T HEN THE SONS ( the Elements with their respective Powers , or Intelligences ) DISSOCIATE AND SCATTER, TO RETURN INTO THEIR MOTHER'S BOSOM AT THE END OF THE "GREAT DAY" AND REBECOME ONE WITH HER ( a ).
W HEN IT ( the Web ) IS COOLING, IT BