resolved both Force and Matter back into one primitive
Root Principle, which we might thus term Force-Substance.
In this view,
all individual forces, as well as all specific kinds of matter, will be
simply specialized or limited forms or modes of motion in and of the One
Substance. Force, in fact, will be as substantial as matter, or matter
as un-
substantial as force, whichever way we may prefer to state it. These
varied and specific forms or modes of the One Substance are destructible
as forms, or mutually convertible, but the Force-Substance in itself,
and in its eternal ceaseless Motion, is indestructible and eternal.
It will
readily be seen, further, that so soon as any specific form or mode of
motion —such, for example, as that which constitutes the electron—has
been set up, or any specific combination of such motion, such as
constitutes our physical atoms : that specific form, now constituting
what we call "matter," will not merely have its own intrinsic store of
energy, such as we actually find within the physical
MATTER AND MOTION 25
atom, but it will also be an actual individual
thing, differentiated from
other similar things, and also from other forms of motion constituting
what we call
" force." This force, therefore, or these forces, can now act upon it
from outside, and the
Force-Substance, which in its primal nature we are compelled to conceive
of as One, has now become
distinguishable not merely as two—Matter and Force—but as an infinite
variety of things,
constituting for us the Universe of Phenomena.
We shall
discuss this process of differentiation or evolution more in detail
later on, but in the meantime we may point out, in order that the
fundamental principle may be clearly grasped, that we have in the
relation which exists between the physical Plane and the etheric Plane a
correspondence and analogy which may be applied,
mutatis mutandis, to any
number of Planes. The relation of any Plane to the one next below it is
a force relation ; the higher
Plane literally ensouls the
lower. Suppose that Ether actually is our Primordial Substance, that in
fact there are only two Planes in the Universe, i.e., the etheric and
the physical then, when once the physical Plane has been formed out of,
or evolved from the etheric, the etheric now stands in the relation of
"force" to the "matter" of the physical Plane. The Ether and physical
matter are all one Substance,
but the Ether per se is
accountable for all the " forces " with which we are familiar—heat,
light, electricity, magnetism, gravitation, etc.
To
recapitulate slightly, we may distinguish between Matter and Substance
in this way. Matter is an effect,
and its characteristics are what we know as mass or inertia, and
extension in space, in the sense of size, or occupancy of a
limited space.
Substance, on
the other hand, is cause ;
and in its ultimate nature it cannot be said to have either mass or
extension in space in the above sense ; for both these must be absent in
an absolutely space-filling Substance. If it can be said
26 THE PHYSICS OF THE SECRET DOCTRINE
to have any physical characteristic whatsoever, that characteristic
would be only ceaseless, eternal Motion. Matter may utterly disappear,
for it is only a form of
motion but Substance remains, and Motion is indestructible.
Now we have
seen that Energy is motion of mass, but with the disappearance of matter
or mass, Energy also would disappear. Energy is the
effect of the action of
Force, whilst Force is cause.
We measure the effect in the form of Energy—and infer the action of the
Force—by the amount of motion produced on a certain mass, as for example
in the case of gravitation.
Energy is
associated with matter or mass, and is a purely physical term; but Force
is associated with Substance ; and it is not Matter and Energy which are
the real substantialities, but Substance and Force. Not merely is this
so, not merely may Matter and Energy disappear from the Universe, but it
is even possible to conceive of them as the absence and not the presence
of Substance. This, in fact, is what is done in the remarkable theory of
the Ether elaborated by Professor Osborne Reynolds,1 where
physical matter is postulated to be a sort of crack, or fissure, or line
of misfit in the substance of the Ether, a void rather than a
plenum. This is certainly, as
Professor Reynolds says, " an inversion of ideas " as to the structure
of matter ; but, if interpreted metaphysically, it might be said to come
nearer to the Occult teachings than the more orthodox view which would
carry the physical idea of mass or inertia right back to Primordial
Substance itself.
The Ether
which modern Science investigates, however, may possibly be ponderable ;
it may possibly, in its atomic
form, have mass or inertia much greater than physical matter itself ;
but then—as we shall see later on—it is, according to the Occult
teachings, only a very small remove from
1
Professor Osborne Reynolds, The Rede Lecture, on " An Inversion of
Ideas as to the Structure of the Universe." (Cambridge Press, 1902.)
MATTER AND MOTION 27
physical matter ; and, indeed, really belongs to the physical Plane, and
is not the
Æther
of Space.
Force,
according to Occult Science, is the living, moving
Archoeus, the
Anima Mundi, the only real
substantiality. The connection between this and Primordial Substance is
dealt with in our next chapter.
The physicist
pure and simple, dealing only with physical phenomena, may possibly rest
satisfied with the concept of One Universal Substance existing merely as
the substrate of all the different modes of motion with which he is
familiar, and possibly of others with which he is not as yet familiar.
In this view. Substance would certainly be regarded as altogether inert
and dead. Life itself he may thus possibly regard as merely one out of
an infinite number of very complex phenomena, as a mere " mode of
motion," or " a series of fermentations."
But neither the Philosopher nor the Student of Occult Science can rest
satisfied with such a partial and incomplete view of the facts which lie
before us, the facts of our own experience.
We cannot
account for the fact of
Consciousness in any terms of mere motion of a dead, inert
Substance. Certain knots or whirls, let us say, in the Ether constitute
electrons, electrons group
themselves (?) into atoms ; atoms into molecules; molecules into
cells; cells into brains; and forthwith they become
aware not merely of the
existence of other "modes of motion," but,
mirabile dictu, of them-
selves also.
Now whatever
the modern scientist may choose to think, Occult Science has never made
the mistake of regarding Primordial Substance as
dead ; or of looking upon
Force, even in its mere physical manifestation, as other than the action
of the One Life of the Universe.
For it must be
remembered that we have not merely to bring our concept of Primordial
Substance into line with the principle of the indestructibility of
matter and the said
28 THE PHYSICS OF THE SECRET DOCTRINE
conservation of energy, but also into line with the great law of
evolution.
Evolution is a
cosmic process. Physical
matter, the whole material universe as we know it, must be placed under
the operation of that great principle. But if so, and if the
fons et origo of the great
world process is Primordial Substance, then that Substance must contain
within itself the potency of all that ever has or ever can appear as
phenomena ; the orderly succession not merely of the forms of
life which we know on this
globe, but of the globe itself, of the Solar System, of the whole vast
Universe, and of an infinite succession of such Universes in illimitable
and endless duration.
We may make
our choice. All this great world process is either the result of blind
chance and dead mechanical forces, or it is the action of one great Life
Principle, of which all that manifests in individual forms of life and
consciousness is the reflection. Thus, on the principle of
correspondence and analogy, every atom, as well as every complex of
atoms, manifests in its own particular degree and kind the
nature of the Whole. Every
atom reflects the whole Universe. How can it be otherwise, since every
atom is Primordial Substance ? Get right down to this Substance in the
very innermost of the atom, and you will find the Whole.
But with our
limited senses we cannot do this. We see the outside of the atom only,
or rather we see it only in a certain limited manner in its action and
interaction with certain other individual and limited phenomena. In this
aspect, the atom, or matter in general, appears to have certain
qualities ; but let us
clearly understand that those qualities are not its intrinsic nature as
Substance, but are specific
and definite limitations of
that root nature. All these
limitations are, in fact, not in the atom itself, but in our own
consciousness or awareness of it; and the last and final definition of
matter can really only
MATTER AND MOTION 29
be a metaphysical one —it is that which is
objective to consciousness.
“In strict accuracy―to
avoid confusion and misconception―the
term "Matter" ought to be applied to the aggregate of objects of
possible perception, and "Substance" to noumena; for inasmuch
as the phenomena of our plane are the creation of the
perceiving Ego―the
modifications of its own subjectivity―all
the "states of matter representing the aggregate of perceived objects"
can have but a relative and purely phenomenal existence for the children
of our plane.”
( S.D., vol. I p.329, Ne.)
We may now
proceed to set forth from The
Secret Doctrine, more in detail, this fundamental concept of the
nature of Primordial Substance.
CHAPTER III
PRIMORDIAL SUBSTANCE
In The Secret Doctrine there
are three distinctive names or terms used to connote the Root Principle
of the Phenomenal Universe, or what we have hitherto termed Primordial
Substance.
These three
terms are respectively, Mulaprakriti, Akasha, and
Æther.
They are all practically the same in their physical application, though
there are shades of metaphysical difference which are not of much
importance to us in this work. Mulaprakriti is a Sanscrit term meaning
literally the Root of Nature (Prakriti), or Matter.
Akasha is also
a Sanscrit word. It is defined in the
Theosophical Glossary as "
The Universal Space in which lies inherent the eternal Ideation of the
Universe in its
ever-changing aspects on the planes of matter and objectivity, and from
which radiates the First Logos, or expressed thought." It is also
defined as, " The subtle, supersensuous spiritual essence which pervades
all space the primordial substance erroneously identified with Ether."
Æther
is a Greek word, and appears to be more specially associated with the
idea of Light—Primordial Light, the Light of the Logos, not our physical
light—than with anything else. It has been identified by some writers,
such as Eliphas Levi, with the " Astral Light " ; but against this
PRIMORDIAL SUBSTANCE 31
identification there are many strong protests in
The Secret Doctrine.
The
distinction between
Æther
and Ether, which we have already mentioned in Chapter II., must be
clearly borne in mind here.
Æther
is the synonym for Primordial Substance, that Substance which is the
Root of all the differentiated forms of Matter which constitute the
phenomenal Planes of manifestation.
"
Æther,
in Esotericism, is the very quintessence of all possible forms of
energy, and it is certainly to this Universal Agent (composed of many
agents) that are due all the manifestations of energy in the material,
psychic, and spiritual worlds." (S.D., vol. I, p. 650. Oe.) (S.D., vol.
I p. 508. Ne.)
The use of the
term energy in this quotation
instead of matter may be a
little confusing until we have clearly understood that in Occult Science
matter and energy are at root one and the same thing. This will be more
clearly elucidated in our next chapter.
"What is the primordial Chaos but
Æther
.... not the modern Ether ....
Æther,
with all its mysterious and occult properties, containing in itself the
germs of universal creation ? The upper
Æther,
or Akasha, is the Celestial Virgin and Mother of every existing form and
being, from whose bosom, as soon as 'incubated ' by the Divine Spirit,
are called into existence Matter and Life, Force and Action.
Æther
is the Aditi of the Hindus, and it is Akasha."
(S.D., vol. I, p. 354. Oe.) (S.D., vol. I, p. 332. Ne.)
Ether, on the
other hand, is one of the lower differentiations of
Æther.
It is one of the "lower" Planes of the Cosmos, just as physical matter
is. It is a later product in the great differentiating process by which
all the manifested Universe
evolves out of the One Primordial Substance Mulaprakriti, Akasha, or
Æther
—;just as a chicken differentiates or evolves out of the primordial
substance of the egg. The One Substance " becomes " these lower or later
differentiations, these forms in time and space ; but yet it is never
other than itself, never other than the One
Substance.
32 THE PHYSICS OF THE SECRET DOCTRINE
" Akasha is
certainly not the Ether of Science—not even the Ether of the Occultist,
who defines the latter as one of the principles of Akasha only—it is
certainly, together with its primary, the cause of sound, a psychical
and spiritual, not a material cause by any means. The relations of Ether
to Akasha may be defined by applying to both Akasha and Ether the words
used by the God in the Vedas, 'So himself was indeed (his own) son,' one
being the progeny of the other, and yet itself." (S.D., vol. I. p. 316.
Oe.) (S.D., vol. I. p.296. ne.)
In Occult
Science the Ether of Modern Science is identified with physical Plane
matter as being simple " higher," or less differentiated forms of that
matter ; but The Secret Doctrine
does not appear to make this absolutely clear. It is, however, implied
in the following quotation, where it is called " the grossest form " of
Akasha.
"Whatever the views of Physical Science upon the subject, Occult Science
has been teaching for ages that Akasha (of which Ether is the grossest
form), the Fifth universal cosmic Principle to which corresponds and
from which proceeds human Manas is, cosmically, a radiant, cool,
diathermous, plastic matter, creative in its physical nature,
correlative in its grossest aspects and portions, immutable in its
higher principles." {S.D., vol. I. p. 41. Oe.) (S.D., vol. I. p.13. fn.
ne.)
The reference here to Akasha as the
fifth universal cosmic
Principle might be a little puzzling if it is not borne in mind that it
is here placed fifth —and not seventh—as being that out of which the
four lower cosmic
Elements— Fire, Air, Water,
Earth— differentiate.
We may now
take up the connection of Ether with the Astral Light.
"Ether .... is one of the lower 'principles' of what we call Primordial
Substance (Akasha in Sanscrit), one of the dreams of old, which has now
again become the dream of modern Science. It is the greatest as it is
the boldest of the surviving
speculations of the Ancient Philosophers. For the Occultist, however,
both Ether and Primordial Substance are realities. To put it plainly,
Ether is the Astral Light, and the Primordial Substance is Akasha, the
Uphadi of Divine Thought."
(S.D., vol. I. p. 347. Oe.) (S.D., vol. I. p. 326, ne.)
PRIMORDIAL SUBSTANCE 33
Here, then, we
have the Ether absolutely identified with the Astral Light. We have
already seen that
Æther
is the synonym for Akasha, and the following quotations are a
repudiation of any connection between
Æther
(or Akasha) and the Astral Light.
"As it is
shown that Akasha is not even the Ether, least of all then we imagine
can it be the Astral Light." (S.D., vol. I. p. 276. Oe.) (S.D., vol. I.
p. 255, Ne.)
"Eliphas Levi
commits a great blunder in always identifying the Astral Light with what
we call Akasha." (S.D., vol. I. p. 275.) ((S.D., vol. I. p. 253. Ne.)
" The Astral
Light of the Kabalists is by some very incorrectly translated "Ether,"
the latter is confused with the hypothetical Ether of Science, and both
are referred to by some Theosophists as synonymous with Akasha. This is
a great mistake." (S.D., vol. I. p. 315.) (S.D., vol. I. p. 296. Fn. Ne)
The word " Ether " in the above, as translated and spelt by the
Kabalists, is of course the
Æther
of The Secret Doctrine—the
distinction in spelling not being made by the Kabalists.
"Akasha, then, is Pradhana in another form, and as such cannot be Ether,
the ever-invisible agent, courted even by physical science. Nor is it
Astral Light." (S.D., vol. I. p. 277.) (S.D., vol. I. p. 256. Ne.)
These
quotations appear to make the distinction between the
Æther,
Ether, and Astral Light quite clear. In
Blavatsky Lodge Transactions
(vol. I. p. 53, Oe.)
(p. 64, Ne.)
the Astral Light is further spoken of as the " dregs of Akasa" There is
a sentence in vol. II. of The
Secret Doctrine (p. 538, Oe.) which appears to identify the Akasha
with the Astral Light; but we think that the context shows that the term
Astral Light is here being used in a higher sense, as "the Universal
Cause in its unmanifested unity and infinity" (vol. II p. 512, Ne.)
Now, as
regards Mulaprakriti, it is defined in the
Theosophical Glossary as "The
Parabrahmic root, the abstract deific feminine principle
—undifferentiated sub-
stance. Akasha. Literally, " the root of Nature (Prakriti), or Matter."
34 THE PHYSICS OF THE SECRET DOCTRINE
Mulaprakriti
may possibly be considered —metaphysically—to be on a higher Plane than
Akasha ; indeed it is so spoken of in the following quotation :
"The Eternal
Parent (Space) wrapped in her Ever-Invisible Robes." . . . The 'Robes'
stand for the noumenon of undifferentiated Cosmic Matter. It is not
matter as we know it, but the spiritual essence of matter, and is
co-eternal and even one with Space in its abstract sense. ... It is the
Soul, so to say, of the One Infinite Spirit. The Hindus call it
Mulaprakriti, and say that it is the primordial Substance, which is the
basis of the Uphadi or Vehicle of every phenomenon, whether physical,
psychic, or mental. It is the source from which Akasha radiates," (S.D.,
vol. I. p. 67. Oe.) (S.D., vol. I. p. 35, Ne.)
Although we
are not dealing here with metaphysical shades of meaning, it may be
useful for the student of The
Secret Doctrine to give the following quotation and references
bearing upon the relation of Mulaprakriti to Para-
brahman—the One Unconditioned Absolute.
" Parabrahman and
Mulaprakriti are One in reality, yet Two in the universal conception of
the Manifested, even in the conception of the One Logos, the first '
Manifestation,' It appears from the objective standpoint as
Mulaprakriti, and not as Parabrahman ; as its veil, and not the One
Reality hidden behind, which is unconditioned and absolute." {S.D., vol.
I. p. 294, Oe.) (S.D., vol. I. p. 274 Ne.)
In Mulaprakriti we have, then, clearly the first abstract concept
of Object as contrasted with Subject—that great polarity or duality
which enters into all our consciousness and experience of existence. All
dualistic systems not merely begin but also end with this polarity or
opposition they are never considered as resolvable into, or as mere
aspects of, the One Absolute Principle. The Occult
teachings, however, are Monistic, not Dualistic.
" Pre-cosmic
Root Substance (Mulaprakriti) is that aspect of the Absolute which
underlies all the objective planes of Nature." {S.D., vol. I. p. 43.
Oe.)
(S.D., vol. I. p. 15, Ne.)
"At the
commencement of a great Manvantara (Cycle of Evolution) Parabrahman
manifests as Mulaprakriti, and then as
PRIMORDIAL SUBSTANCE 35
the Logos. This Logos .... constitutes the basis of the subject-side of
Manifested Being, and is the source of all manifestations of individual
consciousness. Mulaprakriti, or Primordial Cosmic Substance, is the
foundation of the object-side of things the basis of all objective
evolution and cosmo-genesis. Force, then, does not emerge with
Primordial Substance from Parabrahamic latency. It is the transformation
into energy of the supra-conscious thought of the Logos, infused, so to
speak, into the objectivation of the latter out of potential latency in
the One Reality. . . . Force, thus, is not synchronous with the first
objectivation of Mulaprakriti. Nevertheless as, apart from it, the
latter is absolutely and necessarily inert a mere abstraction —it is
unnecessary to weave too fine a cobweb of subtleties as to the order of
succession of Cosmic Ultimates. Force succeeds Mulaprakriti ; but, minus
Force, Mulaprakriti is for all practical
intents and purposes non-existent (S.D., vol. II. p. 27.) (S.D., vol.
II. p. 25, Ne.)
It will now be
quite clear that the three terms Mulaprakriti, Akasha, and
Æther
apply only to the Root of the
phenomenal Universe. Considered as
Substance, they are the
feminine or passive aspect of the One Incognizable
Absolute Principle, which must necessarily remain in
abscondito, ever concealed
behind the " garment " of the phenomenal Universe, or behind Root
Substance, out of which that "garment" is formed.
The masculine
or "Force" aspect of this Supreme Absolute (Parabrahman) is the Logos,
representing the potency of Divine Ideation. In this respect, therefore,
the Logos itself is an individualized aspect of the One ; it is that
individualized aspect which " becomes," by the process of evolution, an
individual Universe.
When, therefore, this individual, phenomenal, or manifested Universe
springs into existence " in the beginning," we have this dual mode of
the One manifesting itself as Force and Substance.
The
Force is the thought of the
Logos, or rather the complete
Idea of the whole vast Universe which is about to manifest itself in
time and space, taking the form of a supreme Divine intelligence which
we name the Logos. We must
look upon this Divine thought or Logos, therefore,
36 THE PHYSICS OF THE SECRET DOCTRINE
as the Primum Mobile, the
moving, energizing Principle, which, as it were, impregnates or
fecundates the other aspect of Itself which is Primordial Substance, so
that that Substance is thenceforth indistinguishable from the
Primum Mobile itself.
This repeats
itself on Every Plane—in the Microcosm as in the Macrocosm. Behind or
within every manifestation of " Matter " lies " Force," and that force
is a living, conscious potency—not a mechanical force—whether in Gods,
Monads,
or Atoms.
''Draw a deep
line in your thought between the ever-incognizable Essence and the as
invisible, yet comprehensible Presence, Mulaprakriti or Shekinah, from
beyond and through which vibrates the Sound of the Verbum (Logos), and
from
which evolve the numberless Hierarchies of intelligent Egos, of
conscious as of semi-conscious ' apperceptive ' Beings, whose essence is
spiritual Force, whose Substance is the Elements, and whose Bodies (when
needed) are the atoms." {S.D., vol. I, p. 690. Oe) (S.D., vol. I, p.
629, Ne.)
Every
Universe, however vast, or however long it may take to run its course of
evolution and devolution, we can but regard as a single thought, a
single idea in the Infinite All of the One Absolute Principle.
Each Universe
being thus a single individualized
thing, the Absolute Itself
remains ever concealed behind it ; and, in a certain sense, even outside
of it ; being, indeed, both immanent and transcendental.
If now,
however, we regard only one particular Universe, our Primordial
Substance will stand in the same relation to that Universe as the One
Absolute Principle does to all possible Universes. The Primordial
Substance of any particular Universe is as it were the germ-plasm of
that universe already fructified by the male potency of the Divine
Ideation.
When once,
therefore, this fructification has taken place in the " Mundane Egg," we
may now regard the Substance of that " egg "—Mulaprakriti, the Root of
Nature—as that
PRIMORDIAL SUBSTANCE 37
out of which the whole Universe springs or evolves, and to which it must
finally return when the great cycle has run its course.
In a certain sense
we may conceive of the divine thought of the Logos as still energizing
and sustaining the whole, as still operative in Primordial Substance
per se. But as we are
desirous of not drawing too fine a metaphysical distinction, we need not
labour the point.
What we do
desire, however, to make abundantly clear is this : that when we go
right back to Primordial Substance in its source and origin, we are
dealing with a Divine Living Substance, and a Divine Potency.
"A
cosmogonical theory, to become complete and comprehensible, has to start
with a Primordial Substance diffused throughout boundless Space,
of an intellectual and divine
nature. That Substance must be the Soul and Spirit, the Synthesis
and Seventh Principle of the Manifested Kosmos, and, to serve as a
spiritual Upadhi (Basis) to this, there must be the sixth, its vehicle —
Primordial Physical Matter, so to speak, though its nature must escape
for ever our limited normal senses." (S.D.,vol. I. p. 650. Oe)
((S.D.,vol. I. p. 594, Ne.)
We have in the
above quotations a very clear indication of the primary and fundamental
concept of Occult Science respecting the ultimates of what we know as
Matter and Force.
In the way
they are here stated they are pure philosophical concepts, free from any
special bias pertaining to any particular system of either Science,
Philosophy, or Religion. It asserts simply that the Universe is the
expression of Life, Thought, Consciousness. These are the energizing,
guiding Principle in all Cosmic Processes, whilst that which appears
under the guise of Matter is the objective
correlative of this primary activity of the One Life, or Be-ness.
We might even
replace the idea of Life by
that of Motion, but in doing
so we should still have to postulate that that Motion—Absolute, Abstract
Motion—is on the
38 THE PHYSICS OF THE SECRET DOCTRINE
one side Subject, or Consciousness, and on the other side Object, or
Matter.
"What, then,
is the 'Primordial Substance,' that mysterious object of which Alchemy
was ever talking, and which was the subject of philosophical speculation
in every age ? What can it be finally, even in its
phenomenal
pre-differentiation ? Even that is the All of manifested Nature and
nothing to our senses. It is mentioned under various names in every
cosmogony, referred to in every philosophy, and shown to be, to this
day, the ever grasp-eluding Proteus in Nature. We touch it and do not
feel it ; we look at it without seeing it ; we breathe it and do not
perceive it ; we hear and smell it without the smallest cognition that
it is there ; for it is in every molecule of that which, in our illusion
and ignorance, we regard as Matter in any of its states, or conceive as
a feeling, a thought, an emotion. In short, it is the Uphadi, or
Vehicle, of every possible phenomenon, whether physical, mental, or
psychic. In the opening sentences of
Genesis, and in the Chaldean
Cosmogony; in the Puranas of
India, and in the Book of the
Dead of Egypt ; everywhere it opens the cycle of manifestation. It
is termed Chaos, and the Face of the Waters, incubated by the Spirit,
proceeding from the Unknown, whatever that Spirit's name may be." (S.D.,
vol. I. p. 352. Oe.) (S.D., vol. I. p. 330, Ne)
CHAPTEE IV
THE SUBSTANTIAL NATURE OF FORCE
All objective phenomena with which we are acquainted, or which we can
possibly conceive of, require a minimum of two factors for their
production.
These two
factors are (a) something which moves, i.e., Matter, and (b) something
by which it is moved, i.e., Force.
We have
always, then, to look upon Force as in a certain sense superior to
Matter, in so far as it is the active principle, while Matter is, in its
relation to Force, passive, receptive, or inert.
But if we
postulate a Primordial Force-Substance, we lose sight of this
distinction ; Force is, in that Substance, indistinguishable from the
Substance itself.
On the further
side, on the noumenon side of
this Sub-stance, we have, as already seen, been able to postulate the
energy of Divine Thought or Ideation as the active moving principle ;
but when once this Principle has energized
in Substance, it is indistinguishable from the Substance itself.
In more
conventional language we should in fact say, that in the phenomenal
world God is indistinguishable from Nature, His action only being known
or recognized as natural law.
How, then, do
we recover the distinction between Force
40 THE PHYSICS OF THE SECRET DOCTRINE
and Matter on this side —the
phenomenal side —of Substance ?
There are two
ways in which we may conceive of this as being done. In the first place
we may conceive that so soon as any particular
form of motion arises in
Primordial Substance, constituting thereby "Matter," the original
Primordial Substance will stand in the relation of " Force " to this
"Matter." We shall then have two
Planes of Substance, one of which, the " higher," will stand in a
force-
relation to the other, the "lower" or material Plane. Such a
relationship, indeed, as this is precisely what we have in the relation
of Ether to physical matter. Physical
matter is Ether in substance—a special form or mode of Ether—but the
Ether itself stands in a force-relation to the lower or material Plane.
We may
conceive, indeed, of several such Planes existing in the Cosmos, each
one being a special modification of Primordial Substance, and each "
higher " Plane having a force-relation to the ones below it, while at
the same time it is itself a "material" Plane to those above it. This
concept, as shown in Chapter IX., is a fundamental one in Occult
Science.
In the second
place we may conceive that certain forms or modes of motion of the One
Substance constitute Matter, while certain other forms or modes
constitute Force ; and this may be the case even on any one particular
Plane. Thus on the Etheric Plane certain forms of Motion constitute
physical matter, while others are light, heat, electricity, magnetism,
etc. (see quotation from Sir Oliver Lodge, p. 15).
If we ask why
certain forms of motion should be objective to our consciousness, and
thus constitute matter, while other forms of the same Substance are
subjective, and constitute force or forces, we can only reply that such
is the empirical fact of our Consciousness. Quite conceivably there may
be other modes of Consciousness to which those
THE SUBSTANTIAL NATURE OF FORCE 41
forms of motion which are to us invisible forces would be objective
forms of matter ; and indeed, that such is the case is the specific
teaching of Occult Science.
“The
Occultists, who have good reasons for it, consider all the forces of
Nature as veritable, though supersensuous, states of Matter ; and as
possible objects of perception to beings endowed with the requisite
senses." (S.D., vol. I. p. 167. Oe.)
(S.D., vol. I. p. 143, fn Ne.)
"The latter
(Occultism) maintains that those etheric tremors (light, heat, etc.) are
not set up, as asserted by Science, by the vibrations of the molecules
of known bodies, the Matter of our terrestrial objective consciousness,
but that we must seek for the ultimate Causes of light, heat, etc. in
Matter existing in super-
sensuous states,—states, however, as fully objective to the spiritual
eye of man as a horse or a tree is to the ordinary mortal. Light and
heat are the ghosts or shadows of Matter in Motion." (S.D., vol. I. p.
561. Oe.) (S.D., vol. I. p. 515, Ne.)
Every
individual mode of motion in the One Substance must necessarily be a
centre of Force, or a mode of Force but it is only those particular
centres or modes which are objective to our present consciousness which
we erroneously call Matter. Since the discovery of
electrons, however, Science
has come distinctly nearer to the Occult teachings, and, indeed, the
present conflict of views among physicists themselves is between those
who would still cling to a material particle
per se, and those who regard
the electron merely as a
"centre of force," or "nucleus of intrinsic strain " in the substance of
the Ether.
So far,
however, as our physical distinctions are concerned, we find that our
chemical atoms and molecules and even the electrons—are distinct or
discrete objects, which may be acted upon, singly or in bulk, by other
modes of motion of Substance which we designate as " Forces." To that
extent, therefore, and neglecting the internal motion of the atom or
molecule, these forms of matter assume a passive or inert appearance,
that aspect in fact which we commonly associate with the idea of Matter.
In itself, in its own inherent nature, Matter has
as much claim to be a " Force " as anything else ; and equally
42 THE PHYSICS OF THE SECRET DOCTRINE
every " Force " has as much claim to a substantial nature as that which
we call " Matter."
"Now what does
physical Science tell us of these 'Forces,' Sound, Light, Colour, etc. ?
Sound, it says, is a sensation produced by the impact of atmospheric
molecules on the tympanum, which, by setting up delicate tremors in the
auditory apparatus, thus communicate their vibrations to the brain.
Light is the
sensation caused by the impact of inconceivably minute vibrations of
ether on the retina of the eye. So, too, say we. But these are simply
the effects produced in our atmosphere and its immediate surroundings;
all, in fact, which falls within the range of our terrestrial
consciousness." {S.D., vol. I. p. 605. Oe.) (S.D., vol. I. p. 554, Ne.)
"Electricity,
light, heat, etc. have been aptly termed the 'Ghosts or Shadows of
Matter in Motion,' i.e., supersensuous states of Matter whose effects
only we are able to cognize." (S.D., vol. I. p. 170. Oe.) (S.D., vol. I.
p. 146, Ne.)
"Faraday,
Boscovitch, and all others, however, who see in the atoms and molecules
‘centres of force’ and in the corresponding element. Force, an Entity by
itself, are far nearer the truth." {S.D., vol. I. p. 552. Oe.) S.D.,
vol. I. p. 507, Ne.)
"If they (the
men of Science) would fathom the ultimate nature of these Forces, they
have first to admit their substantial nature, however supersensuous that
nature may be." (S.D., vol. I., p. 560. Oe.) (S.D., vol. I. p. 514, Ne.)
" The
Occult Sciences do not regard either electricity, or any of the Forces
supposed to be generated by it, as Matter in any of the states known to
Physical Science ; to put it more clearly, none of these Forces,
so-called, is a solid, gas, or fluid. If it did not look pedantic, an
Occultist would even object to electricity being called a fluid —as it
is an effect, not a cause. Its Noumenon is a Conscious Cause." (S.D.,
vol. I. p. 563. Oe.) (S.D., vol. I. p. 517, Ne.)
It should be
noted here, and clearly understood, that in speaking of
Causes, The Secret Doctrine
is in almost every case dealing with the
Noumenon of phenomena, and
not with what we conventionally term the cause of a certain
event.
We may
distinguish clearly between two kinds of causes of any particular event
or phenomenon. We have, in the first place, the immediate cause, as
something which takes place sequentially in
time; as, for example, if I
strike a bell, the cause of
the sound may be said to be my act. The
THE SUBSTANTIAL NATURE OF FORCE 43
blow which I give to the bell causes it to vibrate; these vibrations are
communicated to the atmosphere, and propagated as sound waves. They
impinge upon your tympanum, and are the
cause of your hearing the
bell
sound. In the molecules and cells of your brain other things happen ;
there is in fact a never-ending sequence of cause and effect, each
effect becoming in its turn the cause of a further effect. This we may
call the horizontal line of cause and effect in time.
But besides
this there is, in the second place, another set of causes : for we may
go back to our bell, and ask why it should vibrate in a certain way, so
as to give out a certain sound ? What is its molecular and atomic
structure which enables it to vibrate thus ? What are the atoms and
molecules themselves that they can vibrate at all, and how can the
vibrations be communicated thus to the atmosphere ? These, and a host of
similar questions, take us as it were into another region or dimension
of causes, in quite a different direction to our horizontal line of
sequence in time. There is no sequence here ; the questions are wholly
connected with the nature of
matter or substance, with the nature of force : and to answer them we
have to look for cause in an inward direction, in a line which goes to
the root of these phenomena, a root which lies in space, not in time. It
is an ever-present cause; it is here and now at every moment of time. We
might symbolize it, therefore, by a vertical line, at right angles to
our horizontal line of cause and effect.
On this line
of causes, also, we should have to look for the answer to the question
as to what we—the conscious subject who can
hear the sound—are, whereby
we can be aware of phenomena at all.
In speaking, then,
of " the Causes that produce ethereal vibrations," or of electricity as
being "an effect, not a cause,"
The Secret Doctrine is dealing with the vertical line of cause and
effect, and not with the horizontal one.
44 THE PHYSICS OF THE SECRET DOCTRINE
If we produce
ethereal vibrations by Marconi apparatus, for example, we shall be
dealing, on the other hand, with the horizontal line.
The following
quotations may be given in further exposition of the point of view of
The Secret Doctrine as to the
nature of Force, or Energy, in its relation to Matter, or Substance.
" Nevertheless
that which is called ' energy ' or ' force ' in Science .... is never in
fact, and cannot be, energy alone for it is the Substance of the world,
its Soul, the All-permanent, Sarvaga (the supreme ' World- Substance'),
in conjunction with
Kala, Time." {S.D., vol. I. p. 637. Oe.) (S.D., vol. I. p. 582, Ne.)
" It (Modern
Science) might learn, for instance, the mystical signification,
alchemical and transcendental, of the many
imponderable substances that
fill interplanetary space, and which, interpenetrating each, are the
direct cause, at the lower end, of the production of natural phenomena
manifesting through
so-called vibration. The knowledge of the
real, not the hypothetical
nature of Ether, or rather of the Akasha, and other mysteries, in short,
can alone lead to the knowledge of Forces." (S.D., vol. I. p. 641. Oe.)
(S.D., vol. I. p. 587, Ne.)
" No
experimenter can have anything to do with matter properly so termed, but
only with the forces into which he divides it. The visible effects of
matter are but the effects of force. . . . That which is now called
matter is nothing but the aggregation of atomic forces, to express which
the word ' matter is used ; outside of that, for science’ matter is but
a word void of sense." {S.D., vol. iii. p. 398. )
The Primordial
Substance—otherwise the Ether—which modern Science conceives of, is
postulated as being "perfectly homogeneous and continuous and simple in
structure " ; in other words it is conceived of as in some sense
all-alike ; and this idea
replaces the old theory of the
all-alike ultimate particles or atoms.
But Modern Science has no concept to offer as to how this
all-alike Substance can
differentiate into all the various modes of force and forms of matter,
visible and
invisible, which constitute our present Universe, or how any process of
evolution could commence at all in such an
THE SUBSTANTIAL NATURE OF FORCE 45
all-alike
Substance without the aid of some extraneous
Force—not to mention
Conscious Intelligence.
Even if we
confine ourselves to a purely physical idea of the One Substance, is it
not self-evident that that Substance can no more be all-alike, or "
simple in structure," than is the impregnated germ-cell which presently
evolves into a plant or a human being ?
Modern
Science, however, is still a long way from the fundamental concept of
Occult Science : that one particular Universe, or one particular Solar
System, with all its special characteristics, evolves as inevitably from
one particular nucleus of Primordial Substance —vivified or energized by
one particular Logos—as one particular individual human being does from
one particular germ-cell.
We must deal
briefly with the general scheme of Cosmic Evolution as set forth in
The Secret Doctrine before we
proceed to consider more specifically these forms of matter and force
with which we are directly acquainted on the Physical Plane, or through
our physical senses.
CHAPTER V
THE DAWN OF EVOLUTION
Although not strictly belonging to the province of Physics, but rather
to Metaphysics, the early stages in the evolution of a Cosmos or
Manifested Phenomenal Universe —or, by correspondence and analogy, of a
Solar System
as set forth in The Secret
Doctrine, demands a brief exposition, since it is the key to the
understanding of all the later processes.
In Occult
Philosophy everything which has a
phenomenal existence in time and space is subject to the law of
evolution or periodicity; its existence in the phenomenal form is
temporary and finite.
Every
phenomenon may be considered under two aspects: (a) as an individual
thing, that is to say in its
own particular or individual history; and (b) in its relation to some
larger unit of which it is a part.
It becomes an
individual thing to the
extent to which it is differentiated out, separated, or limited (in
consciousness), and thus put into contrast with other phenomena. But it
can never be an individual or separate thing
per se ; we can never analyse
it as such to finality ; its connections and relations extend to
infinity.
Science finds
certain principles operative in all known phenomena, and from this fact
deduces a fundamental relationship, or a unity of all phenomena in One
Root Principle —Primordial Substance. Every individual
thing
THE DAWN OF EVOLUTION 47
must be some mode or aspect of this One Root Substance, and thus there
does not really exist in the Universe any individualized or separate
thing : a thing, namely,
existing in or by itself without any fundamental and inseparable
connection or relation with all other
things (thinks) ; such a
thing, that is to say, as could be wholly, fully, or completely
explained in or by itself, without any reference to anything else. Every
thing owes its thingness to
the limitations under which it is cognized by Consciousness; or, in
other words, to the way in which we
think of it. If we could see
and know a thing in all its relations and proportions—the " thing in
itself " —it would disclose to us the whole Universe, past, present, and
future.
We have
already seen that Occult Science, recognizing this fundamental and
essential Unity, cannot regard any phenomenon, however vast, as other
than an individual thing; an
individualized aspect of the One. For Occult Science, therefore, the
whole Manifested Universe is an individual
thing; any one particular
Universe, however long it may last, is merely an individualized or
phenomenal aspect of the One Absolute Existence, and as such it is
temporary and finite.
" Further, the
Secret Doctrine affirms .... the Eternity of the Universe
in toto as a boundless plane
; periodically ' the play ground of numberless Universes incessantly
manifesting and disappearing,' as the
Book of Dzyan puts it : ' The
appearance and disappearance of Worlds is like a regular tidal ebb of
flux and reflux.'" {S.D., vol. I. p. 45. Oe.) (S.D., vol. I. p. 16, Ne.)
This
individualised aspect, or Divine
Idea, of any one particular Universe is represented in the first
instance by the Logos of that Universe, which is thus the Divine Potency
of all that is or can be in that particular Universe. The unfolding of
that Idea, or the
manifestation of it in Consciousness through the modes of time and
space, constitutes the process which we know as Evolution.
What we know
as Evolution, however, is only half the
48 THE PHYSICS OF THE SECRET DOCTRINE
process ; for evolution, or unfolding, must be followed by devolution or
involution : a withdrawing or return into the original source ; a
re-becoming the One —in consciousness for it never is in
reality other than the One—an
idea which, even in its physical sense, modern science has not yet
arrived at.
This cyclic
process of evolution and devolution, or involution, takes place
correspondingly in all the lesser cycles and on all planes. Physical
matter, for example, has evolved out of etheric substance, and in course
of time it must return or be redissolved into that substance. The
disintegration of the chemical atom as observed in the phenomenon of
Radium, and some other substances, is in fact the evidence that that
process is even now going on.
We have seen
(p. 34) that the individualized
Idea of the Universe that is about to evolve —represented by the
Logos—is, in its first objective
aspect, Mulaprakriti, or Primordial Substance. This Substance is the
"Body" or " Garment " in which the Idea clothes itself ; and as the Idea
itself is a Living Potency, so also the "Body" is Living Substance.
In the view of
Occult Science all Substance, all Matter, is living Substance and living
Matter. Occult Science does not recognize the arbitrary distinctions
which Modern Science makes between living and dead matter, for these are
based merely upon the limitations of our sense perceptions.
"The Matter of
Science may be for all objective purposes a dead and utterly-passive
matter ; to the occultist not an atom of it can be dead—Life is ever
present in it." (S.D., iii. p. 399. ?) (S.D., vol. II. p. 672, Ne.)
Now just as
the germ-cell of a plant, an animal, or a man is composed of
living matter, or substance,
and has within it the potency
to evolve a special manifestation of
life, and a particular or
special species and individual, so also in Occult Science the Primordial
Substance of a Universe, or of a Solar System, impressed or impregnated
THE DAWN OF EVOLUTION 49
with the Living Potence of the Divine Idea or Logos, is the
Germ-Cell of the Universe or
System that is to be, that is to evolve or unfold in time and space.
Just as the human being is, in fact, already contained potentially in
the single
germ-cell, so also the Universe is already contained in this Primordial
Substance, and must as inevitably evolve therefrom in its own particular
manner, as the individual man, with all his special characteristics,
must from his own particular germ-cell.
Thus the
Universe in embryo in Primordial Substance is often spoken of in Occult
Science as the " World Egg," or " Mundane Egg," and in Eastern
Philosophy as the " Egg of Brahma." The idea is embodied in a very great
deal of
ancient Symbology.
" The ' World
Egg ' is, perhaps, one of the most universally adopted symbols, highly
suggestive as it is, equally in the spiritual, physiological, and
cosmological sense. Therefore it is found in every world theogony, where
it is largely associated with the serpent symbol, the latter being
everywhere, in philosophy
as in religious symbolism, an emblem of eternity, infinitude,
regeneration, and rejuvenation, as well as of wisdom. The mystery of
apparent self-generation and evolution through its own creative power,
repeating in miniature, in the egg, the process of cosmic evolution
—both due to heat and moisture under the efflux of the unseen creative
spirit —fully justified the selection of this graphic symbol." (S.D.,
vol. I. p. 94. Oe.) (S.D., vol. I. p. 65, Ne.)
At the
commencement of evolution, then, at the commencement of the great World
Process for any particular Universe or System, this " Mundane Egg," the
substance of which is Mulaprakriti, begins to germinate or differentiate
and we have to ask ourselves what will be the first stages of this
process.
Applying the
principle of correspondence and analogy, we shall find that the first
differentiations in or of the " World Egg " or Substance must be of such
a nature as to be hardly distinguishable from the original Substance. In
other words, the One Root Substance must differentiate into some great
Cosmic forms or modifications
long before
50 THE PHYSICS OF THE SECRET DOCTRINE
it differentiates into the complex atoms and molecules of our lower
physical Plane.
As the One
Life is also apparently differentiated or individualized
pari passu with this
separation or individualization of Substance—seeing
that we have " down here apparently individual
lives associated with
individual
forms of matter—we should also postulate that just as the Logos—so far
as we are concerned—is practically identical with, and indistinguishable
from, the One Absolute, so also the first differentiations from the
Logos will be practically
indistinguishable from the Logos itself. In other words, the highest
individualized aspects of the Logos will be
almost universal in their
nature and powers, and in the
Substance which is their outer garment and manifestation.
They will, in
fact, be Divine Intelligences or Powers, each one, however, to a certain
extent specialized in its nature, though practically reflecting the
whole. Occult Science thus postulates that, since at the root of All
there stands the One LIFE, so at the root of every specialized or
individualized phenomenon there stands a life.
" The
Occultists maintain that all the ' Forces ' of the Scientists have their
origin in the Vital Principle, the One Life collectively of our Solar
System —that '
Life ' being a portion, or rather one of the
aspects, of the One Universal
Life." (S.D., vol. I. p. 647. Oe.) (S.D., vol. I. p. 591, Ne.)
" The
Life-Principle, or Life Energy, which is omnipresent, eternal,
indestructible, is a Force and a Principle as
noumenon, while it is
Atoms, as phenomenon. It is
one and the same thing, and cannot he considered as separate except in
Materialism." {S.D., vol. II. p. 710. Oe.) (S.D., vol. II. p. 672, Ne.)
In the first
differentiations or individualizations, therefore, of the One Life (or
of the Logos) we shall have
Cosmic forms of Life and Consciousness, and also
Cosmic forms of Substance,
quite beyond the reach, however, of our understanding and cognizance in
anything which we know as Life and Consciousness, or as Matter or
Substance, within the limits of our physical experience.
These primal
differentiations or individualizations of the
THE DAWN OF EVOLUTION 51
One Life of our Universe are variously named in different systems of
Cosmogony and Theogony, but in
The Secret Doctrine they are usually referred to as
Dhyan Chohans, a Sanscrit
term meaning literally " The Lords of Light." They are the
Noumenon of all the various
Forces in Nature, while their " bodies " are those special
differentiations of Primordial Substance which are known in Occult
Science as the Elements (not
the chemical elements), these
Elements being as yet unknown to modern Physical Science, but
frequently referred to by the Ancients and the Alchemists. We shall
consider the nature of these Elements more fully
in our next chapter.
" Occultism
sees in all these Forces and manifestations a ladder, the lower rungs of
which belong to exoteric Physics, and the higher are traced to a living,
intelligent, invisible Power, which is, as a rule, the unconcerned, but,
exceptionally, the conscious Cause of the sense-born phenomena
designated as this or that natural law." {S.D., vol. I. p. 605, Oe.)
(S.D., vol. I. p. 554, Ne)
We have the
exact correspondence and analogy of this in our own individual life and
consciousness in its relation to the physical body. Every thought, or
every conscious act of will on our part, is the
cause of certain definite
physiological changes, which in their last analysis as mere
physical happenings are
simply molecular and atomic
chemical changes. Blank Materialism postulates these molecular and
atomic changes as the cause
of consciousness. " The peculiar phenomena of consciousness," says
Haeckel, "must be reduced to the phenomena of physics and chemistry."1
No Materialist, however, has ever shown logically how any aggregate of
dead atoms can be
aware of other aggregates of
similar atoms ; how any aggregate of dead atoms, that is to say, can
have the simplest
possible characteristic of consciousness, i.e., awareness —not to
mention those higher characteristics which we know ourselves to be in
possession of, i.e., thought, will, emotion.
1
Riddle of the Universe,
6d. ed., p. 65.
52 THE PHYSICS OF THE SECRET DOCTRINE
Modern
Science, in its analysis of bodily functioning, stops short at the atoms
and molecules; it can only deal with physiological functioning, in the
last resort, as a matter of physics and chemistry. Nevertheless, even
modern Science is aware there are other subtle " forces " operating in
the body; that at least the brain, spinal column, and nerves are the
medium and channels for the transmission and play of currents which are
supposed to be of an electrical (i.e., etheric) nature. So also, in its
analysis of the Macrocosm, modern Science stops short at motion of
hypothetical atoms—though
even these can find no ground or explication apart from the hypothetical
Ether, which stands in the relation of
force to physical matter.
Occult
Science, on the other hand, deals definitely with the inner and more
subtle bodies or vehicles of
the conscious Monad or Ego, and sees in physiological functioning, as
well as in thought, the operation of these inner substantial bodies,
which correspond to and are formed of definite modifications of the one
Root Substance constituting the great Cosmic Planes of Matter or
Substance.
All these
bodies interpenetrate and act
and react with each other in any single bodily function ; but physical
science — dealing only with physical matter — is naturally unable to
detect the inner subtle body, which stands in the relation of a
force to the matter of which
the physical body is built up.
We have,
indeed, already shown that these
forces are just as substantial as physical matter itself. In their
cosmic aspect, as Planes of
Substance, they are the " bodies
" of the great Cosmic Powers and Intelligences now alluded to.
When those
forces which we call thought,
will, or emotion come into play in ourselves, certain physiological
happenings take place in our brain-cells and physical body ; but of the
physiological details of these happenings we are normally wholly
unconscious, even when we are not totally ignorant of their nature.
THE DAWN OF EVOLUTION 53
What we call "
we," the conscious, thinking Ego, is the
cause of these physical
happenings ; but we are normally all unconscious—having our own
cosmic affairs to attend to
of the effects which our thought, will, desire, or emotion
produces in the cosmos of our bodies, among the millions of millions of
lives which inhabit, and
build up, and function in our organism.
Thus we stand
in the same relation to the cosmos of our bodies as the Logos does to
the Cosmos as a whole, or as any of the lower " living, intelligent,
invisible Powers " of the Occult Philosophy do to their own particular
part of that
Cosmos. They are spoken of as the "unconcerned, but, exceptionally, the
conscious Cause of the sense-born phenomena designated as this or that
natural law."
On the other
side we—in our normal limited and restricted consciousness —know nothing
of the Cosmic Life of those Divine Intelligences whose "bodies" are the
Manifested Universe, and whose " thoughts " are the Cosmic Happenings.
So also the cells, or blood corpuscles, or microbes of our bodies —each
one individually a conscious life
—know nothing of us, of our
cosmic affairs, or of the nature of that thought or emotion of ours
which is life or death to them, or which
causes innumerable physical happenings in their own immediate
environment and universe.
Even as our
objective nature, any body which we may possibly possess —physical,
astral, or mental—is formed out of the One Substance, so that we
literally live in the
bodies or
body of the Logos, so also
our subjective nature, our
life and consciousness, must be rooted and grounded therein. If we could
trace back our life and consciousness to its root, we should as
inevitably find that it was one with the larger life and consciousness
of the Logos, as we should find
that all the substance of our body is the One Primordial Substance,
could we but analyze it to its inmost root and source; to that which it
is in its inherent indestructible nature, and not in its mere phenomenal
form.
54 THE PHYSICS OF THE SECRET DOCTRINE
We have
already seen that, " minus Force, Mulaprakriti is for all practical
intents and purposes non-existent " (S.D., vol. II. p. 27, Oe.),(S.D.,
vol. II. p. 25, Ne.)and we may equally say that for all practical
intents and purposes Force without Mulaprakriti is also non-existent.
In other
words, when we come to deal with Primordial Substance as the Root or
commencement of that vast process of differentiation or evolution which
brings the phenomenal Universe into existence in all its complexity, we
are dealing with a Force-Substance, with a self -moving Archæus
; and since every individualized phenomenon every form of " matter "
—'is Primordial Substance, it must have Force —or Life —inherent in it,
and this Force manifests itself to us as inherent
Motion.
"The One Life,
eternal, invisible, yet omnipresent, without beginning or end, yet
periodical in its regular manifestations. . . . Its one absolute
attribute, which is Itself, eternal, ceaseless Motion, is called in
esoteric parlance the Great Breath, which is the perpetual motion of the
Universe, in the sense of limitless, ever-present Space. That which is
motionless cannot be Divine. But there is nothing in fact and reality
absolutely motionless within the Universal Soul."
"From the
beginning of man's inheritance, from the first appearance of the
architects of the globe he lives on, the unrevealed Deity was recognized
and considered under its only philosophical aspect —Universal Motion,
the thrill of the creative Breath in Nature. Occultism sums up the One
Existence thus Deity is an
arcane, living (or moving) Fire, and the eternal witnesses to this
unseen Presence are Light, Heat, Moisture—this trinity including,
and being the cause of, every phenomenon in Nature. Intra-cosmic motion
is eternal and ceaseless ; cosmic motion —the visible, or that which is
subject to perception —is finite and
periodical. As an eternal abstraction it is the Ever-Present ; as a
manifestation, it is finite both in the coming direction and the
opposite, the two being the Alpha and Omega of successive
reconstructions." {S.D., vol. I. p. 32.) (S.D., vol. I. p. 2, Ne.)
We may,
therefore, quite consistently, in all the lower or later stages of the
evolutionary process, lose sight of our original distinctions as to the
duality of Force and Substance, and we may deal with Substance only,
remembering, how-
THE DAWN OF EVOLUTION 55
ever, that this Substance, whatever phenomenal form it may assume,
whether that of "Gods, Monads, or Atoms," of Cosmic Elements or chemical
molecules, can never be a dead thing, but must have within it this
inherent Motion, which,
in its highest aspect, is the Living Power of the Divine Thought of the
Logos.
At this stage,
therefore, we may conveniently leave our primary and fundamental
distinctions, and deal with the evolutionary process as simply a
differentiation of Primordial Substance. From this point, indeed, we may
even find ourselves more or less in agreement with purely materialistic
science, for we shall now be dealing with a Force-Substance, a Substance
in which Force or Motion is inherent, and from which it is
indistinguishable.
The two
factors which we have to deal with in all phenomena, considered as
objective realities, are, in fact. Substance—or Matter—and Motion. These
two factors are not merely found as a final analysis, but they must
necessarily be present in every part, in every individual phenomenon.
Let us repeat : all
" Matter " is Force- Substance, and all " Force " is Substance-Force.
" To Occult
Science, force and matter are only two sides of the same substance."
(S.D., vol. I. p. 683. Oe.)
(S.D., vol. I. p. 623, Ne.)
From this
starting-point, then, we may view the great World Process of evolution
as a process of differentiation setting in the Prima Materia of this
present Universe or by correspondence and analogy, in the first nucleus
of
Cosmic Matter (Nebula), which will presently become a Solar System. This
process results in the first instance in the formation of the great
Cosmic Elements and
Planes, and subsequently of various forms of atomic and molecular
matter, such as we are now familiar with on this Globe as the various
chemical elements.
CHAPTER VI
THE COSMIC ELEMENTS
Modern Science may now be said to have recognized clearly that all the
various kinds of matter with which we are physically acquainted, and
which go by the name of chemical
elements, have been derived or evolved by some cosmic process from
or in one primitive Substance, to which Sir Wm. Crookes, as far back as
1886, gave the name of Protyle.
This also has
always been the teaching of Occult Science but Occult Science says that
the Protyle of our physical matter is not the Primordial Root Substance
of the Universe, but is itself a cosmic differentiation of that
Substance ; and
further, that there are several other such differentiations, forming
what are known in general as the great Cosmic Planes of Substance.
" There are
thus Seven Protyles — as they are now called, where-as Aryan antiquity
named them the Seven Prakritis, or Natures—serving severally as the
relatively homogeneous bases,
which in the course of the increasing heterogeneity, in the evolution of
the Universe, differentiate into the marvellous complexity presented by
phenomena on the planes of perception. The term
' relatively ' is used designedly, because the very existence of such a
process,
resulting in the primary segregations of undifferentiated Cosmic
Substance into its septenary bases of evolution, compels us to regard
the Protyle of each plane as only a
mediate phase assumed by
Substance in its passage from abstract into full objectivity. . . . The
incipient segregation of primordial matter into atoms
and molecules takes its rise subsequent to the evolution of our Seven
Protyles." (S.D., vol. I. p. 350. Oe.) (S.D., vol. I. p. 328, Ne.)
THE COSMIC ELEMENTS 57
Man possesses appropriate faculties—mostly dormant or latent in our
present Humanity—for a definite objective knowledge of all these Planes,
but those which lie beyond or "outside" (in reality
within) the physical Plane
are naturally beyond the reach of any possible physical mode of
investigation ; they can only be known by their
effects in or upon physical
matter.
Thus there are
several " Protyles " in the Universe ; as many Protyles in fact as there
are Planes, because the Protyle of any particular Plane is the root
Substance of that Plane, and stands in the same relation to all the "
matter " of that Plane i.e., to all the subsequent differentiations or
evolution of matter—as the One Primordial Substance does to all the
Universe. The Protyle of any particular Plane is in fact the ultimate
form of Matter on and for that Plane, and, as such, it is
relatively simple and
homogeneous.
" There are
several protyles in Nature, corresponding to the various planes of
matter. The two sub-physical elemental kingdoms, the plane of mind,
Manas or fifth-state matter, as also of Buddhi, sixth-state matter, are
each and all evolved from one of the six protyles which constitute the
basis of the Objective Universe. The three ' states,' so called, of our
terrestrial matter, known as the 'solid,' 'liquid,' and 'gaseous,' are
only, in strict accuracy, sub-states."
(S.D., vol. II. p. 778. Oe.)
(S.D., vol. II. p. 737, Ne.)
It may be
noted that in this quotation only six Protyles are mentioned, whereas in
the previous one we have seven. This is because in the one case the Root
Cosmic Substance is not reckoned as a Protyle, while it is so reckoned
in the first quotation. Strictly speaking, of course, the One Root
Primordial Substance is not a Protyle, neither is it a Plane, these
latter being subsequent
differentiations of the One. It is often convenient, however, to speak
of the One as the highest Plane.
We have now,
therefore, to conceive that "in the beginning," i.e., at the
commencement of any particular evolutionary cycle, either for a Universe
or a Solar System,
58 THE PHYSICS OF THE SECRET DOCTRINE
Primordial Substance exists in a —phenomenally—undifferentiated
condition, just as a germ-cell does.
Dealing, then,
merely with the phenomenal or Substance side of the process, and leaving
out of account all question as to the Life and Consciousness which lies
within, or on the other side, as it were, of the Phenomenal Universe, as
the Primum Mobile thereof, we
find the teaching of Occult Science to be, that the first process of
difierentiation in and of Primordial Substance results in the formation
of the great Cosmic Elements,
or the " Seven Protyles " —the original Substance itself being reckoned
as one.
It is usual,
however, to enumerate only five of these (sometimes only four). The
reason for this is given in the following quotation :
" Occult
Science recognizes seven
Cosmic Elements—four entirely physical, and the fifth (Ether)
semi-material, which will become visible in the Air towards the end of
the Fourth Round, to reign supreme over the others during the whole of
the Fifth. The remaining two are as yet absolutely beyond the range of
human
perception. They will, however, appear as presentments during the Sixth
and Seventh Races of this Round, and will be fully known in the Sixth
and Seventh' Rounds respectively." {S.D., vol. I. p. 40. Oe.) (S.D.,
vol. I. p. 12, Ne.)
The four
elements which are here spoken of as " entirely physical " are those
commonly known as Earth, Air, Fire, and Water.
The Ancients
and the Alchemical Philosophers laid great stress upon these
Elements, but so long as
these terms were merely supposed to refer to our known physical "
elements," or rather states
of matter, the significance of the ancient
teaching was by no means apparent ; indeed, modern Science not merely
rejects the classification, but regards it as one indicating a very
inferior knowledge. With a clear understanding, however, of what is
really meant by these Elements,
the question assumes quite a different aspect. Our physical
states of matter (" in strict
accuracy, substates ") are
only the corresponding or analogous states of
THE COSMIC ELEMENTS - 59
matter, on our physical plane,
to the cosmic states which
constitute the real Elements.
It must be
remembered that all real knowledge of these matters belonged in Ancient
and Medieval times to Occult Schools of Initiation, and the form in
which they were given out, or committed to writing, was always one of
allegory and symbolism. There is a reference to this in the following
quotation :
" Now, speaking of Elements, it is made the standing reproach of the
Ancients that they supposed their elements simple and un-decomposable. .
. . Once more this reproach against the Ancients is an unwarrantable
statement. Their initiated philosophers, at any rate, can hardly come
under such an imputation, since it is they who have invented allegories
and religious myths from the beginning. Had they been ignorant of the
Heterogeneity of their Elements, they would have had no personifications
of Fire, Air, Water, Earth, and
Æther
; their cosmic gods and
goddesses would never have been blessed with such posterity, with so
many sons and daughters, Elements born
from and
within each respective
Element. Alchemy and Occult phenomena would have been a delusion and a
snare, even in theory, had the Ancients been ignorant of the
potentialities and correlative
functions and attributes of every element that enters into the
composition of Air, Water, Earth, and even Fire —the latter a
terra incognita to this day
to Modern Science, which is obliged to call it motion, evolution of
light and heat, state of ignition defining it by its outward aspects, in
short, in ignorance of its nature." {S.D., vol. I. p. 164. Oe.) (S.D.,
vol. I. p. 141, Ne.)
It is one of
the great contentions of The
Secret Doctrine that a real knowledge of the constitution of the
Cosmos is hidden away in Ancient Symbolism and Mythology, whereas the
common idea is that the gods and goddesses of the
Ancient Cosmogonies were mere vulgar anthropomorphisms.
This
contention may be better recognized, perhaps, when we have clearly
understood that the real Elements
are not physical at all,
but are the noumenon—the
informing, energizing principle—of
the outer physical phenomena. They may be regarded, however, both in a
physical and a meta-physical aspect.
60 THE PHYSICS OF THE SECRET DOCTRINE
" The Four
Elements were fully characterized by Plato when he said that they were
that ' which composes and
decomposes the
compound bodies.'' Fire, Air, Water, Earth were but the visible
garb, the symbols of the informing, invisible Souls or Spirits, the
Cosmic Gods, to whom worship was offered by the ignorant and simple, but
respectful recognition by the wiser." (S.D., vol. I. p. 498. Oe.) (S.D.,
vol. I. p. 460, Ne.)
" The Elements
of Plato and Aristotle were thus the
incorporeal principles
attached to the four great divisions of our Cosmic World." (S,D., vol.
I. p. 499. Oe.) (S.D., vol. I. p. 461, Ne.)
These
quotations give the metaphysical rather than the physical aspect of the
nature of the Elements. The sentence, "
that which
composes and
decomposes the
compound bodies,'' should,
however, be specially noted, as giving the idea that an Element is an
active principle. It is, in
fact, physically, an active force
; though, as we have already seen in Chapter IV., it must, as such, also
be substance, a supersensuous
state of matter. We might say, for example, that Electricity is an "
Element " ; for if the electronic
theory of matter is correct, it is Electricity which
" composes the compound bodies," i.e., the chemical elements. It is, of
course, also a familiar physical fact that it is capable of
decomposing them. Possibly
Electricity may stand in the meanwhile as being practically synonymous
with the Element
Æther.
The above
definition, however, does not appear at first sight to be quite so
applicable to the other four Elements Earth, Water, Air, Fire. But these
terms—in their purely physical meaning—stand merely for
states of matter, where-as
the real Elements are not the states, but the
cause of the states.
Earth, Water,
Air are in fact only synonyms for solid, liquid, and gaseous states of
physical matter; and while physical science can give no reason why some
matter—the chemical elements and their various combinations—should exist
in one state and others in another—attributing this merely to more or
less cohesion —Occult Science
teaches that the cause lies in each case in the action or activity of
THE COSMIC ELEMENTS 61
the hidden Elements, according as one or the other predominates.
All the
Elements are present in every particle of matter but according as one or
the other—Earth, Water, Air—is the most active, so will the substance be
a solid, a liquid, or a gas. Fire is a distinct state of matter beyond
the gaseous, but not yet recognized as such by modern science ; while
beyond Fire we have the fifth Element,
Æther.
"Let it be
remembered that the Fire, Water, and Air of Occultism, or the 'Elements
of Primary Creation' so called, are not the compound elements they are
on earth, but the noumenal homogeneous Elements —the Spirits of the
former. Then follow the Septenary Groups or Hosts. Placed in parallel
lines with the atoms in a diagram, the natures of these Beings would be
seen to correspond, in their downward scale of progression, to composite
elements in a mathematically identical manner as to analogy. This
refers, of course, only to diagrams made by Occultists ; for were the
scale of Angelic Beings to be placed in parallel lines with the scale of
the chemical atoms of Science —from the hypothetical Helium down to
Uranium — they would of course be found to differ. For the latter have,
as correspondents on the Astral Plane, only the four lowest orders —the
three higher principles in the atom, or rather molecule, or chemical
element, being perceptible to the initiated Dangma's eye alone. But
then, if Chemistry desired to find itself on the right path, it would
have to correct its tabular arrangements by that of the Occultists
—which it might refuse to do. In Esoteric Philosophy, every physical
particle corresponds to and depends on its higher noumenon the Being to
whose essence it belongs ; and above, as below, the Spiritual evolves
from the Divine, the Psycho-Mental from the Spiritual —tainted from the
lower plane by the Astral—the whole animate and (seemingly) inanimate
Nature evolving on parallel lines, and drawing its attributes from above
as well as below."
(S.D., vol. I. p. 239. Oe.) (S.D., vol. I. p. 218, fn. Ne.)
The term
Element, as used in Occultism, is still further defined in the following
quotation :
" In Occultism the word Element in every case means
Rudiment. When we say
' Elementary Man,' we mean either the proemial, incipient sketch of man,
in its unfinished and undeveloped condition, hence in that form which
now lies latent in physical man during his lifetime, and takes shape
only occasionally and under conditions ;
62 THE PHYSICS OF THE SECRET DOCTRINE
or that form which for a time survives the material body, and which is
better known as an Elementary. With regard to Element, when the term is
used metaphysically it means, in distinction to the moral, the incipient
Divine Man ; and in its physical usage, it means inchoate Matter in its
first undifferentiated condition, or in the Laya state, the eternal and
normal condition of Substance,
which differentiates only periodically. During that differentiation,
Substance is really in an abnormal state —in other words, it is but a
transitory illusion of the senses." {S.D., vol. I. p. 619. Oe.) (S.D.,
vol. I. p. 567, Ne.)
We must not
lose sight of the fact that the seven great Cosmic Elements of the
ancient Indian Philosophy, and of Occult Science, are the primeval
differentiations or modifications of the One Root Substance,
Mulaprakriti ; these
differentiations taking place at the dawn or commencement of a great
Manvantaric (evolutionary) Period. They are in fact those primal
differentiations described in our last chapter as being associated with
the seven great Cosmic
Beings, or Dhyan Chohans.
" If the
student bears in mind that there is but One Universal Element, which is
infinite, unborn, and undying, and that all the rest —as in the world of
phenomena —are but so many various differentiated aspects and
transformations (correlations they are now called) of that One, from
macrocosmical down to microcosmical effects, from super-man down to
human and sub-human beings, the totality, in short, of objective
existence —then the first and chief difficulty will disappear, and
Occult Cosmology may be
mastered." {S.D., vol. I. p. 104. Oe.) (S.D., vol. I. p. 75, Ne.)
" These seven
Elements with their numberless sub-elements, which are far more numerous
than those known to Science, are simply
conditional modifications and
aspects of the One and only Element. This latter is not Ether, not even
Akasha, but the source of these. The Fifth Element, now quite freely
advocated by Science, is not the Ether hypostasised by Sir Isaac Newton
although he calls it by that name, having probably associated it in his
mind with
Æther,
the ' Father-Mother ' of antiquity." {S.D., vol. I. p. 40. Oe.) (S.D.,
vol. I. p. 12-13, Ne.)
"
Metaphysically and esoterically, there is but
One Element in Nature, and at
the root of it is the Deity ; and the so-called
seven Elements, of which
five have already manifested
and asserted their existence, are the garment, the veil, of that Deity,
direct from the essence whereof comes Man, whether considered
physically, psychically, mentally, or spiritually. Four Elements only
are
THE COSMIC ELEMENTS 63
generally spoken of in later antiquity, while five only are admitted in
philosophy. For the body of Ether is not fully manifested yet, and its
noumenon is still the
Omnipotent Father
Æther,'
the synthesis of the rest." (S.D., vol. I.
p. 498. Oe.) (S.D., vol. I. p. 460, Ne)
As the " One Element " is the
germ-plasm of the Universe, and contains within itself the
potentiality of the other seven, so also each of the seven contains
within itself the potentiality of further differentiations ; what, in
fact, would now be called in physics
the evolution of matter.
This phrase is
no longer strange or heterodox to modern Science, though it was
decidedly so at the time The
Secret Doctrine was written. But the evolution of
physical matter is only the
evolution of matter on one of the seven Cosmic Planes, and that one the
lowest or grossest. Therefore the Element out of which our physical
matter is evolved is the Element " Earth." All the other Elements are
also present and active on this Plane, but they are all characterized or
qualified by the predominant Earthy Element.
There is a
statement given in the quotation on page 58 to the effect that
four of the seven Cosmic
Elements are " entirely physical," and this may possibly be a little
misleading, in view of the fact, which we have already noted, that the
four physical elements, or
states of matter—earth, water, fire, air—are not the cosmic elements,
but only the subdivisions of our physical Plane, itself the lowest of
the seven great Cosmic Planes.
The
explanation of this apparent discrepancy is to be found in the great
principle of correspondence and analogy which is the key to all the
Occult teachings. " As above, so below." We shall find that in every
case where Modern
Science is able to generalize, or to group phenomena according to
certain general characteristics, we shall have direct confirmation of
the operation in Nature of this fundamental principle, long since
recognized by, and made the basis of, Occult Science.
64 THE PHYSICS OF THE SECRET DOCTRINE
The four
physical Cosmic Elements are,
then, by correspondence and analogy, represented on our lowest or
physical Plane by the four
sub-states of our matter, known as earth, water, fire, and air. Now
the next Cosmic Plane to the
physical —usually termed the
Astral—is reckoned to be, cosmically, one of a lower
quaternary of Planes, which
lower quaternary, whether we are dealing with Elements, with Planes,
with Principles, or merely with sub-states of matter on any one
particular Plane — our physical, for example —is always reckoned as
material as contrasted with
the spiritual nature of the
three higher Planes. The three higher Planes, etc., are symbolized by
the triangle, while the four lower are symbolized by the square, or the
cross. A full explanation, however, of the relation between the upper
triad and the lower quaternary would take us too far out of our way at
present, and the reader may be referred to
The Secret Doctrine itself
for this information. (Vide diagram, p. 85. Also diagram, (S.D., vol. I.
p. 221, Oe.)(S.D., vol. I. p. 200. Ne.)
The teachings
of The Secret Doctrine find
their confirmation from many various sources ; they do not stand as any
new philosophy or discovery ; indeed, the work was principally written
to show how and in what way these teachings are contained in various
records extending back to the remotest historical times.
There is
nothing more characteristic of all these records than the persistent use
of the number seven. This is
clearly pointed out over and over again in the work itself, and it is no
part of our present subject-matter to deal with it, though we shall have
some physical analogies to point out later on.
With
reference, however, to this septenary division, and the fundamental idea
of Divine Life and Intelligence behind or within all the processes of
Nature, and each Element in particular, students would do well to
compare the teachings of The
Secret Doctrine with those of the great Seer, Jacob Boehme,
respecting what he calls the " Seven
THE COSMIC ELEMENTS 65
Qualifying or Fountain Spirits." When the terminology has been mastered,
the teaching will be found to be practically identical, and wonderfully
illuminative.
We have
already seen that the whole cycle of a Manifested Universe, the whole
period of the great process during which it comes into objective
existence, issuing from the latency or subjectivity of Primordial
Substance, and ultimately returning thereto, must be divided into two
main portions, one of which constitutes the
evolutionary period, whilst
the other is involutionary in
its nature.
What we
commonly know as the evolutionary process is really the first half of
the Cycle, that half in which matter (or Substance) "passes" —to use
Herbert Spencer's celebrated formula —"from an indefinite, incoherent
homogeneity, to
a definite, coherent heterogeneity." In using this phrase, however,
Herbert Spencer does not appear to have had any conception beyond a mere
atomic distribution and
redistribution.
Modern Science
has not yet recognized that this evolutionary process must certainly be
followed by one of involution or devolution, during which the process is
reversed, and matter (or Substance) will pass from "a definite coherent
heterogeneity " to " an indefinite, incoherent homogeneity," i.e., to
its original state, " the eternal and normal condition of Substance,
which differentiates only periodically."
Modern Science
has only just arrived at the disintegration of the chemical atom; and,
indeed, has hardly as yet assimilated the idea itself, or recognized all
that it involves. Occult Science, on the other hand, has taught this for
ages.
We may note
here that the " indefinite, incoherent homogeneity" of "Matter,"
in any possible state, can only be relatively to our present faculties
and consciousness.
Whichever way
we look at the question, it is obvious that that
Substance which is capable of
giving rise to all
66 THE PHYSICS OF THE SECRET DOCTRINE
the subsequent forms of matter, not to speak of the further evolution of
plant and animal organisms, must contain within itself,
in some form or mode, the
potentiality of the great
process which arises within its incognizable depths. Even a Materialist
must acknowledge some form of structure or motion therein, though by
doing so he stultifies his own primary definitions. Behind or within the
germ-
cell of the Universe there must lie
latent everything which
subsequently becomes specialized in objective form therein, just as
inevitably as plant or animal germ-cell evolves into one particular
representative of a species, and no other. That
something which lies within
or behind the germ-cell —whether of an atom, a plant, an animal, a man,
or a Universe —is, according to the teachings of Occult Science, that
other mode of the One
Absolute Principle which we know and recognize as Life and
Consciousness. Matter, in all its forms, is but the objective
correlative of this subjective
Reality. Subject and object exist in fact as object and
reflection in a mirror, but the One Reality exists in a mode which is
neither of these, and which is, therefore, utterly beyond our reach. The
furthest limit of our knowing cannot transcend the duality of subject
and object. Nevertheless, we can and may postulate that there is no
objective phenomenon without its exact subjective equivalent, and no
subjective action without its equivalent objective phenomenon. This,
indeed, is the meeting-ground and vanishing-point of Materialism and
Idealism. It is here that the two extremes meet, which they can never do
so long as either one of these two factors is regarded as an independent
reality.
"The essential
power of all cosmic and terrestrial Elements to generate within
themselves a regular and harmonious series of results, a concatenation
of causes and effects, is an irrefutable proof that they are either
animated by an Intelligence,
ab extra or
ab intra, or conceal such
within or behind the 'manifested veil.' Occultism does not deny the
certainty of the mechanical origin of the Universe ; it only claims the
absolute necessity of
THE COSMIC ELEMENTS 67
mechanicians of some sort behind or within those elements— dogma with
us." (S.D., vol. I. p. 650. Oe.) (S.D., vol. I. p. 594, Ne) "The Worlds,
to the profane, are built up of the known Elements. To the conception of
an Arhat, these Elements are themselves, collectively, a Divine Life;
distributively, on the plane of manifestations, the numberless and
countless crores of Lives." {S.D., vol. I. p. 269. Oe.) (S.D., vol. I.
p. 249, Ne)
" It is
through and from the radiations of the seven Bodies of the seven Orders
of Dhyanis that the seven Discrete Qualities (Elements), whose Motion
and harmonious Union produce the manifested Universe of Matter, are
born." (S.D.), vol. I. p. 280. Oe.) (S.D., vol. I. p. 259, Ne.)
The fundamental principle which needs to be clearly understood by the
student is that of the One Root Substance periodically differentiating,
or assuming a
" definite coherent heterogeneity," this " definite coherent
heterogeneity " being, in fact, what we commonly know as the phenomenal
or manifested Universe.
This
phenomenal Universe runs its appointed course, during which Substance
undergoes certain definite cyclic changes—as certainly predestined or
preordained as are the definite changes which go on in the germ-cell or
ovum of
any individual plant or animal —and finally returns, after incalculable
ages, to its original or "normal" condition. This cyclic principle of
evolution and involution will be the same whether we do or do not adopt
the septenary division or classification of
The Secret Doctrine.
We might liken
the process to that of crystallization from a clear solution. Imagine a
glass vessel full of a clear solution of some salt. To all appearance it
is a simple liquid, continuous and homogeneous. It represents our
Primordial Substance. It is simple and homogeneous only in appearance,
relatively, that is to say, to a certain order of perception or
consciousness. If, now, the necessary
impulse is given, the necessary conditions of temperature, etc., we may
cause the salt to crystallize out or within the liquid, forming thereby
a " definite coherent heterogeneity," an objective manifestation, where
formerly all appeared to be homogeneous.
68 THE PHYSICS OF THE SECRET DOCTRINE
If we further
imagine the crystals to be redissolved, so that only the clear solution
remains, we have the analogy of the reverse or involutionary process.
We have now further to conceive that when our Primordial Substance
begins this process of differentiation or crystallization —under the
impulse of the creative thought of the Logos —the first result will be
the formation of the seven great Cosmic Elements or Protyles, each of
which is the Root Substance, the ultimate atomic form of the " Matter "
of one of the seven great Cosmic Planes.
" In its turn,
this Triple Unit (Chaos-Theos-Cosmos) is the producer of the Four
Primary Elements, which are known in our visible terrestrial Nature as
the seven (so far five) Elements, each divisible into forty-nine —seven
times seven — sub-elements, with about seventy of which Chemistry is
acquainted. Every Cosmical Element, such as Fire, Air, Water, Earth,
partaking of the qualities and defects of its Primaries, is in its
nature Good and Evil, Force or Spirit, and Matter, etc. ; and each,
therefore, is at one and the same time Life and Death, Health and
Disease,
Action and Reaction. They are ever forming Matter, under the
never-ceasing impulse of the One Element, the Incognizable, represented
in the world of phenomena by
Æther.
They are ' the immortal Gods who give birth and life to all.' " {S.D.,
vol. I. p. 371. Oe.) (S.D., vol. I. p. 347,Ne.)
''According to
esoteric teaching there are seven Primary and seven Secondary
' Creations ‘: the former
being the Forces self-evolving
from the one causeless Force
; the latter showing the manifested Universe emanating from the already
differentiated divine
Elements." (S.D., vol. I. p. 481. Oe.) (S.D., vol. I. p. 446, Ne.)
We have
already indicated that the various sub-states of matter on our physical
Plane, which we know by the names of Earth, Water, Air, Fire, and Ether,
are not the real or Cosmic Elements of the Ancients or of Occult
Science, but are the corresponding states of matter differentiated out
of the Protyle of this particular Plane. Occult investigation would
disclose similar correspondences in the " matter " of every Plane,
though each Plane would naturally give its own distinctive character to
each of its subdivisions. All our physical elements are in fact
Earthy, as being the
THE COSMIC ELEMENTS 69
lowest Plane of the Cosmic Seven. On the next or " Astral Plane all the
subdivisions would be characterised as
Watery (cosmically). Although
there is a direct correspondence and connection between the various
sub-states of the different Planes one with another, it is impossible by
any mere physical investigation to tell what is the actual state of "
matter " belonging to the sub-states of any of the Planes higher than
the physical. This can only be investigated
by Occult means, and, even when known, would appear to be hardly
translatable into the terms of our physical knowledge of Matter ; an
example of which, indeed, we have in the difficulty which physicists
themselves find in expressing the nature of Ether in any physical terms.
The teachings
of the ancient Philosophers and Initiates, and of Occult Science in
general, can in fact only be understood and justified when it is clearly
realized that the moment we begin to endeavour to express the deeper
Realities of the Universe —those Realities which lie
within the Substance out of
which this visible garment of the Soul is woven—in terms of our physical
Plane, our language must necessarily be merely symbolical. We can only
faintly adumbrate the deeper Reality by its reflection or correspondence
on this lower or gross Plane of Matter.
And so we find
the Initiates in all ages using the physical terms, in order to convey,
to those who were capable of a deeper understanding, some of the higher
or deeper truths of Man's nature, and his relation to the Cosmos ; and
in the " Elements " of the Ancients we may find much on these lines
which is hidden from those who take them to be nothing more than our
physical earth, water, or air.
" Hitherto,
Alchemy alone, within the historical period, and in the so-called
civilized countries, has succeeded in obtaining a real element, or a
particle of homogeneous Matter, the
Mysterium Magnum of
Paracelsus." {S.D., vol. I. p. 638.)
(S.D., vol. I. p. 584, Ne.)
70 THE PHYSICS OF THE SECBET DOCTRINE
It will be
seen that the order in which the Elements are given —Earth, Water, Air,
Fire,
Æther—conveys
to our mind broadly the idea of varying degrees of subtleness, or
density, in a regular progression. As we rise from one Plane to another
towards the original Primordial Substance or the One Element, " Matter "
becomes more and more subtle or refined, more and more plastic and
mobile. We must note carefully, however, that our physical idea of
density is here altogether
misleading.
Bear in mind
that all forms of " matter," on whatsoever Plane,
are Primordial Substance.
They are never anything else, qua
Substance. But Primordial Substance cannot be denzified in the sense
that there is more of it in one portion
of space than in another. Our
primary concept of Primordial Substance forbids of such a notion.
Primordial Substance is absolutely Space-filling, and must ever remain
so. Our conception of phenomena, however, as various modes of Force or
Motion in and of this Space-filling Substance, affords us a ready
explanation of the familiar fact of density on a physical basis. For if
our atom of " matter " consists of an aggregation of whirls or
vortex-rings, then we can easily see how a number of these can exist in
greater or less proximity, thereby constituting what
we commonly call density ; which is, therefore, a fact as regards "
matter," but an illusion as regards Substance.
It is
necessary to bear in mind continually that all our familiar "facts" are
merely terms of relativity.
Every statement of how or
why must necessarily be made
within certain limitations. The limitations should be recognized and
understood. The failure to do so leads to dogmatic forms of
obscurantism, such as that commonly known as Materialism.
Our common
idea of density, then, cannot be applied to the great Cosmic Elements.
The idea which we must endeavour to grasp is rather that of increased
complexity, involution or limitation of
motion, as we descend from a
THE COSMIC ELEMENTS 71
higher Plane to a lower, with a corresponding liberation, freedom, or
universality of motion as we get nearer and nearer to the ultimate Plane
of Primordial Substance itself.
Strictly
speaking, we cannot conceive that there is more Motion in any one part
of Space than in another, any more than we can conceive of there being
more Substance. The reason for this is that, in our last analysis, all
forms of motion must resolve themselves into Absolute Motion,
indistinguishable from the Absoluteness of the One Substance itself.
Practically
unthinkable as is the idea of
absolute Motion, however, we are not without certain physical
analogies which help us to understand the immensely increased activity
of the higher Planes. The Ether transmits the vibrations of Light with
the enormous velocity of 185,000 miles per second, and the vibrations
themselves are counted by the million million per second. The great
puzzle or paradox for Science is the enormous density of the Ether which
must be conceded in order to explain physically this enormous velocity.
According to all our physical conceptions of density, the Ether is
incomparably denser than the
densest substance we know of. In a recent book on The
Ether
of Space, by Sir Oliver
Lodge, the density of the Ether is estimated to be something comparable
to 1012 C.G.S. units ; that is to say, a million million
grammes per cubic centimetre, or something like fifty thousand million
times that of Platinum. Yet to our physical faculties and consciousness
this "dense" substance is utterly invisible, impalpable, and
imponderable ; we move freely through it, as if it had no existence
whatever.
By another
method of calculation, and other data namely, the momentum of an
impinging light-wave, or, as it is sometimes called, the pressure of
light—
Sir J. J. Thompson, in his recent presidential address to the British
Association (1909), showed that the density of the
72 THE PHYSICS OF THE SECRET DOCTRINE
Ether might be of the order 5 x 1010, or about " two thousand
million times that of lead."
This enormous
density, which has only recently come to be recognized, is referred to
in Five Years of Theosophy,
p. 247, 1885 ed., as follows :—
" When
demonstrated, the four-dimensional conception of space may lead to the
invention of new instruments to explore the extremely dense matter that
surrounds us as a ball of pitch might surround, say, a fly, but which,
in our extreme ignorance of all its properties save those we find it
exercising on our Earth, we call the
clear, the
serene, and the
transparent atmosphere. This
is no psychology, but simply occult physics, which can never confound '
substance ' with 'centres of Force,' to use the terminology of a Western
science which is ignorant of Maya."
The real fact
is, as stated in this quotation, that we are ignorant of, because
insensible to, any properties of the Ether save those which manifest in
or through physical matter ; those properties, in fact, which are
physical matter.
We have
already noted that, qua Substance, neither physical matter, nor Ether,
nor the " matter " of any other Plane can be more or less dense than
Primordial Substance itself, simply because the latter is postulated as
absolutely space-filling, homogeneous, incompressible, and inextensible
—in fact, the modern scientific definition of the Ether.
But since
density is quantity of
matter, or mass per unit volume,
or per unit
space ; and since even the densest physical matter is to the Ether only
like an exceedingly porous sponge, or the filmiest mist of atoms or
corpuscles, with enormous spaces between —that is to say, that in a
given space the differentiated portion of the Ether which we know as "
matter " is only a mere fractional part of the whole contents ; and
since in estimating the density of this matter we are estimating merely
its aggregate : it follows
naturally that this aggregate is exceedingly small in comparison with
the absolutely space-filling substance of which it is a part.
THE COSMIC ELEMENTS 73
In his recent address to the British Association Sir J. J. Thompson says
:
"In all
probability, matter is composed mainly of holes. We may, in fact, regard
matter as possessing a bird-cage kind of structure, in which the volume
of the Ether displaced by the wires when the structure is moved is
infinitesimal in comparison with the volume enclosed by them."
What we ought
really to do is not to take physical matter as our standard and then say
that the Ether is so many million times denser, but reverse the
conception, and speak of matter as so many million times rarer than the
Ether. Possibly it may not be long before some scientific standard of
etheric density may be found which will enable this to be done.
Meanwhile, the
fact that it is only
Consciousness which appreciates these differences is a very
suggestive one. Matter on all Planes has the same absolute density—an
old Occult teaching, but one now confirmed by the modern concept of the
space-filling Ether, with "matter" only a differentiated form of motion
therein. But out of this uniformly dense Substance, Consciousness makes
for itself such a distinction, or such limitations, that part may seem
real and part unreal, part is visible and part invisible, part palpable
and part impalpable, while, metaphysically, the whole is
Maya.
Even more
important, however, than the density of the Ether is its intrinsic
energy, for this involves the
idea of motion which we are
now considering.
Radium has
shown us the enormous amount of intrinsic energy contained in the atom
and corpuscle ; but since these are only a fractional part of the Ether
itself, the amount of intrinsic energy in the latter in a given space
must be just as enormous in comparison as is its density.
The intrinsic
energy of the Ether is estimated by Sir Oliver Lodge to be of the order
1020 C.G.S. units per cubic
74 THE PHYSICS OF THE SECRET DOCTRINE
millimetre ; or otherwise, the amount of energy in every cubic
millimetre of space is " expressible as equal to the energy of a million
horse-power station working continuously for forty million years."
1
Now this
involves an almost inconceivable amount of intrinsic
motion of some kind or other,
in almost equally inconceivably small centres—" centres of force " —in
the Ether. The only physical way, in fact, in which the density and
elasticity of the Ether can at present be conceived of appears to be
that which regards it as an excessively fine-grained structure of minute
vortices, giving to it a gyroscopic stability and elasticity.
This view may
serve very well for the present ; and we need only point out here how it
helps to illustrate the Occult view that the ultimate motion of
Primordial Substance itself must be absolute
motion, quite unrealizable,
however, physically.
In the work by
Sir Oliver Lodge to which we have just referred, he himself asks the
question :
“ Why assume
any finite density for the ether at all ? Why not assume that, as it is
infinitely continuous, so it is infinitely dense—whatever that may
mean—and that all its properties are infinite?" (p. 92).
The answer to
this question, as he himself gives it, is a very simple
but a very suggestive one. It is that— " This might be possible were it
not for the velocity of light. By transmitting waves at a finite and
measurable speed the ether has given itself away, and has let in
possibilities of calculation and numerical statement. Its properties are
thereby exhibited as essentially finite—however infinite the whole
extent of it may turn out to be" (p. 92).
In the first
of these quotations the term " infinitely continuous " appears to be
used as synonymous with absolutely space-filling—which is not quite the
same as the"infinite………....…………………………………………………………………...
1
The Ether of Space, p. 95.
THE COSMIC ELEMENTS 75
extent " of the second quotation.
Extent should be rather
content. But in any case it seems rather illogical to " assume "
that it is " infinitely continuous, and then go on to prove that its
properties are "essentially finite"; for these properties are only those
of one particular phenomenon as manifested to our limited physical
senses.
Infinite extension would, however, to the Occultist, convey the idea of
extension in an inner direction as well as an outer; an infinity of
space within of the same
order as that which we view
without. This concept has hardly as yet entered into physical
science, though it is beginning to be understood in the new view of the
constitution of matter which the discovery of the corpuscle or electron
has opened out.
"As already
remarked, no Eastern Initiate would speak of spheres 'above
us, between the earth and the airs,' even the highest, as there is no
such division or measurement in Occult speech, no above as no
below, but an eternal
within, within two other withins,
or the planes of subjectivity merging gradually into that of terrestrial
objectivity — this being for man the last one, his own plane." (S.D.,
vol. I. p. 734. Oe.)
(S.D., vol. I. p. 671, Ne.)
Occult
Science, therefore, would say, with regard to the infinity of the Ether,
that the very fact that it has " given itself away," and that " its
properties are thereby exhibited as essentially finite," shows that it
is not infinite in the sense
of
being absolutely space-filling—the innermost of the innermost, or
Primordial Substance itself.
The very facts
which modern Science educes to prove the existence and properties of the
Ether are those which Occult Science would also educe to prove that
there are other Planes of Substance beyond it—beyond in the sense of
within, and again
within, just as the Ether is
within physical matter.
And when we
get back to those interior Planes—what shall we say of
Motion ? If the intrinsic
motion of the Ether of Science is so inconceivably greater or more
76 THE PHYSICS OF THE SECRET DOCTRINE
universal (nearer to the " infinite ") than anything which we know as
motion of physical Plane matter, how much more " infinite " will be the
intrinsic motion of the Plane immediately beyond the Ether, and then
again of the Plane beyond
that ? If the gross physical ether can transmit vibrations at the
enormous velocity of 185,000 miles per second, at what velocity will
Manasic Substance transmit them ?—this velocity possibly being "
telepathic," or taking place in the medium by which thought is primarily
transmitted from one mind to another.
Now although
no number of multiplications can make up
infinity, yet we are obliged
to regard infinity or absoluteness as the end term. The motion of
Primordial Substance must be Absolute Motion ; and any " vibration," any
" motion " of that substance, is instantly present everywhere ; no time
is occupied in transmission.
Add to this
concept that no single disturbance, motion, or vibration of physical
matter—or of the " matter " of any other Plane—can take place without
reaching and affecting all the other Planes, right back to Primordial
Substance itself—since matter is Primordial Substance—and we see that no
single action can take place "down here," or in the substance of any
other Plane, but it is
instantaneously present at the " other end " of the Universe.
It is only "
down here " that the properties of Primordial Substance are " exhibited
as essentially finite."
The idea of
absolute perpetual Motion—sometimes
called the Great Breath—is,
therefore, one which is indissolubly associated in Occult Science with
the idea of Primordial Substance as involving the notion of " energy."
Its modern physical equivalent is, of course, what is known as the
doctrine of the Conservation of Energy—one of the great " discoveries "
of the nineteenth century.
" The ' Breath
' of the One Existence is only used in application to the spiritual
aspect of cosmogony by Archaic Esotericism in the other cases it is
replaced by its equivalent on the material
THE COSMIC ELEMENTS 77
plane—motion. The One Eternal Element, or element containing Vehicle, is
Space, dimensionless in every sense ; coexistent with which are Endless
Duration, Primordial (hence Indestructible) Matter, and Motion—Absolute
'Perpetual Motion,' which is the ' Breath ' of the One Element. This
Breath, as seen, can never cease, not even during the Pralayic
Eternities." (S.D., vol. I. p. 85. Oe.) (S.D., vol. I. p. 55, Ne.)
……………………………………………………………..
"Eternal
Matter relapses periodically into its primary undifferentiated state.
The most attenuated gases can give no idea of its nature to the modern
physicist. Centres of Forces at first, the invisible Sparks, or
primordial Atoms, differentiate into Molecules, and become Suns —passing
gradually into objectivity —gaseous, radiant, cosmic, the one '
Whirlwind ' (or Motion) finally giving the impulse to the form, and the
initial motion, regulated and sustained by the never-resting
' Breaths ' —the Dhyan Chohans." (S.D., vol. I. p. 129. Oe.) (S.D., vol.
I. p. 103, Ne.)
Considered as modifications of the great " Breath," or ceaseless Motion
of the One Root Principle, the great Cosmic Elements are sometimes
referred to as Tattvas.
"Whether Tattvas mean, as
Occultism teaches, 'forces of Nature' or, as the learned Rama Prasad
explains, ' the substance out of which the universe is formed ' and '
the power by which it is sustained,' it is all one ; they are
Forces Purusha, and
Matter, Prakriti. And if the
forms, or rather planes, of
the latter
are seven, then its forces must be seven also. In other words, the
degrees of the solidity of matter and the degrees of the power that
ensouls it must go hand in hand.
" The Universe
is made out of the Tattva, it is sustained by the Tattva, and it
disappears into the Tattva,' says Shiva, as quoted from the
Shivdgama in
Nature's Finer Forces. This
settles the question : if Prakriti is
septenary, then the Tattvas
must be seven, for, as said, they are both Substance and Force, or
atomic Matter and the Spirit that ensouls it." (S.D., vol. iii. p. 491.)
There is a
reference in the above to the fact that in the Hindu System—which has
been ably set forth in a work entitled
Natures Finer Forces, by Rama
Prasad, M.A. only five Tattvas are enumerated. The reason for this is
the same as that which we have already given in the enumeration of the
Elements.
The paragraph,
however, serves well to show how closely
78 THE PHYSICS OF THE SECRET DOCTRINE
" Matter " and " Force " are identified in the Occult teachings and
whatever terminology may be used, this will be found to be the key to
the correspondences which obtain in all Nature, and in the " Principles
" and consciousness of Man
himself.
CHAPTER VII
THE EVOLUTION OF HUMANITY AND THE EVOLUTION
OF THE ELEMENTS
We have already seen that in the conceptions of Occult Science it is
fundamentally impossible to separate the great evolutionary process of
Cosmic Manifestation from the inherent informing Life and Consciousness,
represented in the first instance by the Logos, and in subsequent stages
by various Hierarchies of Divine Intelligences or Dhyan Chohans.
Any final
definition of Matter which we
can possibly give must necessarily bear some relation to Consciousness,
for it is only by or through Consciousness that Matter can be known at
all. Matter, then, in its final definition is simply that which is
objective to Consciousness on
any possible Plane of perception or manifestation; in other words, the
coming into existence of the Manifested
Universe is a transcendental process whereby that which exists eternally
in the One becomes apparently separated into the duality of Subject and
Object.
By the great
fundamental principle of Occult Science, that of correspondence and
analogy, this process which takes place " above " also takes place "
below." That which applies to Life and Consciousness as a whole, or in
its Cosmic aspect, applies also to its individual manifestations.
For the
Occultist, therefore, the evolution of every objective or material
phenomenon —from an atom to a
80 THE PHYSICS OF THE SECRET DOCTRINE
man, from a man to a Globe, from a Globe to a Solar System, from a Solar
System to a Universe —is the equivalent or correlative of a
corresponding evolution in
some definite unit of Life and Consciousness. There is in fact such a
complete parallelism between the two, that if we could see the
whole process, in the inner
as well as in the outer, it would be all one whether we said with the
Materialist that without Matter there could be no Consciousness, or with
the Idealist that without Consciousness there could be no Matter.
In accordance,
then, with this fundamental principle,
The Secret Doctrine teaches
that the evolution of this present Globe of ours, and the evolution of
Humanity, not merely in its physical nature, but also in its inner
spiritual, mental, and psychic nature, takes place
pari passu with the physical
evolution of the matter with which we are familiar.
We may look at
the question now, however, from the lower or physical standpoint, and
speak of Humanity as adapting itself to the changes in the Elements or
states of matter, rather than
vice versa ; though we shall not thereby
fall into any such grossly material idea as the " origin of species "
through " natural selection " or " survival of the fittest."
" As stated in
vol. I., the Humanities developed coordinately and on parallel lines
with the four Elements, every new Race being physiologically adapted to
meet the additional Element. Our Fifth Race is rapidly approaching the
Fifth Element—call it interstellar ether if you will — which has more to
do, however,
with psychology than with physics." 1 (S.D., vol. II. p. 143.
Oe.) (S.D., vol. II. p. 135, Ne.)
The allusion
here to the Fifth Race will be well under- stood by students of The
Secret Doctrine, but we may perhaps explain briefly that the evolution
of our Globe and of Humanity takes place, according to the Occult
1
It is perhaps worth noting, in this connection, that we find Sir Oliver
Lodge, in The Ether of Space
(p. 114) saying : " If anyone thinks that the ether, with all its
massiveness and energy, has probably no psychical significance, I find
myself unable to agree with him."
EVOLUTION OF HUMANITY AND OF THE ELEMENTS 81
Teachings, in certain definite Cycles, of which there are seven major
ones called Rounds, and seven
subordinate ones in each Round, which are called
Races.
Our present
position is said to be that the Earth is now in its Fourth Round, while
our present Humanity is in the Fifth Race of that Round. (See S.D., vol.
I. p. 182 et seq. Oe.) (S.D., vol. I. p. 159, Ne.)
There is a
correspondence, mutatis mutandis,
in the relation of Humanity to the Elements, between the
Rounds and the
Races : between the fifth
Round and the fifth Race, for example ; but in the first place, as
regards Rounds, we may note that each one of these will be concerned in
the definite activity of one of the great Cosmic Elements, and the
evolution of matter
therefrom, coordinately with the evolution of nascent Humanity.
" The general
teaching of the Commentary, then, is, that every new Round develops one
of the Compound Elements, as now known to Science, which rejects the
primitive nomenclature, preferring to subdivide them into constituents.
If Nature is the ' Ever Becoming ' on the manifested plane,
then these Elements are to be regarded in the same light ; they have to
evolve, progress, and increase to the manvantaric end." (S.D., vol. I.
p. 271. Oe.)
(S.D., vol. I. p. 250, Ne.)
The idea
should be carefully noted in this and the following quotations, that the
physical matter with which we are acquainted has nothing
whatsoever in its
characteristics which is stable or permanent; it is in a perpetual state
of flux and change, not merely in its atomic and molecular forms, but
also in absolute consistency or density. This is an idea not merely
absolutely opposed to the
orthodox science of last century, but one which has not yet been grasped
by the most advanced physicist, as it belongs rather to the domain of
metaphysics.1
Modern Science
has been forced to give up the great dogma of the nineteenth century,
the indestructibility of the physical atom, and thereby to make one step
towards the teachings of Occult Science ; but it has by no means as
1
See S.D., vol. II. p. 261. Oe.
(S.D.,
vol. II. p. 169, Ne.)
82 THE PHYSICS OF THE SECRET DOCTRINE
yet realized this further teaching, that all matter is under-going a
gradual change in texture, so to speak. We have no absolute standard of
density ; it is all necessarily relative to our present faculties and
consciousness. Had we such a standard, however, it might be found that
even our present physical atoms, the supposed " foundation stones " of
the Universe, are very different in absolute (physical) density from
what they were, say, twenty million years ago—small period in the total
life of our Globe.
Returning,
then, to the connection between the Rounds and the Elements, we find the
Secret Doctrine teaching that
" The
succession of primary aspects of Nature, with which the succession of
Rounds is concerned, has to do, as already indicated, with the
development of the Elements—in the Occult sense Fire, Air, Water, Earth.
We are only in the fourth Round, and our catalogue so far stops short.
The order in which these
Elements are mentioned, in the last sentence but one, is the correct one
for Esoteric purposes and in the Secret Teachings. The Earth, such as we
know it now, had no existence before the Fourth Round, hundreds of
millions of years ago, the commencement of our geological Earth. The
Globe, says the Commentary, was
fiery, cool, and radiant, as its ethereal man and animals, during the
First Round—a contradiction or paradox in the opinion of our present
Science ; luminous and more dense
and heavy during the Second Round ;
watery during the Third. Thus
are the Elements reversed." (S.D., vol. I. p. 272. Oe.) (S.D., vol. I.
p. 252, fn. Ne.)
Not merely "
matter " —the subsequent evolution from the basic Elements — but these
Elements themselves are subject to change and modification with the
course of the Rounds.
" In short,
none of the so-called Elements were, in the three preceding Rounds, as
they are now. For all we know, Fire may have been
pure Akasha, the First Matter
of the ' Magnum Opus ' of the Creators and Builders. . . . Air, simply
Nitrogen . . . Water, that primordial fluid which was required,
according to Moses, to make a 'Living Soul.'" {S.D., vol. I. p. 273.
Oe.) (S.D., vol. I. p. 253, Ne)
" The
Elements, whether simple or compound, could not have remained the same
since the commencement of the evolution of our Chain. . . . Mineral,
vegetable, and human life are always adapting their organisms to the
then reigning Elements ; and therefore
those Elements were then
fitted for them, as they are
EVOLUTION OF HUMANITY AND OF THE ELEMENTS 83
now for the life of present humanity. It will only be in the next, or
Fifth, Round that the Fifth Element, Ether—the gross body of Akasha, if
it can be called even that —will, by becoming a familiar fact of Nature
to all men, as Air is familiar to us now, cease to be, as at present,
hypothetical, and an 'agent' for so many things.
. . . With the next Element added to our resources in the next Round,
Permeability will become so manifest a characteristic of matter that the
densest forms of this Round will seem to man's perceptions as
obstructive to him as a thick fog, and no more." (S.D., vol. I. p. 277.
Oe.) (S.D., vol. I. p. 258, Ne.)
It is perhaps
necessary here, once more, to caution the student against forming any
idea of the nature of the real Elements of Occult Science from their
corresponding physical names. To speak, for example, of the Globe as
being at one and the same time "
fiery, cool, and radiant “will appear from such a point of view to
be absolutely contradictory. It is possible, however, that modern
Science
may yet discover that there are visible glowing bodies in space which
are not incandescent vapours; or, indeed, matter in any state known to
us physically on this Globe.
"The Second
Round brings into manifestation the second Element Air; an Element, the
purity of which would ensure continuous life to him who would use it. .
. . The Third Round developed the third Principle Water ; while the
Fourth transformed the gaseous fluids and plastic form of our Globe into
the
hard, crusted, grossly material sphere we are living on." (S.D., vol. I.
p. 280. Oe.) (S.D., vol. I. p. 260, Ne)
" Of these
(the primitive, though compound, seven Elements on our Earth), four
Elements are now fully manifested, while the fifth—Ether—is only
partially so, as we are hardly in the second half of the Fourth Round,
and consequently the fifth Element will manifest fully only in the fifth
Round. The Worlds,
including our own, as germs, were of course primarily evolved from the
One Element." (S.D., vol. I. p. 164. Oe.) (S.D., vol. I. p. 140, Ne.)
The following
quotation refers to the difference between our so-called chemical
elements and the Elements of the Occultist.
" Surely,
then, the elements now known to us—be their number what it may—as they
are understood and defined at present, are not, nor can they be, the
primordial Elements.
EVOLUTION OF HUMANITY AND OF THE ELEMENTS 84
Those were formed from ' the
curds of the cold radiant Mother ' and '
the fire-seed of the hot Father,
' who 'are one'; or, to express it in the plainer language of Modern
Science, those Elements had their genesis in the depths of the
primordial
Fire-mist, the masses of incandescent vapour of the irresolvable
nebulae. . . . The elements now known have arrived at their state of
permanency in this Fourth Round and Fifth Race. They have a short period
of rest before they are propelled once more on their upward spiral
evolution, when the ' living fire of Orcus ' will dissociate the most
irresolvable, and scatter them again into the primordial
One." (S.D., vol. I, p. 593. Oe.)
(S.D., vol. I. p. 552, Ne.)
There
are several matters in the quotations we have now given which require
further elucidation, and first and foremost, perhaps, the order in which
the evolution of the Elements is given in their connection with the
evolution of
Humanity in the successive Rounds.
It will
be seen that the series of Elements commences with Fire as that which is
manifested or evolved in the first Round. Then follow Air, Water, Earth,
in the order here given. Earth being the fourth in the series, and so
corresponding to the fourth Round.
But it
is by no means clear at first sight why
Earth, the grossest and most
material Element of all, should characterize the
fourth Round ; indeed it
would appear that it is only made to do so by arbitrarily commencing the
series with Fire, whereas, in the order of the seven Elements as given
in our last chapter, it would appear that
Fire is itself the fourth in
the descending order.
Further, it is
stated that the next Element to manifest in the next or fifth Round will
be Ether, whereas we have previously seen that
Æther
(note the spelling, however) comes before Fire in the descending order,
and is only the fifth Element if we reckon from below upwards.
The full
explanation of this apparent discrepancy is to be found in the fact
already briefly referred to on p. 64, that the Cosmic Planes are, for
purposes of classification, considered to be divided into two main
series or groups, an upper triad of three—symbolized by the triangle—and
EVOLUTION OF HUMANITY AND OF THE ELEMENTS 85
a lower quaternary of four—symbolized by the square. The three upper
Planes belong to the spiritual or unmanifested Cosmos, while it is only
on the lower four that what we know as manifestation or evolution takes
place, and it is only these to which the teaching concerning the Rounds
is applicable —they are the four
Material Planes of the Cosmos ; and, correspondingly, each Plane has
its material, or lower four
subdivisions : namely, on our physical Plane the earth, air, fire, and
water, with which we are physically acquainted, whilst Ether is the
fifth.
We have referred on page 64 to the explanation given in (vol. I. p. 200,
Ne.) of
The Secret Doctrine as to the
various Rounds and Planes, but it will be best here to give a modified
drawing of the diagram which will there be found, in order to show the
relation of the Elements to the various Planes, and also to the
"Principles."
It will be
seen by a glance at this diagram that manifestation or evolution,
commencing only on the fourth Plane counting downward, is concerned in
the first instance with the Element
Fire ; and then, in
descending order, with Air,
Water, and Earth, respectively. The small circles marked A, B, C, etc.,
may stand either for Rounds, Globes, or Races,
86 THE PHYSICS OF THE SECRET DOCTRINE
but we need not complicate the matter here by any reference to what are
known as the " Globes." We shall elucidate these in Chapter IX.
"Even on the
highest plane of our universe, the plane of Globe A or G, fire is in one
respect only the fourth element." (Trans.
Blav. Lodge, ii. 24.)
The next fact
which we must note is this, that each of the first four Rounds, A, B, C,
D, takes us downwards into a more and more material condition or state
of Matter, so that in the fourth Round (D) we reach our present material
or " Earthy " state. But this is only one half of the whole Cycle, and
the second half is a return back again through the same Planes or
Elements. The first half is in fact the
evolutionary
period, and the second half the
involutionary period, which we have already referred to on p. 48.
They are indicated on the diagram by the direction of the arrows.
We are now
prepared to deal with the statement that the next Element to manifest
will be Ether. It is not at all clear at first sight how this can be so,
but the careful student of The Secret Doctrine is well aware that there
are apparent discrepancies in many of the statements made, which,
however, vanish on further examination. Many of these apparent
discrepancies arise from the fact that there is still very much which
cannot be given out fully and plainly, and also that to a large extent
it is intended that much would be left to the intuition of the student
to interpret in a spiritual and metaphysical manner, otherwise there is
great danger that the whole teaching would be hardened and materialized
into a rigid system. As we have said before, superphysical things can
only be represented to the intellect by their physical correspondences,
or by symbolism and analogy ; but great care should be taken that the
intuition is left free to work, so that the matter is not hardened into
a dogmatic system from which nothing
further can be extracted. All these Planes and Rounds, and even the
Elements themselves, must be looked upon as
EVOLUTION OF HUMANITY AND OF THE ELEMENTS 87
a kind of support or scaffolding for the building up
within one's self of the
temple of Truth. When that is done the scaffolding is removed.
"Since, however, as before
confessed, this work (The S.D.)
withholds far more than it gives out, the student is invited to use
his own intuitions." {S.D., vol. I. p. 299. Oe.) (S.D., vol. I. p. 278,
Ne)
Analogy is our
certain guide ; but in any particular statement we must be careful to
recognize whether we are dealing with Rounds, Races, or Planes ;
or whether only with the subdivisions of these.1 We would
take the
opportunity here, indeed, of cautioning the reader against any rigid or
material view of the classification which
The Secret Doctrine adopts,
and which we are, therefore, using here.
Now and then a
hint is thrown out in The Secret
Doctrine for the intuitional student to work upon. Such a hint is
contained in a quotation we have already given on p. 75. "This (the
plane of terrestrial objectivity) being for man the last one, his own
plane." In other words, for other beings there may be—and Occultism says
there is—still " lower " plane ; but the " physical " plane is the plane
of man's objective consciousness, whatever state of consciousness that
may be.
Our
classification, then, is seen to be only a convenient scale or rule with
which we may measure or map out a portion of the Universe—that little
portion, in fact, which is comprised under the term phenomenal. We may,
therefore, consider our classification thus. If we take a circle divided
into 360 degrees, we may commence to count these degrees from any point
on the circle. If, further, we have a quadrant scale of 90 degrees, it
is evident that we may apply this to any part of our circle, and shift
it as desired. Our quadrant scale is the scale of planes and sub-planes
of our diagram, and it may be placed anywhere in the circle of time—for
" time " is a circle or cycle. What determines the position of our scale
or diagram is the consciousness
1
See S.D., vol. I. pp. 174, 662. Oe. (S.D., vol. I. pp. 175, 536, Ne.)
88 THE PHYSICS OF THE SECRET DOCTRINE
of Man, or Humanity; for that consciousness determines the position of
the physical Plane as the point from which we commence to count.
Or we may take
another analogy. Let us regard our diagram as equivalent to the tonic
sol-fa system of musical notation. In this notation the various sounds
of the scale have the same
relative value whatever the key may be; but they have no
absolute value as definite
rates of vibration. We may change the key at pleasure, and then we shift
the absolute value of the tonic and of all the other notes, though their
relative sound is the same. Such a shifting of the key-note is the
shifting of the consciousness of Humanity from Race to Race, and from
Round
to Round.
" Cycles and epochs depend on consciousness. . . . Cycles are
measured by the consciousness of humanity, and not by nature." (S.D.,
vol. iii. p. 563.)
Now,
therefore, with regard to the fifth Element, which is to come into full
manifestation only in the next or fifth Round, it must be noted in the
first instance that in the quotations given it is spelt Ether, not
Æther.
We are
further put on our guard by the sentence " call it interstellar Ether if
you will" In another quotation it is also spoken of as " Ether—the gross
body of Akasha, if it can be
called even that"
Here, then, we see
clearly that this Ether is not the fifth
Cosmic Element,
Æther
; as indeed a glance at the diagram will show us plainly that it cannot
be, for we cannot jump all at once from the bottom of the cycle to the
top ; indeed,
if it were the fifth Cosmic
Element, the Quintessence of
all the others, we should be jumping out of manifestation altogether.
In the next
Round, however. Matter will return to the Astral or " Watery "state, and
it is this state which Madame Blavatsky here identifies,
for the sake of analogy only,
with the " interstellar Ether "
if you will.
EVOLUTION OF HUMANITY AND OF THE ELEMENTS 89
We have seen in Chapter III. that the Ether is identified with the
Astral Light, and by the
Kabalists and other Occultists the Astral Principle is always identified
with Water. We see also in the diagram that the Cosmic Element Water
corresponds to the Astral Plane.
It should be
noted, however, that there must necessarily be a vast difference between
the state of " Matter " on this Plane in the next Round, from that which
pertained to it in the last or third Round ; for in this last case it is
on the
downward half of the Cycle of evolution, whereas in the next Round it
will be on the upward arc of the Cycle, and will have added to it all
that has resulted from the vast intermediate period. It is difficult, or
even impossible, to give any indication or analogy as to what this
difference can consist in
physically, or in any terms of physical Science. We must remember
that in Occult Science physical evolution has no meaning apart from the
corresponding Life and Consciousness. It is
that which evolves, and the
outward physical states are only the correlatives of the inner changes.
"It is the
spiritual evolution of the inner, immortal Man that forms the
fundamental tenet of the Occult Sciences." (S.D.,vol. I. p. 695. Oe.)
(S.D.,vol. I. p. 634, Ne.)
In the next
Round, then, the outward " Matter " must correspond to all the vast
experience through which the inner " Monad " has passed ; it is not a
mere return in the texture of Matter to the " Watery " state.
This is
further borne out by the hint given to us that this evolving fifth
Element —or rather the fifth Element with which the evolving Humanity
will come into relation—"has more to do with psychology than with
physics." It has, indeed, to do with what is commonly referred to as the
development of our "astral" faculties. Although the development of these
faculties—now as a matter of fact
coming largely into evidence, and forming the basis of the new science
of Psychical Research—belongs to a certain extent to our present fifth
Race, yet it is only in the
next
90 THE PHYSICS OF THE SECRET DOCTRINE
Round that they will attain their full or normal ascendency. Humanity
will, in fact, then be wholly on what is to us now the " Astral Plane."
The passage of matter through matter will be one of the most familiar
facts of physics, for "
Permeability will become so manifest a characteristic of matter that
the densest forms of this Round will seem to man's perceptions as
obstructive to him as a thick fog, and no more."
But we must
here note a further distinction which must be made between what is here
called interstellar Ether,
and the Ether of modern science. The fifth Element, or the next in the
order of manifestation, if it is to be called " Ether " at
all, is this interstellar
Ether, and not the Ether of modern science,—the Ether, that is to say,
which modern science recognizes as concerned in the phenomena of light,
heat, electricity, magnetism, and matter, i.e., corpuscles or electrons.
Modern science
has only one Ether, Occult Science has several ; and in particular it
teaches that the Ether with which we come in contact within the "
atmosphere " {aura would perhaps be a better word) of our Earth is not
the
same as the Ether of Space, the interstellar Ether.
All the
Elements, in fact, exist in a different condition within the sphere of
each Globe, Planet, or Sun from that which exists in Space ; they are in
a continual state of flux and change in consequence of the evolutionary
cycles through which the Globes are passing, and these evolutionary
cycles are different for each Globe or Planet.
"Neither
Water, Air, nor Earth (a synonym for solids generally) existed in their
present form (in the beginning), representing the only three states of
matter recognized by Science ; for all these, and even Fire, are
productions already
recombined by the atmospheres of completely formed globes, so that in
the first periods of the earth's formation they were something quite
sui generis. Now that the
conditions and laws ruling our Solar System are fully developed, and
that the atmosphere of our earth, as of every other globe, has become,
so to say, a crucible
EVOLUTION OF HUMANITY AND OF THE ELEMENTS 91
of its own, Occult Science teaches that there is a perpetual exchange
taking place, in space, of molecules, or rather atoms, correlating, and
thus changing their combining equivalents on every planet." (S.D., vol.
I. p. 165. Oe.)
(S.D., vol. I. p. 142, Ne.)
"Thus not only
the elements of our planet, but even those of all its sisters in the
Solar System, differ in their combinations as widely from each other as
from the cosmic elements beyond our solar limits. . . . Therefore the
elements of our planet
cannot be taken as a standard for comparison with the elements in other
worlds." {S.D., vol. I. p. 166. Oe.) (S.D., vol. I. p. 142, Ne.)
" Our
globe has its own special laboratory on the far-away out-skirts of its
atmosphere, crossing which, every Atom and molecule changes, and
differentiates from its primordial nature." (S.D., vol. I. p. 638. Oe)
(S.D., vol. I. p. 583, Ne.)
The above
quotations are suggestive of a great deal which does not appear at first
sight, but upon which more light will be thrown in our subsequent
chapters.
We may note
here the idea, as yet unfamiliar to Modern Science, that our Earth—and,
by correspondence, every other Planet—has its own particular sphere of
physical activity, extending far beyond the ordinarily assigned limits
of our " atmosphere," in which atoms and molecules, if not actually
manufactured out of the interstellar Ether, at all events change and
differentiate into those forms of matter, or chemical atoms and
molecules, with which we are
acquainted.
Notwithstanding that the true " Ether " of the fifth
Round—or of the fifth
Humanity—is not the present Ether of Science, we must recognize a
correspondential relation between it and the latter. The Ether of
Science may be said to be the Ether of the fifth
Race. The recognition of its
all-importance in physical phenomena is the result of the great work of
the Science of the nineteenth century. The recognition of its psychical
importance will be the work of the present century. The student should
read carefully in this connection the whole of (section xi., vol. I.,
Oe.) (p. 579,
XII. ANCIENT THOUGHT IN
MODERN DRESS. Ne.)
of The Secret Doctrine, from
which the last quotation is taken.
CHAPTER VIII
PHYSICAL PLANE MATTER
We have already referred to the position of the physical Plane as a
whole in the great Cosmic Order. It is —for Man—that of the grossest or
" Earth " Element, the Plane of the greatest densification, involution,
or limitation of that Motion or " Breath " by which Substance is
modified, and becomes phenomenal.
By
correspondence and analogy, however, our physical Plane reflects the
whole Cosmos, and what Primordial Substance, or the one Element, is to
the whole Cosmos, so is the ultimate form of matter, or Protyle of the
physical
Plane, to all the rest of that Plane : to those subsequently evolved
forms which are the matter of our perceptions, the chemical elements, so
called, and other states of matter not as yet reached by scientific
investigation.
The Secret Doctrine gives
little or no precise information as to the actual constitution of the
physical Protyle, or of the various subdivisions of the physical Plane ;
nor does it even throw much light upon many practical questions in
chemistry and physics which seem to call for immediate solution. Its
province appears to have been to deal more with the broad philosophical
aspect of the matter, leaving the details to be filled in by later
investigators.
To a certain
extent an effort has been made to carry this out, and we have at the
present time a considerable amount of information which is of enormous
interest and impor-
PHYSICAL PLANE MATTER 93
tance, not merely in view of the more recent discoveries of Science, but
also in the wonderful light which they throw upon those teachings of
The Secret Doctrine, which we
have now to a certain extent elucidated.
The Secret Doctrine was
published in 1888, and, as we know, physical Science has since then
undergone almost a revolution, owing to the discovery of Radio-activity,
Radium, and the Corpuscle or Electron.
Every advance
that has been made by orthodox Science, however, has been so much clear
confirmation of the teachings of Occult Science, and the position which
obtains today for those who have made a study of the latter, as well as
having followed the progress of modern research, is one of clear
apprehension of many details which were formerly obscure, and of great
additional confirmation of the general principles enunciated in
The Secret Doctrine.
The same may
be said in many other departments of Science with which
The Secret Doctrine deals,
but at present we are concerned only with physical Science.
In November
1895 Mrs Annie Besant published, in Lucifer, an article on " Occult
Chemistry," which was prefaced by the following words :
“Of late years
there has been much discussion among scientific men as to the genesis of
the chemical elements, and as to the existence and constitution of the
ether. The apparatus which forms the only instrument of research of the
scientists cannot even reach the confines of the ether, and they
apparently never dream of the possibility of examining their chemical
atom. There is, in regard to both atom and ether, a wealth of
speculation, but a poverty of observation —for lack, of course, of any
means which would render any observation possible.
" Now man possesses senses, capable of evolution into activity, that are
able to observe objects beyond the limits of the sensitiveness of the
five senses. These latter organs receive vibrations from the physical
world, but their capacity of reception is comparatively narrow, and vast
numbers of vibrations, still physical
in their character, leave them entirely unaffected. The keener and more
delicate senses of the astral body are latent for the most part in men
of our race, and are therefore not available
94 THE PHYSICS OF THE SECRET DOCTRINE
for general use. Yet they afford instruments for observation on the
higher levels of the physical plane, and bring under direct ken objects
which, from their minuteness or subtlety, escape ordinary vision. It
seems worth while to lay before the public a few observations made
through these senses, partly because it
is possible that they may suggest hypotheses useful as elucidating some
scientific problems, and partly because science is advancing rapidly,
and will ere long be investigating some of these matters for itself, and
it will then perhaps be well for the Theosophical Society if the first
statement of facts that will then be accepted
should have come from members of its body."
The details
given in this chapter, and the diagram which accompanies it, are now
taken, by kind permission, from the article just referred to ; and the
attention of the reader is also called to a further series of articles
which appeared
in The Theosophist (Jan. 1908
and following months), in which the subject is entered into in much
greater detail, and with a wealth of illustrations.1
We may call
attention to the foreshadowing of the discovery of the disintegration of
the chemical atom, and of the existence of the electron, in the
paragraph which we have quoted above. The details hereafter given,
however,
must be accepted with all due reserve. They require a considerable
amount of confirmation and further elucidation as to particulars :
though doubtless right in the main.
First, then,
as regards the Protyle, or ultimate form of matter of the physical Plane
—the Primordial Substance of the physical Plane only—this is found to be
atomic in its nature ; as indeed we should naturally conclude, since it
must be formed by a further differentiation or limitation of
motion in the substance of
the next higher Plane. The formation of the
matter of any " lower " Plane
is, in fact,
always a limitation or involution
of the free motion of the Plane immediately above it.
This is
strictly in accordance with the findings of modern Science, which
teaches that the corpuscle or electron is a
1
Since published in book form under the title of Occult Chemistry,
T.P.S., 161 New Bond St., London, W.
PHYSICAL PLANE MATTER 95
form of motion of etheric substance, which becomes further involved
within the limits of the physical atom. The free motions of the physical
or chemical atoms are further limited or involved when these combine to
form compound
molecules. We may now refer to our diagram, where a sketch of the
ultimate physical Plane atom —the atom of the " Protyle " of our
physical matter—is given in the top left hand corner, and marked E1.
Only a general account of this atom can be given here the student must
be referred for a full description to the articles already mentioned.
This ultimate
atom consists of a whorl or vortex of
astral matter, the matter or
substance of the Plane next above the physical. It has a definite
structure, consisting of a number of spirals, which are further made up
of spirillae —not shown in the diagram. The whole atom is in exceedingly
rapid motion, like a top, caused by the vortical motion of the spirals.
This motion of each spiral passes round and round the outside of the
atom, and then, passing in at the top, it forms an internal vortex,
finally issuing at the bottom, to pass once more round the outside. Each
spiral therefore forms, as it were, a continuous ring or tube of force,
which has probably an analogy, though not an exact correspondence, to
the well-known Faraday tubes of magnetic induction.
We find,
indeed. Professor Sir J. J. Thompson, in his
Electricity and Matter,
speaking definitely of " the Faraday tubes stretching across the atom
between the positively and negatively electrified constituents."
Each spiral
has its own particular colour, which is continually flashing out in
response to vibrations received from other atoms, or from a higher
Plane. The whole object is described as being of very great beauty, and
as moving with almost inconceivable rapidity. This latter is, of course,
the well-known characteristic of what
96 THE PHYSICS OF THE SECRET DOCTRINE
Science at present calls the Ether, whose vibrations are counted by the
million million, as against the few hundreds or thousands of the grosser
physical matter.
Besides
the spinning motion of the atom as a whole, it is described as having
two other characteristic motions. The axis describes a small circle,
just as a spinning top does when it is beginning to slow down. This
motion is what is generally known as that of
precession, and has its
astronomical correspondence in the precession of the equinoxes.
In
addition to these two motions, the atom has also a regular pulsatory
motion, a contraction and expansion, like the pulsation of the heart.
Referring again to our diagram, the first vertical column represents the
formation of an atom of hydrogen gas by a process of gradual aggregation
of these ultimate atoms into more and more complex bodies. Reckoning the
ultimate atom itself as one stage, we have five stages before the
gaseous stage of matter is reached ; the two remaining stages, those of
liquids and solids, making seven sub-stages in all.
The first
four, that is to say the four higher stages, have been called by Mrs
Besant, Ether No. 1, No. 2, No. 3, and No. 4 respectively, in descending
order.
It is very
possible that this classification may have to be modified later on, as
more comes to be known, both from the Occult side, and also from purely
physical science ; but in the meantime we think that these four higher
states of
physical matter may be regarded as
physical ether, as
distinguished from interstellar
ether—a distinction which we have already made. On page (574 of
vol. I. Oe.) (525, Ne.) of The
Secret Doctrine we are definitely told that we must distinguish "
ponderable matter " i.e.,
solids, liquids, and gases —" from that Ether which is matter still,
though a sub-stratum." We may probably regard these higher atoms as
those already spoken of as becoming modified by their entrance into the
" atmosphere " of our Globe ; or possibly they are the atoms which are
manufactured in the
PHYSICAL PLANE MATTER 97
" special laboratory on the far away outskirts of our atmosphere."
Remembering that " Occult Science has several ethers " all of which are
differentiations of
Æther—and
that the " lowest ether " is our physical or " Prakritic " Plane, we
shall find it most conducive to clearness of exposition to regard all
the atomic sub-planes, as given in our diagram, as constituting the
differentiations of our physical,
or fifth
Race Ether ; the Ether,
namely, on the structure of which modern Science is now speculating.
There is
a general tendency in these speculations to regard the ether as having a
fine-grained vortical structure, giving to it a gyrostatic rigidity and
elasticity. We can readily see that in our ultimate atom E1
we have something which looks exceedingly like this very thing ; though
it is difficult to say at the present time to what extent this will
harmonize with modern physical theories, or in what way the phenomenon
of light transmission is dependent upon the atom E1.
It is an
interesting question also as to which of these sub-atoms we may regard
as being the actual corpuscle or electron recently discovered by science
in the phenomena of radium and of radio-activity in general. This
question cannot, however, be answered definitely at the present time
from the information at hand, more particularly so as scientists have
not yet decided how many corpuscles are contained in any particular
chemical atom.
The original
estimate for the atom of hydrogen was from
800 to 1000 : since it was discovered that the
mass of the corpuscle was
about
1/800th hydrogen atom itself. Later investigations, however, have placed
the
number as low as that of the atomic weight of the element, i.e., as low
as 1 for hydrogen. We do not think, however, that further knowledge will
confirm this extremely low estimate. On the other hand, Mrs Besant is
very definite as to the number of ultimate atoms or corpuscles in an
98 THE PHYSICS OF THE SECRET DOCTRINE
atom of hydrogen. These are stated to be 18 ; and the number of ultimate
atoms which have been counted in other chemical elements corresponds
very closely to the accepted atomic weight multiplied by this number. In
other words, if the number of observed atoms is divided by 18 we shall
have the relative atomic weight of the particular element, in terms of
the weight of the hydrogen atoms.
For example,
the number of observed atoms or corpuscles in the chemical atom of
oxygen is given as 290, and 290 divided by 18 gives 16.11 as the atomic
weight of the element. The number of ultimate atoms observed in a
chemical atom of nitrogen is found to be 261, and this divided by 18
gives 14.5 as the atomic weight. The present official atomic weight of
oxygen is taken to be 15.879, and of nitrogen 14.01.
Nothing herein
stated should be accepted in any rigid or final manner, but the great
law of correspondence and analogy should be kept in view all along. If
this is done, our diagram will be found to be of the greatest service,
for it gives us the general idea or principle which must obtain all
through the Planes, in the descent or evolution of Matter from the
highest Cosmic Plane to the lowest, as well as in
the subdivisions of each separate Plane. Thus the various subdivisions E1,
E2, etc., might correspond to Cosmic Planes as well as to
subdivisions of the lowest or physical Plane. We have given this diagram
and explanation here, indeed,
principally because it helps us to understand these broad principles of
correspondence and analogy, as well as many matters which are only
briefly hinted at in The Secret
Doctrine itself.
Taking now the
sub-planes in descending order, and following out the evolution of the
hydrogen atom, we find on the second sub-plane E2. that the E1
atoms aggregate into three groups, each containing three ultimate atoms.
Each of these three groups, however, is a different sub-atom, inasmuch
as the relative motions of the three component atoms
PHYSICAL PLANE MATTER 99
is different in each case ; they act and interact with each other in a
different manner. This action is partially and very inadequately
represented by the dotted lines within the circle of the sub-atom. These
lines really indicate a play of force,
i.e., an action taking place on or from a higher plane. The outside
circle represents merely the boundary-line of the sphere of activity of
the internal atoms. These internal atoms occupy a certain space, much
larger than themselves, by reason of their motion. There is no real
boundary-shell or containing-wall to the atoms or sub-atoms, such as
there is in a cell, but the almost inconceivably rapid motion of the
contained atoms or corpuscles causes a displacement of the surrounding
matter of the plane in which they exist; they simply clear themselves a
space in which to move.
Physical
science shows us that the corpuscles are moving with a velocity
approaching that of light, i.e., 185,000 miles per second, and
velocities as high as 120,000 miles per second have actually been
measured in the case of some of the corpuscles. Imagine what that means
within the minute space of the
sub-atom. It is practically absolute motion, i.e., the presence of every
particle at every point in the sub-atom at every moment of time. It is
in virtue of this motion that the atom behaves as a
solid substance.
Coming down
now from E2 to E3 we have further combinations and
aggregations of the sub-atoms of the sub- plane E2 ; and on E4
these become further involved in more complex combinations, each lower
sub-plane consisting of aggregations of the sub-atoms of the plane
immediately above it.
At the next
remove from E4 we have the actual physical atom of hydrogen
gas, which is now seen to consist of two of the sub-atoms of the plane E4
immediately above it, but differently arranged as to the constituent
sub-atoms b and b1 These sub-atoms b and b1 will
be seen to belong really to the sub-plane E2, but they also
form a combination on
100 THE PHYSICS OF THE SECRET DOCTRINE
sub-plane E3. Each of these sub-atoms, b and b1,
has, as before stated, three ultimate atoms E1, and it will
thus be seen that there are 18 of these ultimate atoms in an atom of
hydrogen gas. The other two columns of the diagram, marked O and N,
represent the evolution of an atom of oxygen and an atom
of nitrogen respectively ; for full particulars of which we must refer
our readers to the articles in question.
We see, then,
that the matter of any sub-plane—and, by correspondence and analogy, of
any Cosmic Plane—is formed by an involution or limitation of the matter
or substance of the plane immediately above it—the free motions of the
respective atoms on their own plane becoming confined and limited within
the boundaries of the atoms of the lower plane.
What we
commonly know, therefore, as the evolution of matter, is in reality the
involution of motion or force. It is the making of a definite
thing by limitation.
The mental
picture which this diagram enables us to form of the constitution of
chemical atoms and molecules is practically in line with the latest
pronouncements of physical science, though it goes very much further.
The principal
content of the chemical atom, as at present known to scientists, is the
corpuscle or electron, which can hardly be taken to be the ultimate atom
E.1, although there are some things which seem to point to
this. For example, whatever may be the chemical element from which the
corpuscles are obtained, they always appear to be identical. They are
invariably electro-negative, and the charge of electricity associated
with each corpuscle is also invariable in fact they behave as definite
atoms of electricity.
On the other
hand, it is stated by Mrs Besant that when a current of electricity is
brought to bear upon the ultimate atoms E1 they become
polarized and arrange themselves in definite lines, the current entering
in at the heart-shaped depression at the top of the vortex and passing
out through
PHYSICAL PLANE MATTER 101
the bottom to the next atom, where it again enters at the top, and so
on.
Now if this is
so, then the current of electricity must belong to a higher Plane ; it
must at least consist of atoms of astral matter. But the modern concept
of a current of electricity is, that it is simply a stream of corpuscles
or electrons; and if this is correct, as well as Mrs Besant's statement,
then the corpuscle or electron of modern science must be an actual
astral atom. It will in fact
be an atom—i.e., a whorl or vortex—of " interstellar " ether, not of
physical ether.
There is,
indeed, a semblance of probability in this if the original estimate of
physicists that the hydrogen atom contains about 800 corpuscles can be
adhered to. Mrs Besant states that the atom E1 is represented
on the astral Plane by 49 atoms ; and since there are 18 E1
atoms in the chemical atom of hydrogen,
18x49 = 882 — a strikingly near approximation.
We do not
think, however, that this can be sustained, and it would be better for
the present to leave it on one side, and deal only with the more obvious
analogies between modern physical theories and the Occult teachings now
before us. The modern theory as to the nature of a current of
electricity will doubtless be modified out of all recognition before
many years are past ; for nowadays " modern " theories become very
ancient in quite a short time.
We might point
out, however, that the modern theory which considers the electrification
of an atom or ion to be due to the presence or absence of a single
corpuscle, either in the atom itself, or possibly attached to it as a
sort of satellite —negative electrification consisting in one corpuscle
in excess, and positive electrification in one corpuscle in
defect—cannot find any confirmation considered in the light of the
structure of atoms with which we are now dealing. It will readily be
seen that this structure is so definite that whatever sub-plane the
corpuscle may belong
102 THE PHYSICS OF THE SECRET DOCTRINE
to, the withdrawal of a single one would necessitate the break-up of the
whole contents of the gaseous
atom. There is nothing to show that any free sub-plane atoms are
attached as satellites to the gaseous atom ; but the whole question of
electrification still remains to be elucidated from the Occult point of
view.
Whether physical
science will ever discover that the corpuscle itself is a highly complex
body, or whether it will discover other corpuscles unlike those at
present known, remains to be seen ; but Occult Science has no doubt
about either fact.
Since we are
principally desirous here of making a systematic and clearly
understandable exposition of the subject-matter available, and in terms
of the diagrams and nomenclature already published, we shall find it
necessary in order to do this to assume that the whole of physical plane
matter—the plane D in our diagram on p. 85—is compounded of successive
aggregates of a relatively simple ultimate structure, as shown in Mrs
Besant's diagram. We shall have to assume further that this ultimate
atom E1 or the Protyle
of the physical plane—is the physical Ether with which modern Science is
now dealing; or, more strictly speaking, it is the first phenomenal form
of that Ether, the Ether itself being the " astral matter " of the plane
above. We have a warrant for this in the following passage from
Transactions of the Blavatsky
Lodge, (vol. ii. p. 19. Oe.) (p.107, Ne.)
" The ether of
which science has a suspicion is the grossest manifestation of Akasas,
though on our plane ; for us mortals it is the seventh principle of the
astral light, and three degrees higher than ' radiant matter.' "
We may note
here, in the first place, that the " radiant matter" referred to is that
which had at that time (1889) recently been discovered by Sir Wm.
Crooks, and which had also been called by him " fourth state matter,"
that is to say, a state of matter higher than that in which matter
PHYSICAL PLANE MATTER 103
is known to us as a gas. This would therefore be the matter of sub-plane
E4 of Mrs Besant's diagram ; and we readily see from this
diagram that what we are now calling the
physical Ether of modern
Science is, as Madame Blavatsky says, "three degrees higher" than this
fourth state "radiant" matter, or the matter
discovered in high-vacuum tubes under the influence of an electric
discharge.
We may note
that, according to this, we should have to place the corpuscle or
electron also on sub-plane E4, although the all-alike
character of these minute bodies would seem to be against this, and
rather in favour of their being the ultimate atom E1. We may
remember, however, that this all-alikeness is only a characteristic of
their electric value or charge, and the apparent mass deduced therefrom,
and might not be inconsistent with a complexity and variety of structure
such as is exhibited in the atoms of this sub-plane, though this
complexity is unreachable and undiscoverable by modern physical means of
research.
It is quite
possible, for example, that the sub-atom or corpuscle E4 of
hydrogen marked with the negative sign might have exactly the same
electrical value or charge as the sub-atom or corpuscle of oxygen on the
same sub-plane, also marked as electro-negative. Mrs Besant, however,
gives us no clue as to what constitutes the positive or negative value
of these sub-atoms.
We shall,
then, consider the ultimate structure of the physical Ether of modern
Science to be represented by the ultimate atom or vortex E1 ;
but we shall at the same time have to repudiate the concept of modern
Science that this Ether is absolutely space-filling or continuous, or
that these ultimate atoms constitute a close-packed granular structure.
We shall have
to make a further distinction later on between physical Ether, astral
Ether, and interstellar Ether, but we must note here the phrase "
seventh principle of the
104 THE PHYSICS OF THE SECRET DOCTRINE
astral light " which Madame Blavatsky uses in the above quotation. The
question here is, whether the
seventh is used for the highest or for the lowest subdivision of a
Plane. If it is used for the highest subdivision—as we have just taken
it—then our physical Plane is
the astral light. If it is used for the lowest subdivision, then it
might still harmonize with the rest of the teaching, as being the lowest
of the astral Plane, or the Plane immediately above the physical, for it
is out of this " matter " that the ultimate atom E1 of our
Plane is spun, and thus the Ether would really be the matter of the next
Plane, though the first form in which it could be
physically known would be the
atom E1.
To settle this
question we may give the following quotation from the same
Transactions (vol. ii. p. 30,
Oe.). (p. 124, Ne.)
" Make a
distinction between
Æther
and Ether, the former being divine, the latter physical and
infernal. Ether is the lowest
of the septennate division of Akasa-Pradhana, primordial Fire-Substance.
Æther-Akasa
is the fifth and sixth principles of the body of Kosmos—thus
corresponding to Buddhi-Manas in
Man ; Ether is its Kosmic
sediment mingling with the highest layer of the Astral light. Beginning
with the fifth root-race, it will develop fully only at the beginning of
the fifth round."
Here, then, we
see clearly that the numeration is from below upwards ; and therefore
the " seventh principle of the astral light" of our previous quotation,
considered as a subdivision, must be the highest sub-plane of our
present physical Plane, and this latter must be the " astral light."
Now there are
several hints in The Secret
Doctrine that this is really the case, although the term " astral "
in theosophical literature has become wholly associated with the Plane
next above the physical. There is a wider sense, indeed, in which the
term may be used for the whole of the
manifested Universe, namely,
for the whole of the four lower Planes. We shall be obliged, however, in
view of the conventional use of the term, to continue to apply it only
to the particular Plane immediately above the physical.
PHYSICAL PLANE MATTER 105
We have seen
that by correspondence and analogy the substance of any one Plane stands
in the relation of Primordial Substance to the matter of the Plane next
below it ; but in addition to this it also stands in a
force relation.
This force
relation shows itself in two ways. In the first place the atom itself, E1,
can only be formed by a definite astral force throwing the matter of the
astral
Plane into that particular shape. Withdraw that force and the atom
immediately vanishes. It is like forming a vortex-ring in still air.
When some adequate force is applied capable of throwing the air into
vortical motion, then a definite object appears
i.e., our vortex-ring—where
immediately before all was apparently homogeneous space.
In the second
place, this definite object, our atom E1, having been thus
formed, now becomes a centre or focus, which acts and reacts at every
moment with the forces and activities of the astral Plane. It is
surrounded and interpenetrated with the
matter of that Plane, as well
as of all the higher Planes ; indeed, we must conceive of it as having a
definite shell or aura of matter or substance of all the
higher Planes, just in the same way as we ourselves possess such an
aura, and as every Sun,
Planet, or Globe does, as well as every physical thing. It is through
this aura that we, and all other things, are in touch with all the
Planes of the Universe, from the highest to the lowest ; and so is every
atom and molecule, for the Universe is a " seamless garment," woven in
one piece from top to bottom.
Although,
therefore, we must consider the force which not merely constructs the
atom E1, but also continually plays through it, as being in
the first instance an astral force, a force which—to our perceptions
—would well-up from nowhere, or from a " fourth dimension," yet further
back it is—as we have already seen in Chapter V.—the activity of the
great Cosmic Intelligences whose " bodies " are the Cosmic Elements,
while ultimately it is the divine
106 THE PHYSICS OF THE SECRET DOCTRINE
energy, thought, or Will of the Logos, acting on the highest Plane of
Mulaprakriti.
The atom E1
cannot spring into existence of itself, neither do the sub-atoms on any
of the lower sub-planes aggregate by any inherent power existing merely
in E1 as a separate and distinct entity. All are formed and
moulded and shaped by substantial forces acting immediately from the
astral Plane, and they are held and sustained and directed in their
orbits by these substantial astral forces, even as are the Suns and
Planets, which are themselves but sub-atoms in a larger Cosmos. These
astral "forces" —which on their own plane are atomic—are the " soul " of
the physical atoms.
In physical
matter in its gross form, as it commonly appeals to our senses, we have
no perception of this marvellous inner world of prodigious motion and
activity, of inconceivable complexity and beauty of form. Yet modern
science itself now goes a long way in opening up this inner infinitude
to our mental vision, and showing us the reality of an inner invisible
world, about which Occult Science has long since had its definite
knowledge to impart.
Look at any piece
of gross matter that you will, at any fragment of stone or metal. To the
outer vision it is apparently dead, inert, motionless. Not so, however,
in the light of what science now teaches us. Its very stability its very
apparent motionlessness, is due to the intensity of its motion. It is
motion alone which makes it a
thing, which gives it mass or inertia, extension in space, and every
other quality which we are in any way able to recognize.
The atom does
not exist apart from motion or force there is no such thing as a
physical particle, the " massy, hard, impenetrable " particle of the
physics of last century. Modern Science itself has destroyed it, and
thereby joined hands with the hidden Occult knowledge of the Ancients.
Our diagram
can, of course, give no conception of the relative sizes of the atoms
and sub-atoms; but here we
PHYSICAL PLANE MATTER 107
may complete our mental picture by correspondence and analogy with what
we see in the larger macrocosm of the Sun, Planets, and Stars.
What the Sun
and Planets are to each other in relative size and distance, so are the
component sub-atoms of any more complex atom or molecule.
Consider the
whole Solar System as far as the orbit of the outermost Planet
Neptune—and even beyond—to be a great Globe of Astral Ether, specially
differentiated, how-ever, from the substance which fills the
interstellar space
beyond. The diameter of this Globe—as far as the orbit of Neptune—is
5,584,000,000 miles, but in reality the Globe itself is probably much
greater than this, some Occult teachings giving it as over
300,000,000,000 miles.1
Within this
vast space are a few dots of physical matter,
i.e., the eight major
Planets, with their Satellites, and the Asteroids. The whole vast
Etheric Sun Globe may be considered as a single atom or molecule, the
material bodies within it being the constituent corpuscles or sub-atoms.
We shall have more to say about this in our next chapter, but give it
here as an illustration of comparative sizes.
It has been
estimated that the size of the corpuscles compared with the size of the
atom itself may be likened to a few specks the size of a printer's
full-stop flying about in a space as large as the inside of a cathedral.
To show how
nearly the conception of modern physicists as to the structure and
nature of matter approaches the Occult teachings which we have now
given, we may quote
1
This might seem at first sight to be an exaggeration, but when we
consider that the nearest fixed star, a Centauri, is estimated to be
24,750,000,000,000 miles away, we see that there is plenty of room for
such a Globe. It is interesting here also to. note that since the
extreme limit of the orbit of Halley's great Comet is calculated at
3,370,000,000 miles, this body does not go outside the limits of the
Solar Globe, according to the estimate of its size above given. It may,
in fact, be said to be an integral part of the Solar System, as well as
other Minor Comets.
108 THE PHYSICS OF THE SECRET DOCTRINE
the following from Sir Oliver Lodge's
Modern Views of Electricity
(revised ed., 1907, p. 340) :
" Thus our
hypothesis is as follows : —Throughout the greater part of space we find
simple, unmodified ether, elastic and massive, squirming and quivering
with energy, but stationary as a whole. Here and there, however, we find
specks of electrified ether,
isolated, yet connected together by fields of force, and in a state
of violent locomotion. These 'specks' are what, in the form of
prodigious aggregates, we know as ‘ matter ' ; and the greater number of
sensible phenomena, such as viscosity, heat, sound, electric conduction,
absorption and emission of light, belong to these differentiated or
individualized and dissociated or electrified specks which are either
flying alone or are revolving with orbital
motion in groups. The ' matter ' so constituted —built up of these
well-separated particles, with interstices enormous in proportion to the
size of the specks—must be an excessively porous or gossamer-like
structure, like a cobweb, a milky way, or a comet's tail ; and the
inertia of matter—that is, the combined inertia of a group of
electrified ether particles —must be a mere residual fraction of the
mass of the main bulk of undifferentiated continuous fluid occupying the
same space ; of which fluid the particles are hypothetically composed,
and in which they freely move."
Finally, we
may quote the following from The
Secret Doctrine to show how clearly the complex nature of the
chemical elements, and their resolution into other constituents, was
understood by the writer :
"Even on the
next higher plane, that single element which is defined on our Earth by
current Science as the ultimate un-decomposable constituent of some kind
of Matter, would be pronounced in the world of a higher spiritual
perception to be something very complex indeed. Our purest water would
be
found to yield, instead of its two declared simple elements of oxygen
and hydrogen, many other constituents, undreamed of by our modern
terrestrial Chemistry." (S.D., vol. I. p. 592. Oe.) (S.D., vol. I. p.
542,Ne.)
Of these "
other constituents " the corpuscle or electron has now been discovered.
Doubtless in due course some of the others will come to light as a
further justification of the Occult teachings.
CHAPTER IX
THE SUN AND SOLAR SYSTEM
The student of Occult Science needs above all to realize completely and
fully how all things in the visible universe have their real root and
being in the invisible Pleroma,
or Plenum; in that which to
the physical senses is simply
void space.
"The duty of
the Occultist lies with the Soul
and Spirit of Cosmic Space,
not merely with its illusive appearance and behaviour. That of official
Physical Science is to analyze and study its
shell—the Ultima Thule of the
Universe and Man, in the opinion of Materialism." (S.D., vol. I. p. 645.
Oe.) (S.D., vol. I. p. 589, Ne.)
The ordinary concept of the visible world of matter as being the
reality must in fact be
completely reversed, not merely in a metaphysical sense, but in actual,
sober, physical fact.
Not only does
the invisible
Æther,
or the Primordial Substance which fills all Space, contain the power and
potency to produce all the forms of visible matter, and therefore, being
the permanent Root of these,
is so much more real, since
the latter are only evanescent ; not merely is all visible matter
actually composed of this invisible substance, being only,
qua matter, a temporary form
of motion
therein ; not merely does physical matter thus float, as it were, in a
boundless ocean of Primordial Substance —being, indeed, as regards its
special value, only an
infinitesimal and insignificant portion thereof—but in truth the real
potency which at any and
every moment of time makes
110 THE PHYSICS OF THE SECRET DOCTRINE
physical plane phenomena possible lies in the activity of this
hyper-meta-physical
Æther,
and in the activity of all its various modifications or differentiations
down to our gross physical Ether, which, however, is still invisible,
impalpable, and imponderable to our physical senses.
''
Æther,
in Esotericism, is the very quintessence of all possible energy, and it
is certainly to this Universal Agent (composed of many agents) that are
due all the manifestations of energy in the material, psychic, and
spiritual worlds."
(S.D., vol. I. p. 554. Oe.) (S.D., vol. I. p. 508, Ne.)
This doctrine,
which is shown in The Secret
Doctrine to have been the teaching of Occultism in all ages, now
finds an official confirmation in the latest pronouncements of modern
physicists.
The student
should already have realized very largely this absolute dependence of
all phenomena upon the
Æther,
if due attention has been paid to what has gone before, and especially
to our last chapter ; but we may here consider a very common and
ordinary phenomenon which may help to bring it home to the mind more
completely still.
Let us take
the case of a steel chain supporting a heavy weight, it may be many
tons. What are the real links
in the chain : what is it that really supports the weight ? Physical
Science itself tells us that none
of the atoms or molecules which compose the material steel are in actual
contact with each other.
Just consider
for a moment what that means. There is an old fable about making ropes
of sand, but if we could magnify our steel many million times we should
see that it really consists of a number of isolated discrete atoms,
separated from each other by distances much vaster, in comparison with
their size, than is the case with the grains of sand. Moreover, we
should not be able to see what held them together ; it would be
invisible space to us.
If we took the
single links of our steel chain and placed them a great distance apart,
and then expected them to support a weight, we should look as foolish as
if we tried
THE SUN AND SOLAR SYSTEM 111
to
make ropes of sand ; yet the actual physical links of the chain
i.e., the atoms and molecules
of the steel itself—are really thus separated. They are held together by
what we know as the force of cohesion, and that force resides in the
impalpable, imponderable Ether of apparently void space. It is that
which really sustains the weight, and not the visible steel links, the
atoms of the latter being only
centres of vortical motion through which stream-lines of Force belonging
to the super-physical planes are able to play.
That which
really sustains not merely the enormous weights which we lift with our
steel chains and ropes, but also every strain whatsoever to which matter
is subjected in all our buildings and mechanical contrivances, is
nothing to our physical senses, yet
all in reality ; all our
apparently " solid " matter is but a " gin an ocean of this impalpable
substance, which thus is incomparably denser than the densest metal, and
contains at every point in space an intrinsic energy, compared with
which any energy which we can liberate in our most powerful explosives
is but a puny and impotent display. We must now transfer these ideas of
the microcosm of the atom to the macrocosm of our Solar System, wherein
we
shall find the same forces at work in a similar manner for Nature is a
unity, and correspondence and analogy must be our guide throughout. The
Solar System is but an atom in Space.
The force
which holds together the atoms of matter is called by physicists
cohesion ; the force which
holds together the Sun and Planets is called by them
gravitation. How are we to
conceive of the nature of these forces and
their working ?
We have
already referred to the lines of force which play between the atoms and
sub-atoms, and which are roughly indicated in our diagram by the dotted
lines. These lines are comparable to the well-known Faraday lines or
tubes of magnetic induction, the direction of which
112 THE PHYSICS OF THE SECRET DOCTRINE
may be made clearly visible by placing a magnet underneath a sheet of
paper or glass, and then sprinkling iron filings on the sheet. These
lines of force are substantial
things in the substance of the ether ; and though they are
apparently static to our
perceptions, they are in reality in the most intense motion.
This point
cannot be too clearly realized. There is no such thing as force without
motion, not even so called static
force, or potential energy.
It is only static or potential so far as some particular or limited
phenomenon or plane is concerned. If not apparently active on one
particular plane, it is so on a higher or more internal one.
Now we have
seen that our ultimate physical atom E1 is itself composed of
stream-lines of force, namely, of the " matter " of the next higher or
astral plane, these
stream-lines being the various spirals which make up the body of the
atom. But in addition to this there are stream-lines of force acting
between atom and atom, causing them to combine into the sub-atoms of the
sub-planes Eg2, Eg3, etc.
These stream-lines are the real
substantial things which hold everything together, whether it be the
ultimate atoms themselves or the compound molecules of which our steel
is composed ; but they are
super-physical ; their existence and activity is only visible to our
physical senses through or in an enormous aggregate of these minute
vortices constituting physical matter.
If now we
would construct a mental picture of the Solar System, not in its outer
physical appearance, but in that inner substantiality on which the outer
depends at every moment of time for all its existence and phenomena, we
must recognize these stream -lines of force acting and reacting, not
merely between the visible mass or globe of the Sun and Planets, but
also between every atom and molecule of the Sun and those of the
Planets, and between every atom and molecule of any one Planet—our own,
for example—and every other Planet.
THE SUN AND SOLAR SYSTEM 113
We must put on one
side once and for all the conception that
all the atom, or
all the Planet, or
all the Sun is comprised
within the limits of the mere visible shell. The atom, and the Planet,
and the Sun exist on all the Planes of the Cosmos ; they have each and
all their inner principles, which principles are simply modifications in
varying degrees of the One Boot Substance. Every form of " matter "
whatsoever, on any Plane whatsoever, is that One Root Substance ; but it
cannot become the matter of any " lower " Plane without first of all
being differentiated through the " higher " Planes. How nearly modern
science is approaching this concept may be seen in the following
quotation from The Ether of Space,
by Sir Oliver Lodge, (p. 98) :-
"Most natural philosophers hold, and have held, that action at a
distance across empty space is impossible ; in other words, that matter
cannot act where it is not, but only where it is. The question Where is
it? is a further question that may demand attention, and require more
than a superficial answer. For it can be argued, on the hydrodynamic or
vortex theory of matter, as well as on the electrical theory, that every
atom of matter has a universal though nearly infinitesimal prevalence,
and extends everywhere, since there is no definite sharp boundary or
limiting periphery to the region disturbed by its existence."
In relation to
the atom, or the Planet, or the Sun, however, we must carefully consider
that these principles are not inner in the sense that they are inside
the physical shell, but in the sense that they are more interpenetrative
and universal modes of the One Substance. If we must of necessity regard
them three dimensionally, they exist rather on the outside of the atom,
or Planet, or Sun, as
a surrounding globe, sphere, or aura.
We must start,
then, in our mental picture of the Solar System, with the conception
that the real Sun—not the mere visible nucleus which we see with our
physical eyes—is a vast Globe of Astral-Etheric Substance, extending
far beyond the orbit of the outermost Planet.
114 THE PHYSICS OF THE SECRET DOCTRINE
Quoting from an article by Dr. B. W. Richardson, F.R.S., on " Sun-Force
and Earth-Force," Madame Blavatsky says of his " caloric," which he
postulates as being " a material substance flowing from the Sun through
space " :
"Not only
'through space,' but filling every point of our Solar System, for it is
the physical residue, so to say, of Ether, its ' lining ' (envelope) on
our plane. Ether having to serve other cosmic and terrestrial purposes
besides being the 'agent' for transmitting Light. It is the Astral Fluid
or Light of the Kabalists, and the Seven Rays of Sun-Vishnu." {S.D.,
vol. I, p. 571. Oe.) (S.D., vol. I, p. 524, fn. Ne.)
Ether in the
above should be
Æther,
as we have already shown in Chapter III. ; and in this paragraph we have
the Substance of the Sun Globe "filling every point of our Solar
System," identified with the Astral Fluid or "Light":—
"The real
substance of the concealed (Sun) is a nucleus of Mother-Substance. It is
the Heart and Matrix of all the living and existing Forces in our Solar
Universe. It is the Kernel from which proceed to spread on their cyclic
journeys all the Powers that set in action the Atoms in their functional
duties, and the Focus within which they again meet in their Seventh
Essence every eleventh year. He who tells thee he has seen the Sun,
laugh at him, as if he had said that the Sun moves really onward in his
diurnal path." (S.D., vol. I. p. 309.) (S.D., vol. I. p. 290, Ne.)
Here we have a
direct statement of the circulatory or vortical motions taking place
within this vast Globe of the Sun. The visible Sun which we see conceals
the real Sun, the " Kernel," which is a " nucleus of Mother-Substance."
From this Kernel or Nucleus proceed all those substantial Forces, on all
the Planes, upon which every activity within the whole vast System—which
is all within the real
Sun—depends.
This activity,
however, is only made manifest to us physically in the physical
phenomena of our own Globe, and of the other physical Globes or Planets,
etc.
It is here, then, in particular, that our conceptions of
THE SUN AND SOLAR SYSTEM 115
inner
and outer must be reversed.
The real Substance of the Sun being " Mother-Substance," that is to say
—so far as our System is concerned—Primordial Substance, is a
space-filling Substance. It
cannot be a smaller thing
than the whole space occupied by our System, i.e., the whole vast Sun
Globe extending beyond the orbit of the outer-most Planet. It is not a
small thing within the visible
Sun, it is the Whole System, and we live in it, as it lives in us.
It cannot be condensed into a nucleus within a material shell, for any
form of matter whatsoever
which may arise within its space-filling potency is but a
modification of its inherent Motion—which Motion we also say is
Life.
" Motion is
eternal per se, and in the
manifested Kosmos it is the Alpha and Omega of that which is called
electricity, galvanism, magnetism, sensation— moral and
physical—thought, and even life, on this plane." (Trans.
Blav. Lodge, ii. p. 23).
But the
Mother-Substance of our Solar System is not the real ultimate Primordial
Substance, otherwise our Sun Globe would be coextensive with infinite
space. Such a " Globe," indeed, is the real Central Sun, from which our
Sun is several times removed. The Mother-Substance of our Sun is already
differentiated " Matter," and as such it can be condensed or gathered
together into a Vortex or Globe ; but, as compared with all the further
differentiations
and forms of matter within its own Sphere, it is Primordial or
Root-Substance, and corresponds to Buddhi.
Unless care is
taken to discriminate, some confusion may possibly be caused in the
various references given in The
Secret Doctrine to the place of the Sun in the septenary system.
Considered cosmically in its
relation to the Cosmic Central
Sun, we may place our Sun Globe on the Astral Plane; but, so far as
its own System is concerned, it is " Mother-Substance," or Buddhi.
All the three
motions which we have noted in our atom
116 THE PHYSICS OF THE SECRET DOCTRINE
E1 will have their correspondence in the larger macrocosmic
atom which is our Sun, these motions being rotational, circulatory, and
pulsatory. (See S.D., vol. I. p. 112. Oe.) (S.D., vol. I. p. 84, Ne.)
" The Sun is
the heart of the Solar World (System), and its brain is hidden behind
the (visible) Sun. Thence sensation is radiated into every nerve-centre
of the great body, and the waves of the life-essence flow into each
artery and
vein. . . . The planets are its limbs and pulses." {S.D., vol. I. p.
590. Oe.)
(S.D., vol. I. p. 541, Ne.)
"During the
manvantaric solar period, or life, there is a regular circulation of the
vital fluid throughout our system, of which the Sun is the heart—like
the circulation of the blood in the human body ; the Sun contracting as
rhythmically as the human heart does at every return of it. Only,
instead of performing the round in a second or so, it takes the solar
blood ten of its years to circulate, and a whole year to pass through
its auricle and ventricle before it washes the lungs, and passes thence
back to the great arteries and veins of the System." (S.D., vol. I. p.
591. Oe.) (S.D., vol. I. p. 541, Ne.)
Every atom,
every Planet, every Sun is an organism, just as certainly as is our own
body; it is an organized manifestation of the One Life. Moreover, there
are
fundamental correspondences between the various organs of our body—as
indeed between every atom —and the " limbs and pulses " of the great
Solar Body ; these correspondences consisting in the fact that it is
through these centres that the same cosmic forces play in the one as in
the other, and therefore that they act and react upon each other.
" The atom (E1)
is a Sun in miniature in its own universe of the inconceivable minute.
Each of the seven whorls is connected with one of the Planetary Logoi,
so that each Planetary Logos has a direct influence playing on the very
matter of which all things are constructed. It may be supposed that the
three (thicker whorls) conveying electricity, a differentiation of
Fohat, are related to the Solar Logoi." (Occult Chemistry.)
We must look
upon the Planets, then, as
centres (centres of vortical motion) in which particular
differentiations, manifestations, or activities of the One Life or
Motion of the whole System have their seat. They are the organs of the
great Solar Body, performing their own particular
THE SUN AND SOLAR SYSTEM 117
functions in the circulatory life of the whole. They are " Knots of
Fohat." (See Trans. Blav. Lodge,
ii. p. 28.)
As such they are
also specially differentiated modes of the " Mother-Substance“ ; and, so
far as our own particular Planet is concerned, it consists of a Globe of
physical Ether which, however, only becomes what we call physical matter
in its three lowest subdivisions or differentiations as solid, liquid,
and gas.
This etheric
Earth Globe extends many thousands of miles beyond the surface of solid
matter on which we live, its diameter having been given from one source
as about 50,000 miles ; so that, since the diameter of the solid crust
of the Earth is 8000 miles, the limit of this Globe will be
about 21,000 miles above us.1
So far as the
revolution of our solid Earth on its axis is concerned, it is the
revolution or vortical motion of this Etheric Earth Globe as a whole
which causes that motion. We must remember that physical matter is but a
slight, filmy, gossamer structure in the
substance of the ether ; and,
as such, it is carried along by etheric currents as a whiff of smoke or
a thistledown in a current of air.
An indirect
confirmation of this is to be found in the fact that physicists have
looked in vain for any streaming of the Ether past the Earth, caused by
the motion of the latter in its orbit round the Sun. The velocity of
this motion is 19 miles per second ; and if the Earth is a body moving
through the Ether, some optical effects ought to be observable. The most
ingenious and delicate experiments have been devised in order to detect
such effects if they really exist, but every one of these has yielded a
negative result. This would naturally be so according to the Occult
teaching that the Ether revolves with the solid Earth, or
rather the solid Earth with the Ether.
It is at the
outskirts of this Etheric Globe, in its "atmosphere," that the
differentiations of the various
1
See Thos. E. Wilson, Ancient and Modern Physics.
118 THE PHYSICS OF THE SECRET DOCTRINE
" elements " referred to in Chapter VII. take place ; and we must notice
here one very important result of this, a result frequently insisted
upon in The Secret Doctrine,
since it entirely modifies the ordinary conceptions as to the nature of
the Sun, and of celestial bodies outside of our Globe or System, and
also of the nature of the energy which we receive from the Sun.
The teaching
of The Secret Doctrine in
this matter is simply this : that every form or mode of substance or
matter, as also every form or mode of force or energy, becomes modified
when it enters the sphere of the Earth, so that it takes on, in those
forms in which we sense it, the particular quality or nature of the
differentiated matter of this Globe ; and, therefore, for that reason,
we cannot judge from its physical
effects the real nature of the substance, force, or energy at its primal
source, nor even at its apparently physical origin in the Sun, etc.
Since our
sense-organs are only constructed to observe physical effects, it is of
course only when modes of substance or energy become converted into
physical modes that we can take cognizance of them at all ; and
The Secret Doctrine insists
that for this reason the apparently similar physical constitution of the
Sun and Stars, the Nebulae, Milky Way, etc., as disclosed by the
telescope or spectroscope, is quite deceptive.
Our
eyes, in fact, are only adapted to receive the vibrations of
physical Ether; and though
these are produced by harmonic response to the vibrations of
astral Ether coming to us
from the Sun, or of interstellar
Ether coming from the stars, it is not by means of either of these that
we see, either through our telescopes or in our spectroscopic
observations, but by means of the modified physical Ether.
Therefore we do not get a correct observation or knowledge of the real
constitution of the Sun, etc.
We have, of course,
an exact analogy of this in the case of our organ of hearing. Our ears
can only appreciate
THE SUN AND SOLAR SYSTEM 119
sound through the medium of the air ; and if other vibrations are to be
heard—as for example the vibrations of a string, or the electric pulses
transmitted through a telephone wire —they must be converted or
transformed into appropriate pulsation of the atmosphere.
" Now what
does physical Science tell us of these ' Forces ' ? Sound, it says, is a
sensation produced by the impact of atmospheric molecules on the
tympanum, which by setting up delicate tremors in the auditory
apparatus, thus communicate their vibrations to the brain. Light is the
sensation caused by the impact of inconceivably minute vibrations of
ether on the retina of the eye.
" So, too, say
we. But these are simply the effects produced in our atmosphere and its
immediate surroundings —all, in fact, which falls within the range of
our terrestrial consciousness." {S.D., vol. I. p. 605. Oe.) (S.D., vol.
I. p. 554, Ne.)
We need another sense—more than one sense, in fact to make visible the
reality and substantiality of
the inner Planes of Substance. We have already given in Chapter VII.
some quotations indicating the natural evolution of these super-physical
senses in the coming Humanity. Meanwhile, it is not impossible that
physical science may find a means of " transforming down " higher
etheric
vibrations, in such a way as to produce telescopes and spectroscopes of
enormous penetrating power, which shall give us more accurate
information as to the real constitution of bodies both within and
outside of our own particular System.
It should be
clearly realized that all the vibrations on all the higher Planes are
here, at every point of space ; it is only a few which, by sympathetic
vibration with the vibra-
120 THE PHYSICS OF THE SECRET DOCTRINE
tions of the already formed physical Ether, become for us physically
observable phenomena.
“In no way—as
already more than once stated—do the Occultists dispute the explanations
of Science as affording a solution of the immediate objective agencies
at work. Science only errs in believing that, because it has detected in
vibratory waves the proximate
causes of these phenomena, it has therefore
revealed all that lies beyond
the threshold of Sense. It merely traces the sequence of phenomena on
the planes of effects, illusory projections from the region that
Occultism has long since penetrated. And the latter maintains that those
etheric tremors are not set up, as asserted by Science, by the
vibrations of the molecules of known bodies, the Matter of our
terrestrial objective consciousness, but that we must seek for the
ultimate Causes of light, heat, etc. in Matter existing in supersensuous
states." (S.D., vol. I. p. 561. Oe.) (S.D., vol. I. p. 515, Ne.)
" While the
spectroscope has shown the probable similarity (owing to the chemical
action of terrestrial light upon the intercepted rays) of terrestrial
and sidereal substance, the chemical actions peculiar to the variously
progressed orbs of space have not been detected, nor proven to be
identical with those observed
on our own planet." (S.D., vol. I. p. 654. Oe.) (S.D., vol. I. p. 597,
Ne)
" Neither the
stars nor the Sun can be said to be constituted of those terrestrial
elements with which the chemist is familiar, though they are all present
in the Sun's outward robes—as well as a host more of Elements so far
unknown to Science. . . . Though no Element present on our Earth could
ever possibly be
found wanting in the Sun, there are many others there which have either
not reached or not as yet been discovered on our globe." {S.D., vol. I.
p. 638. Oe.) (S.D., vol. I. p. 583, Ne.)
We must note
carefully that when Madame Blavatsky speaks here of
Elements, she does not
necessarily mean our chemical elements in their present state, for she
says, further :
" Some
(elements) may be missing in certain stars and heavenly bodies in the
process of formation ; or, though present in them, these elements, on
account of their present state, may not respond as yet to the usual
scientific tests." (S.D., vol. I. p. 638. Oe.) (S.D., vol. I. p. 583,
Ne.)
She also remarks, further :
" Occult Science adds, that not one of the Elements regarded as such by
Chemistry really deserves the name."
THE SUN AND SOLAR SYSTEM 121
The Secret
Doctrine, then, asserts definitely that not merely is the matter of the
vast Sun Globe a " nucleus of Mother-Substance," which Substance is
totally unknown, and indeed unknowable, to physical Science, but also
the visible Sun which we examine with our telescopes and spectroscopes
is composed of Matter or Substance which is totally different from
anything with which we are
physically familiar.
Physical
Science, advancing from the known to the unknown, from the familiar to
the unfamiliar, must inevitably, in its earliest theories respecting any
phenomenon whatsoever, fall into the common error of primitive
knowledge, that of crude realism, of accepting things at their face
value, of interpreting the unknown or unfamiliar simply in terms of the
known.
We have
already seen how this applies to the theories of matter which prevailed
during the last century, and which are held even now by some
conservative physicists—the theory, namely, that the ultimate atom must
be simply a smaller piece of that which is apparent in bulk to our
physical senses, a "solid, massy, hard, impenetrable, movable particle."
In its
application to the Sun, this crude and primitive realism inevitably
resulted in the first instance in the idea that the Sun was a huge
bonfire, a mass of combustion. The difficulty, however, of accounting
for any supply of fuel which would last out even the smallest estimate
of the age of the Sun, led to further theories, the one which was most
confidently asserted some years ago being the shrinkage theory,
according to which the Sun's heat was due to a
gradual contraction of its mass. With the discovery of Radium, physical
Science has a new theory to work on, and the disintegration of physical
atoms seems to offer a better basis for thermo-dynamic calculations than
any previous
theory.
But The Secret
Doctrine rejects all these theories, and
122 THE PHYSICS OF THE SECRET DOCTRINE
long before Radium was discovered it taught definitely that (a) the
energy radiated from the Sun is not heat energy ; and (b) the " Matter "
of the Sun is quite other than that with which we are physically
acquainted.
" It has been stated elsewhere that Occult philosophy denies that the
Sun is a globe in combustion, but defines it simply as a world, a
glowing sphere, the real Sun being hidden behind, and the visible Sun
being only its reflection, its shell." (S.D., vol. I. p. 590. Oe.)
(S.D., vol. I. p. 541, Ne.)
" The
spectroscope has helped us to see that the elements with which the
modern chemist is familiar must in all probability be present in the
Sun's outward ' robes ' not in
the Sun itself ; and, taking these ' robes,' the solar cosmic veil,
for the Sun itself, the Physicists have declared its luminosity to be
due to combustion and flame, and, mistaking the vital principle of that
luminary for a purely material thing, have called it ' chromosphere.' "
(S,D., vol. I. p. 576. Oe.)
(S.D., vol. I. p. 528, Ne.)
"Foremost of
all, they (the Astronomers) would have to repudiate their ideas of the
Sun's solidity and incandescence : the Sun 'glowing' most undeniably,
but not burning." (S.D., vol. I. p. 646. Oe.) (S.D., vol. I. p. 591,
Ne.)
" The Sun is
the storehouse of Vital Force, which is the Noumenon of Electricity ;
and it is from its mysterious, never-to-be-fathomed depths that issue
those life-currents which thrill through Space, as through the organisms
of every living thing on Earth." (S.D., vol. I. p. 579.) (S.D., vol. I.
p. 531, Ne.)
Thus the Sun
is not a cooling body, neither is its Energy, as Science supposes,
radiated away into space, but is conserved within its own System,
circulating to the extreme limits thereof, and returning periodically to
the centre.
What, then, it
will be asked, of the light-waves which we must suppose go out into
space to make our Sun visible to possible inhabitants of other Systems,
even as those other Systems are visible to us ?
The answer to
this question is the same as that which we have already given respecting
the so-called light-waves which we receive from the Sun. The " light "
and " heat " which we receive from the Sun, as also from the distant
Stars, is not light and heat until it is converted or transformed into
these forms of energy within the sphere of
THE SUN AND SOLAR SYSTEM 123
" Matter " (" atmosphere ") of our Earth Globe ; just as these latter
forms of energy are converted into something else chemical action,
etc.—when they enter the denser matter, gas, liquid, or solid, in plants
and other organisms. The thermo-dynamic calculations about the amount of
energy received from the Sun by our Earth and the other Planets—our
Earth being supposed to receive only about one 2,300- millionth of the
whole radiated energy of the Sun, and all the Planets put together only
a little more : the rest being radiated away, and apparently lost in
space—all this is considered by Occult Science to be pure fiction.
Outside our
Solar System the " light " which the Sun transmits into space, as also
that which comes to us from the distant Stars, is quite another form of
energy to that which the Sun radiates within its own System. This latter
is, as we have already stated, a form of Vital Electricity appropriate
to the " Mother-Substance " of the Sun Globe in which it circulates.
" The Nasmyth willow leaves, mistaken by Sir John Herschell for ' solar
inhabitants,' are the reservoirs of solar vital energy ; the vital
electricity that feeds the whole system ; the sun in abscondito being
the storehouse of our little Cosmos, self-generating its vital fluid,
and ever receiving as much as it gives out." (S.D., vol. I. p. 591. Oe.)
(S.D., vol. I. p. 541, Ne.)
It may be
objected, that since the Sun and other sidereal bodies do obviously
radiate some form of energy into space beyond their own limits or
systems, that energy must have a physical equivalent, expressible in
thermo-dynamic terms
and that, therefore, they must be parting with a certain amount of
energy, and are not wholly self-contained.
This is
perfectly true, only the equivalence is not anything which can be
calculated on a physical basis. At every remove from the physical plane
the equivalence becomes enormous as compared with its physical effects.
We know that a small quantity of Radium continually emanates a
sufficient amount of energy to keep its tempera-
124 THE PHYSICS OF THE SECRET DOCTRINE
ture about 3° above that of the surrounding atmosphere and it would
probably do this for hundreds or even thousands of years without our
being able to measure any appreciable difference or diminution in the
supply of energy
or in the weight of the substance.
The energy
radiated by the Sun into space beyond its own system is many times
removed in its substantial nature from the energy radiated by Radium,
and no thermo-dynamic calculations can possibly be applicable to it.
We have
already mentioned (p. 107) that the diameter of the whole vast Sun Globe
has been given as 300,000,000,000 miles, or 147,208,000,000 miles beyond
the orbit of Neptune.1 But outside the Solar System, that is
to say, outside the vast Sun Globe of (cosmic) Astral Matter, we come
upon " Matter " (or Ether) in another and still higher state. A
reference to our diagram on p. 85 will show that this must be
Pranic in its nature, since
the Pranic Plane is the next beyond the Astral.
This Pranic
matter will, in its turn, be a vast Globe, with a definite centre round
which our Astral Solar Globe, with all its contained physical Globes,
revolves, as also do count-less numbers of similar Systems in the
expanse of our
Cosmos. The centre of this Pranic Globe is said to be situated in
Alcyone in the Pleiades.
"The Pleiades
(Alcyone especially) are thus considered, even in Astronomy, as the
central point around which our
universe of fixed stars revolves, the focus from which, and into
which, the Divine Breath, Motion, works incessantly during the
Manvantara." (S.D., vol. II. p. 582. Oe.)
(S.D., vol. II. p. 551, Ne.)
But this
Pranic Globe is still only two removes from our physical Matter or
Globe, and beyond it again is a still
vaster Globe of
Manasic " Matter," having as
its centre the great Central Sun,
whose position in space we are not given; indeed, since it is outside
every visible Celestial
1
Thos. E. Wilson, Ancient and Modern Physics.
THE SUN AND SOLAR SYSTEM 125
object, it would be impossible to give it, though it is said to be
situated in the Milky Way. (See S.D., vol. II. p. 250, fn. Oe.) (S.D.,
vol. II. p. 240, fn. Ne.)
" Outside the
boundaries of the Solar System, it is other Suns, and especially the
mysterious Central Sun .... that determines the motion and the direction
of bodies. That motion serves also to differentiate the homogeneous
matter, round and between the several bodies, into elements and
sub-elements unknown to our
Earth." (S.D., vol. I. p. 736. Oe.) (S.D., vol. I. p. 673, Ne.)
Speaking of
this Central Sun as taught in the Kabalistic system, Madame Blavatsky
endorses the following statement as being practically the same as the
Eastern Doctrine :
"The central
sun .... was to them (the Kabalists) the
centre of rest ; the centre
to which all motion was to be ultimately referred. Round this central
sun .... *the first of three systemic suns .... revolved on a polar
plane ; . . . . the second, on an equatorial plane '; .... and the third
only was our visible sun. These four solar bodies were
‘the organs on whose action what
man calls the creation, the evolution of life on the planet earth,
depends.’ The channels through which the influence of these bodies
was conveyed to the earth they (the Kabalists) held to be electrical."
(S.D., vol. II. p. 250. Oe.) (S.D., vol. II. p. 240, Ne.)
Modern Science
now confirms this to the extent of teaching that the energy which comes
to us from the Sun is an electro-magnetic disturbance of the ether, some
part of which only our eye is able to appreciate as light.
Each atom of
our physical matter, as also of every organism, is surrounded and
interpenetrated with an aura of astral, pranic, and manasic " matter " ;
and therefore is in touch, through this, with the corresponding Globes
or " Planes." It is, in fact, a part of each Globe, and receives and
responds in its own special manner to the special vibrations, or
currents, or modes of energy belonging to and circulating in each.
By
correspondence and analogy we shall see that just as the inherent energy
of the Sun Globe becomes converted within our Etheric Earth Globe into
its appropriate vibra-
126 THE PHYSICS OF THE SECRET DOCTRINE
tions and physical forms of energy, so also the still higher vibrations
or inherent motion of the higher substance of the Pranic Globe become
converted within our Sun Globe into its appropriate forms; whilst the
highest vibrations of all, emanating from the Manasic Globe, appear in a
transmuted form in the Pranic Globe. In reality, therefore, it is these
primal vibrations which are transmuted and reflected in each of the
lower Globes, taking on therein its appropriate forms as the " Matter "
of those Globes and each lower Globe serving in its turn as a focus, or
lens, or prism, to condense, gather up, concentrate, and individualize
the higher modes of substantial energy or
Life. This was clearly
enunciated by Madame Blavatsky in
Isis Unveiled (vol. i. p. 258).
" It was at
the ray of this First Mother, one in three, that ' God,' according to
Plato, ‘ lighted a Fire which we now call the Sun,' and which is not the
cause of either light or heat, but merely the focus, or, as we might
say, the lens, by which the Rays of the Primordial Light become
materalized, are concentrated upon our Solar System, and produce all the
correlations of forces." (See extended quotation, (S.D., vol. I. p. 634.
Oe.) (S.D., vol. I. p. 580, Ne.)
We must
remember that each atom of "matter," on whatsoever plane, is Primordial
Substance, and cannot become anything else, however much it may appear
to be separated, by reason of its involved motion, from the highest or
most cosmic form of that Substance.
" The waves
and undulations of Science are all produced by atoms propelling their
molecules into activity from within. Atoms fill the immensity of Space,
and by their continuous vibration are that Motion which keeps the wheels
of
life perpetually going. It is that inner work that produces the natural
phenomenon called the correlation of Forces." (S.D., vol. I. p. 694.
Oe.)
(S.D., vol. I. p. 633, Ne)
But the
inner atom which propels the
molecule into activity is not a
smaller thing on the same plane, but a larger thing on a higher plane.
As
said long ago :—
" Our
molecules, the infinitesimals of the vacuum ' below,' are replaced by
the giant-atom of the Infinitude 'above.'"
(See Five Years of Theosophy p.
247.)
THE SUN AND SOLAR SYSTEM 127
Or
again :—
" In the realm
of Esoteric Science the Unit divided ad infinitum, instead of losing its
unity, approaches with every division the planes of the only Eternal
Reality." (S.D., vol. I. p. 677. Oe.)
(S.D., vol. I. p. 617, Ne.)
These
apparently paradoxical sentences may now be understood in the
explanation above given of the four Sun Globes ; for, as we have already
said, the Sun is an atom—and so is each of the larger Sun Globes. Each
one energizes or " propels their molecules "
i.e., the Globes on the lower
or grosser planes—into activity
from within.
In the
downward descent or evolution of matter, the pranic atom will still be
surrounded and interpenetrated by its shell or
aura of manasic matter. In
like manner the astral atom will have a shell of both pranic and manasic
matter ; while our physical atom has three such shells or auras,
i.e., astral, pranic, and
manasic. Each of these auras is
in, and part of, the great cosmic Globes or " Planes " we have above
described.
When the
physical atom, or the physical organism, responds to the astral
vibrations or currents, the vibrations of the Solar Ether, we have
physical Plane phenomena ; as, indeed, modern Science itself now teaches
: every physical
phenomenon being dependent on the activity of the " Ether."
When the atom
or organism responds to the pranic vibrations or currents, we have the
phenomenon of " life "—as
recognized by Biologists—though Occultists say that no single atom fails
to respond thus ; that no single atom of matter is " dead."
When the atom
or the organism responds to the manasic vibrations in addition to the
others —as indeed every atom and organism must do, though the action may
not be recognizable by us —we have the further phenomenon of
mind (lower manas, in the
ordinary theosophical division of the seven principles).
There is
another sense in which the three Suns supply man with his Atma-Buddhic,
Manasic, and Kama-Rupic
128 THE PHYSICS OF THE SECRET DOCTRINE
principles. This, however, is when we apply our classification or
scale-rule in another manner. (See S.D., vol. II. p. 251. Oe.) (S.D.,
vol. II. p. 240, Ne.)
Here, then, we
have the key to the " Chain of Globes " so often referred to in early
theosophical literature, and at that time so badly misunderstood. Above
and beyond—or rather within
and still within—these four
cosmic Globes or " Planes " which constitute the material phenomenal
Universe, lies the eternal, imperishable Noumenal or Spiritual Universe,
from whence all the lower issues on its great evolutionary cycle of
existence, and to which it must inevitably return again in due time when
the great " Day of Brahma " has once more run its course, when the Solar
Pralaya sets in, and the " Breath " of the One Life is once more
indrawn.
In this
chapter we have only turned the first page of Occult Solar Physics. It
would require a complete volume in itself to elucidate, even in outline,
the matter which might be gleaned from the few scattered, but profoundly
significant hints, which are to be found in
The Secret Doctrine.
Whether we
consider its science or its philosophy, its physics or its metaphysics,
the structure of the manifested phenomenal universe as thus disclosed in
the Occult Teachings is assuredly unsurpassed in its logical and
coherent completeness, in its profundity yet essential simplicity, and
in its harmonious unity.
CHAPTER X
FOHAT, ELECTRICITY, AND CORRELATED FORCES
No work on the Physics of The
Secret Doctrine, or on the general scheme of Cosmic Evolution
therein set forth, would be complete without some reference to
Fohat.
The subject,
however, is a very difficult and obscure one, and would appear to belong
to metaphysics rather than to physics. There is a constant connection
made between Fohat and Life, and at the same time between Life and
Electricity, almost necessitating that all three should be treated
together. At all events we must deal with Fohat and Electricity at one
and the same time in this chapter.
Physically,
Fohat may be described as the
Noumenon of all other Cosmic
Forces ; as the Root of these in the same sense that Primordial
Substance or Mulaprakriti is the Root of all the Cosmic differentiations
of Matter.
But Fohat is
also very much more than that. It, or he—for both pronouns are used in
The Secret Doctrine—is
described as :—
" That which
links Spirit to Matter, Subject to Object .... the ' bridge ' by which
the Ideas existing in the Divine Thought are impressed upon Cosmic
Substance as the Laws of Nature." (S.D., vol. I. p. 44. Oe.) (S.D., vol.
I. p. 16, Ne.)
We have seen
in Chapter III. that these " Divine Ideas " are in the first instance
represented by the Logos, and
130 THE PHYSICS OF THE SECRET DOCTRINE
secondarily by the Dhyan Chohans. Accordingly we find Fohat defined as :—
" The dynamic
energy of Cosmic Ideation ; or, regarded from the other side, it is the
intelligent medium, the guiding power of all manifestation, the Divine
Thought transmitted and made manifest through the Dhyan Chohans, the
Architects of the visible World." (S.D., vol. I. p. 44. Oe.) (S.D., vol.
I. p. 16, Ne.)
But this "link between Mind and Matter" is further described as:—
“The animating
principle electrifying every atom into life " (S.D., I. 44, Oe).
(S.D., vol. I. p. 16, Ne.)
" That occult, electric, vital
power which, under the Will of the Creative Logos, unites and brings
together all forms, giving them the first impulse, which in time becomes
law (S.D., I. 134, Oe) (S.D., vol. I. p. 109, Ne.)
"The
personified electric vital power, the transcendental binding unity of
all cosmic energies, on the unseen as on the manifested planes, the
action of which resembles—on an immense scale—that of a living Force
created by Will, in those
phenomena where the seemingly subjective acts on the seemingly
objective, and propels it to action" (S.D., I. 136, Oe.) (S.D., vol. I.
p. 111, Ne.)
The connection of Fohat with Life is still further stated to be :—
"The active
force in Universal Life" (I. 136, Oe.) (I. p. 111, Ne.), and "It is the
action of Fohat upon a compound or even a simple body that produces life
" (S.D., I. 573, Oe). (S.D., vol. I. p. 526, fn. Ne)
The following passages will serve to show how closely, in
The Secret Doctrine,
Electricity as well as Fohat is identified with Life :—
" He (Fohat) is One and Seven, and on the cosmic plane is behind all
such manifestations as light, heat, sound, adhesion, etc., etc., and is
the ' spirit ' of electricity, which is the Life of the Universe."
(S.D., I. p. 163. Oe.) (S.D., vol. I. p. 139,Ne)
"In its
secondary aspect, Fohat is the Solar Energy, the electric vital fluid,
and the preserving Fourth Principle, the Animal Soul of Nature, so to
say, or Electricity." (S.D., I. p. 136. Oe.) (S.D., vol. I. p. 111, Ne.)
There are many
other passages which present Fohat in such a bewildering variety of
aspects that he would appear to be almost everything in Heaven or on
Earth ; but from what we know of the apparently method-less method of
The
Secret Doctrine,
FOHAT, ELECTRICITY, AND CORRELATED FORCES 131
we should gather that behind this lies a most carefully guarded Occult
secret ; not altogether beyond the reach, perhaps, of the deeply
intuitive student, but at
the same time so presented as to be the despair of those who expect the
teachings of Occultism to be as self-evident to the materialistic mind
as are the axioms of Euclid, and as demonstrable as his propositions.
We may confine
our attention now more exclusively to the connection of Fohat with
Electricity and other correlated forces.
We must note
in the first place that electricity, as known to us in its physical
effects, is —like light, heat, etc., as shown in our last chapter—only a
very secondary effect of primal causes many times removed from the plane
of our
perception.
“Shall we say
that Force is ‘ moving Matter,' or ' Matter in motion,' and a
manifestation of Energy; or that Matter and Force are the phenomenal
differentiated aspects of the one primary, undifferentiated Cosmic
Substance ?
" This query
is made with regard to that Stanza [of
the Book of Dzyan] which treats of Fohat and his 'Seven Brothers, or
Sons,' in other words, of the
cause and the effects of
Cosmic Electricity, the Brothers or Sons of Occult parlance being the
seven primary forces of Electricity, whose purely phenomenal, and hence
grossest, effects are alone cognizable by Physicists on the cosmic, and
especially on the terrestrial plane. These include, among other things,
Sound, Light, Colour, etc." (S.D., I. p. 605. Oe.) (S.D., I. p. 554,
Ne.)
The " seven
primary forces of Electricity " we may identify again with the seven
Protyles, or Cosmic Elements.
In some of her
very earliest writings Madame Blavatsky stated that electricity was
atomic, and that matter was electricity. This statement was much
ridiculed at the time, but is now almost orthodox Science.
"In 1882, the
President of the Theosophical Society, Col. Olcott, was taken to task
for asserting in one of his lectures that Electricity is matter. Such,
nevertheless, is the teaching of the Occult Doctrine. ' Force,' '
Energy,' may be better names for it, so long as European Science knows
so little about its true nature
132 THE PHYSICS OF THE SECRET DOCTRINE
yet matter it is, as much as Ether is matter, since it is as atomic,
though indeed several removes from Ether. It seems ridiculous to argue
that because a thing is imponderable to Science, therefore it cannot be
called matter. Electricity is '
immaterial ' in the sense that its molecules are not subject to
perception and
experiment ; yet it may be—and Occultism says it is—atomic therefore it
is matter. But even supposing it were unscientific to speak of it in
such terms, once Electricity is called in Science a source of Energy,
Energy simply, and a Force—where is that Force or that Energy which can
be thought of without thinking of matter? Maxwell, a mathematician, and
one of the greatest authorities upon Electricity and its phenomena,
said, years ago, that Electricity was matter, not motion merely. ' If we
accept the hypothesis that the elementary substances are composed of
atoms, we cannot avoid concluding that electricity also, positive
as
well as negative, is divided into definite elementary portions, which
behave like atoms of electricity.' " (S.D., I. p. 136. Oe.) (S.D., I. p.
111, fn. Ne.)
We now find
Sir J. J. Thompson, in his recent presidential address to the British
Association, saying :—
" We now know
from these investigations (discharge of electricity through gases) that
electricity, like matter, is molecular in structure ; that just as a
quantity of hydrogen is a collection of an immense number of small
particles called molecules, so a charge of electricity is made up of a
great number of small
charges, each of a perfectly definite and known amount."
Referring
further to the connection between matter and electricity he says :—
"The most
natural view to take, as a provisional hypothesis, is that matter is
just a collection of positive and negative units of electricity, and
that the forces which hold atoms and molecules together, the properties
which differentiate one kind of matter from another, all have their
origin in the electric forces exerted
by
positive and negative units of electricity, grouped together in
different ways in the atoms of the different elements."
In the
distinction which Occult Science would make, however, between Matter and
Substance, we should rather say that Electricity is Matter only in its
lowest or physical manifestation.
Here is a
further enunciation—written in 1889 —by
FOHAT, ELECTRICITY, AND CORRELATED FORCES 133
Madame Blavatsky of the modern electronic theory of matter :—
"Electricity is on our plane one of the most comprehensive
aspects of this (primordial) fire. All contains and is Electricity, from
the nettle which stings to the lightning which kills, from the spark in
the pebble to the blood in the body. . . Electricity is the cause of the
molecular motion in the physical universe, and hence also here on Earth.
It is one of the 'principles' of matter ; for, generated as it is in
every disturbance of equilibrium, it becomes, so to say, the Kamic
element of the object in which this disturbance takes place." (Trans.
Blav. Lodge, ii. p. 27.)
But it is also
a force, or forces; its "Seven Brothers or Sons" are the correlated
forces, light, heat, sound, cohesion, etc.,—or rather, perhaps, the
noumenon of these for, as
Madame Blavatsky remarks in the above quotation, " where is that Force
or that Energy which can be thought of without thinking of matter,"
since it is only in or through matter that these " forces " are
manifested to our senses ?
"All these—
'Light,' 'Flame,' 'Cold,' 'Fire,' 'Heat,' 'Water,' and ' Water of Life
'—are on our plane, the progeny, or, as a modern Physicist would say,
the correlations of Electricity. Mighty word, and a still mightier
symbol ! Sacred generator of a no less sacred progeny !— of Fire—the
creator, the preserver and
the destroyer ; of Light—the essence of our divine ancestors ; of
Flame—the soul of things. Electricity, the One Life at the upper rung of
Being, and Astral Fuid, the Athanor of the Alchemists, at the lower; God
and Devil, Good and Evil."
(S.D., vol. I. p. 109. Oe.) (S.D., vol. I. p. 81, Ne.)
"The Seven
Son-Brothers, however, represent and personify the seven forms of cosmic
magnetism, called in practical Occultism the ' Seven Radicals,' whose
cooperative and active progeny are, among other energies, Electricity,
Magnetism, Sound, Light, Heat, Cohesion, etc. Occult Science defines all
these as supersensuous effects in their hidden behaviour, and as
objective phenomena in the world of sense ; the former requiring
abnormal faculties to perceive them, the latter cognizable by our
ordinary physical senses." (S.D., vol. I. p. 169. Oe.)
(S.D., vol. I. p. 145, Ne.)
There are two
modern doctrines which are the special product of the physical Science
of the nineteenth century.
134 THE PHYSICS OF THE SECRET DOCTRINE
They are those of the Indestructibility of Matter and the Conservation
of Energy.
So far as the
first of these is concerned, we now know that it is not true in the
original sense in which it was formulated, as meaning the
indestructibility of the chemical atom. Neither is there any reason to
suppose that it is any truer of the corpuscle or electron, that in this
particle we have found the final and irresolvable form of matter.
Physical Science has, however, probably a long time to wait before any
definite evidence of such further resolution or subdivision can be given
; that is to say, before it can be made evident or observed as a
physical effect. We have
already seen how completely and fully
The Secret Doctrine deals
with both the physical and the metaphysical question of the resolution
of matter into its root Element or Substance.
But now, what
shall we say of the Conservation of Energy ? It is a doctrine which,
though only provable within a very narrow range of observable phenomena,
modern Science has not hesitated to postulate as a universal
principle, applicable in every region of the phenomena of matter and
force. It carries with it by implication the possibility of converting
every form or mode of energy into every other form or mode, either
directly or indirectly. Here, as we have already seen. Occult Science is
absolutely at one with the modern concept, but goes so much further in
postulating that at root there is only
One Force, which
for the present we may call either Fohat, or Electricity, or the One
Life.
But Occult
Science goes one step further than that, and combining the two dogmas of
modern Science into one unitary concept, postulates the existence of One
Primordial Force-Substance, or
Substance-Principle, which is either Force or Matter according to
the aspects under which it is viewed by limited and conditioned modes of
Consciousness.
This is
practically the position on which modern Science
FOHAT, ELECTRICITY, AND CORRELATED FORCES 135
is now being forced to fall back, though it is hardly as yet definitely
formulated, nor are the philosophical and metaphysical deductions which
follow therefrom, and which are so clearly set forth in
The Secret Doctrine, by any
means as yet
definitely perceived and understood. The Force -Substance of modern
Science is simply the Ether—with nothing beyond it.
In
The Secret Doctrine, however,
we have not merely the fundamental principle, but also the logical
deductions set forth with a wealth of language and historical and
literary evidence which cannot be gainsaid.
" The
fundamental law of that system (of Ancient Cosmogony), the central point
from which all emerges, around and towards which all gravitates, and
upon which is hung all its philosophy, is the One Homogeneous Divine
Substance-Principle, the One Radical Cause.
"It is called
'Substance-Principle,' for it becomes 'Substance' on the plane of the
manifested Universe, an Illusion, while it remains a ' Principle ' in
the beginningless and endless abstract, visible and invisible Space. It
is the omnipresent Reality, impersonal because it contains all and
everything. Its Impersonality is the fundamental conception of the
System. It is latent in every atom of the Universe, and is the Universe
itself."
(S.D., vol. I. p. 294. Oe.) ((S.D.,
vol. I. p.,273,
Ne.)
Foremost among
the deductions from this fundamental principle is this, that this
Force-Substance must be of a Conscious Intelligent Nature ; or, in other
words, it is Life.
Here, indeed,
is the meeting-ground of the two extremes of Idealism and Materialism ;
for since Materialism postulates that Matter can
think, we see that Matter
must be subject as well as object. In this very postulate, indeed.
Materialism stultifies its own primary assertion that Matter is dead for
if it is dead it cannot be conscious. No conglomeration of dead atoms
can ever be supposed to make any one or more of them conscious or
aware of the others.
But we must
confine our attention now to the one essential quality or attribute of
this Primordial Force-Substance which is associated with our physical
concepts of it.
136 THE PHYSICS OF THE SECRET DOCTRINE
That one
essential quality is inherent, eternal, perpetual Motion.
" Its one
absolute attribute, which is Itself, eternal, ceaseless Motion, is
called in esoteric parlance the Great Breath, which is the perpetual
motion of the Universe, in the sense of limitless, ever-present Space."
(S.D., vol. I. p. 32. Oe.)
(S.D., vol. I. p. 2, Ne.
" The
Occultists—who, if they would express themselves correctly, do not say
that matter, but only the
substance or essence of
matter (i.e., Mulaprakriti, the Root of all) is indestructible and
eternal—assert that all the so-called Forces of Nature, electricity,
magnetism, light, heat, etc., etc., far from being modes of motion of
material particles, are in esse—i.e.,
in their ultimate constitution —the differentiated aspects of that
Universal Motion which is discussed and explained in the first pages of
this volume. When Fohat is said to produce Seven Laya Centres, it means
that, for formative and creative purposes, the
Great Law—Theists may call it
God—stays, or rather modifies, its perpetual motion on seven invisible
points within the area of the Manifested Universe.
The Great Breath digs through
Space seven holes into Laya,1 to cause them to circumgyrate
during Manvantara, says the Occult Catechism." (S.D., vol. I. p.
171. Oe.)
(S.D., vol. I. p. 147, Ne.)
Here we have
Fohat introduced as the intelligent Agent in the production of the
circular or circumgyrate motion which is the primary form of motion in
the manifested Cosmos.
Occult
Philosophy draws a deep distinction between the perpetual Motion of the
One Eternal Principle and the finite motion of the periodic aspects of
this Principle : namely, its temporary though periodical manifestations
in the Maya
of the objective or phenomenal world or Universe.
" ‘ Motion is eternal in the
unmanifested, and periodical in the manifest,’ says an Occult
teaching. It is ' when heat
caused by the descent of Flame into primordial matter causes its
particles to move, which motion becomes the Whirlwind.'"
(S.D., vol. I. p. 124. Oe.) (S.D., vol. I. p. 97, Ne.)
" All the
Christian Kabalists understood well the Eastern root idea. The active
Power, the 'Perpetual Motion of the Great Breath,' only awakens Cosmos
at the dawn of every new Period, setting it into motion by means of the
two contrary Forces, the
1
For an explanation of the word Laya, see the continuation of this
quotation.
FOHAT, ELECTRICITY, AND CORRELATED FORCES 137
centripetal and the centrifugal Forces, which are male and female,
positive and negative, physical and spiritual, the two being the one
Primordial Force, and thus
causing it to become objective on the plane of Illusion. In other words,
the dual motion transfers Cosmos from the plane of the eternal .ideal
into that of finite manifestation, or from the
noumenal to the
phenomenal plane." (S.D., vol. I. p. 302. Oe.)
(S.D., vol. I. p. 282, Ne.)
It is only
with the latter, the phenomenal plane, that we have now to deal, and
accordingly we find that the first aspect of this Primordial Motion is
the circumgyratory or orbital motion of the Seven Primary Centres, or
Sun- Globes (only four of which, however, belong to the material
universe), this motion being made visible to us on the physical plane in
the orbital motion of the heavenly bodies. We have also seen that we
have to deal with the same kind of motion in the microcosm of the atoms
and sub-atoms of our physical matter.
Physically
considered, this circumgyrating or vortical motion appears to be
produced in the first instance by a differentiation of the One Force
into two aspects, or two polarities, which immediately appear as
opposites.
Many names may
be given to these opposites, both physically and metaphysically, as in
the quotation above. The most familiar physical example of this dual
aspect of one and the same thing is in electrical or magnetic phenomena
of attraction and repulsion.
It will be
best, perhaps, to adhere to these two latter terms as expressing the
duality of the One Force, not merely in its lower phenomenal
development, but even in its primary aspects.
" Thus the Occultists are not alone in their beliefs. Nor are they so
foolish,
after all, in rejecting even the 'gravity ' of Modern Science along with
other physical laws, and in accepting instead
attraction and
repulsion. They
see, moreover, in these two opposite Forces only the two aspects of the
Universal Unit, called
Manifesting Mind ; in which aspects, Occultism, through its
great Seers, perceive an innumerable Host of operative Beings : cosmic
Dhyan Chohans, Entities, whose essence, in its
dual nature, is the
138 THE PHYSICS OF THE SECRET DOCTRINE
Cause of all terrestrial phenomena. For that essence is consubstantial
with the universal Electric Ocean, which is Life ; and being dual, as
said—positive and negative —it is the emanations of that duality that
act now on Earth under the name of ‘ modes of motion ‘; even Force
having now become objectionable as a
word, for fear it should lead someone, even in thought, to separate it
from
Matter ! It is, as Occultism says, the dual
effects of that dual essence
which have now been called centripetal and centrifugal forces, now
negative and positive poles, or polarity, heat and cold, light and
darkness, etc." (S.D., vol. I. p. 661. Oe.)
(S.D., vol. I. p. 604,Ne.)
These two aspects of the One Force, therefore, constitute the dualism
which is everywhere apparent in the phenomenal universe. They must
always be equal and opposite. We can apparently separate either one of
them in some particular phenomenon, but that very phenomenon is only
possible because of the operation of the other at some other point, and
we must extend this principle to all operations in the Cosmos. The one
force cannot be produced without the other, though in some phenomena the
other is wholly in abscondito,
so far as our physical senses are concerned.
It is for this
reason that Occult Science rejects the orthodox scientific conception of
Gravitation, as being an isolated force of attraction merely.
" Attraction
by itself is not sufficient to explain even planetary motion ; how can
it then presume to explain the rotary motion in the infinitudes of Space
! Attraction alone will never fill the gaps unless a special impulse is
admitted for every sidereal body, and the rotation of every planet with
its satellites is shown to be due to some one cause combined with
attraction. And even then, says an Astronomer, Science would have to
name that cause." (S.D., vol. I. p. 577. Oe.)
(S.D., vol. I. p. 529, Ne.)
In the
microcosm of the atom and molecule, the attractive force is manifested
in cohesion and chemical affinity. But at the same time these forces are
balanced at a certain point by the equal and opposite one of repulsion,
which puts a limit to the distance within which each atom, or sub-atom,
or molecule can approach another. None of them actually touch ; their
relative positions are governed
FOHAT, ELECTRICITY, AND CORRELATED FORCES 139
by a law which says "thus far shalt thou go and no further."
So also is it
in the macrocosm of the Solar System and Stellar Universe. Attraction
alone cannot account either for the formation or continuance of the
Solar System. That the Sun does exercise a repulsive force upon some
kinds of matter is now well recognized in the phenomenon of the
repulsion of the tail of a Comet.
In any stable
system, either such as that of a molecule of matter or of a Solar
System, there must be a balance of attraction and repulsion. If that
balance is to be disturbed, force, either of attraction or repulsion,
must be used.
But this force
is at root only a readjustment of relative motion ; it is motion
accelerated or retarded at one place, or in one body, or on one plane,
at the expense of motion retarded or accelerated in another place, or
body, or plane.
What, in fact,
is the inertia of matter : that quality or property in virtue of which
it requires force to set a
body in motion, or to accelerate or retard it when it is already moving
? Why should a body freely suspended in space or in a vacuum require
force to move it : a force proportionate to the mass of the body ?
The answer is,
that there is no such thing as a body
freely suspended in space.
Every atom of matter is linked by invisible bands, stronger than the
strongest steel, to the substance of the Ether, and every molecule of
Ether is likewise linked to the substance of a higher Plane, and so to
the highest, to the Plane of the One space-filling Force-Substance
itself.
Inertia is not
the result of the passivity, inertness, deadness, or isolation of matter
; on the contrary, it is the result of its intense life and activity,
its intrinsic nature as Substance
; altogether masked and veiled, it is true, to our physical
perceptions, yet as certainly existent, and as apprehensible as a fact
as is our own life and consciousness.
We might note
here—as given in The Secret
Doctrine—
140 THE PHYSICS OF THE SECRET DOCTRINE
somewhat significant meeting-point between physics and metaphysics.
We have referred in Chapter I. to the physical fact that an electrically
charged body moving with a certain velocity has an additional apparent
mass or inertia in consequence of its charge. We have noted that this
increased inertia is a function of the velocity ; that it increases
rapidly as we approach the velocity of light ; and, further, that a
mathematical analysis shows that at the actual velocity of light itself
it would be infinite. This increase has actually been observed in the
case of corpuscles moving with a velocity of about two-thirds that of
light. Why is this ? According to physical science it is because of the
field of electro-magnetic induction which exists round the charged body
or the corpuscle: a field which—as Sir Oliver Lodge says extends
infinitely into space, and gives to the atom a
practically infinite though infinitesimal extension. Now let us see what
The Secret Doctrine says.
“ Inertia, so
called, is Force, according to Newton (Princ, Dei. III.), and for the
student of Esoteric Sciences the greatest of the Occult Forces. A body
can only conceptually, only on this plane of illusion, be considered
divorced from its relations with other bodies—which, according to the
physical and mechanical
sciences, give rise to its attributes. In fact, it can never be so
detached ; death itself being unable to detach it from its relation with
the Universal Forces, of which the One Force, or Life, is the synthesis
; the interrelation simply continues on another plane." (S.D., vol. I.
p. 557. Oe.) (S.D., vol. I. p. 511, Ne.)
What, then, is
this inertia in its ultimate metaphysical analysis ? We cannot do more
than put the following quotation, pregnant with suggestion, before our
readers, and refer them to the context.
" Satan [or
Lucifer] represents the Active,
or, as M. Jules Baissac calls it, the ' Centrifugal ' Energy of the
Universe [in a cosmic sense]. . . . And fitly is he again and again
baffled by the Eternal Inertia of the Passive Energy of the Kosmos—the
inexorable I am—the flint
from which the sparks are beaten out."
(S.D)., vol. II. p. 255. Oe.) (S.D)., vol. II. p. 245, Ne.)
FOHAT, ELECTRICITY, AND CORRELATED FORCES 141
Consider now
that the Universe as a whole is one complete balanced system of
perpetual Motion. We cannot destroy motion anywhere ; it is perpetual
and eternal in its equivalent
in the action and interaction between all the Planes.
It results
from this, that whether a body is at rest (so called) or whether it is
moving with a uniform velocity, there is an equilibrium between its
molecules and atoms and those of the etheric and other Planes. If,
however, we seek to accelerate or retard its motion, we destroy the
equilibrium in this sense, that the motion we impart or withdraw from
the body must be withdrawn or imparted
at the expense of motion somewhere else; while it is nothing more than
the consciousness or sensation
of this change or transfer which gives us the idea of
force, and therefore of
mass or inertia.
The Universe
is a Unity; it is one complete balanced system, in which no slightest
alteration can be made anywhere without a readjustment
everywhere. No single
minutest particle of matter can be moved, can be accelerated or
retarded, but it necessitates a corresponding adjustment
on all the Planes of the Cosmos.
Physical
Science tells us that we cannot jump off the Earth without pushing it
back a little, for action and reaction must be equal and opposite. A
body falling to
the Earth is not merely attracted by the Earth, but also attracts the
Earth, and the Earth moves towards it in a proportional degree.
Occult Science
tells us that every thought we think, sending out vibrations or "
telepathic " impulses, is registered on the walls and objects around us,
actually affecting their physical condition, as well as the minds and
brains of our fellow creatures.
Every atom and
molecule vibrates with its whole past and it is
easier for it to respond to
similar vibrations than to new ones, therefore it takes the path of
least resistance.
142 THE PHYSICS OF THE SECRET DOCTRINE
So also is it
easier for us to do what we have accustomed the atoms and molecules of
our body or bodies to do, or what they have been accustomed to do by
heredity which is nothing but previous experience—and this not merely
with our physical atoms, but also with our astral, and pranic, and
manasic atoms, which latter constitute our mental activities or
mind. Even as our physical
body, to be responsive and vigorous to its physical environment, must be
vibrate or be tuned in harmony and responsiveness therewith, so also our
manasic body, or mind, must be tuned and responsive to the vibrations of
the Universal Mind, the activities of the great Central Sun.
To raise our
vibrations or tune our mind in response to
all that is contained in that Universal Mind, in other words, to
become cosmic in our
consciousness, is the legitimate and natural goal of our evolution;
attainable, according to the Occult teachings, in the definite cycle
known as the Fifth Round.
And if we now
ask how, in such a Universe of balanced motion as we have just
described, the balance can in any way be altered, or disturbed, or
readjusted, so as to produce an endless and infinite variety of
phenomena, what answer can we give other than that which we find within
ourselves, in our own nature and activity ?
Explain wholly
and completely, down to its very root and ground,
how you can disturb the
balance, how you can stretch
forth your hand, or frame a thought into
speech and action ; then only, and only thereby, will you have explained
how the atoms and molecules
are brought to birth, or how
the Sun and Stars are formed and swung in their mighty courses.
When we
stretch forth our hand, what explanation can we give of that act other
than that we willed that it
should be so : which act of will is also an act guided by
intelligence.
And how could
we as a mere conglomeration
of atoms,
FOHAT, ELECTRICITY, AND CORRELATED FORCES 143
have either will or intelligence, did not these exist as the inherent,
inalienable attributes of that one
Substance-Principle out of
which all our bodies, on all the Planes, are built, and which is the
Universe ?
Or perchance
we are more than our atoms, more than our bodies. Perchance we, in our
wholeness and completeness, are the one Substance-Principle
itself.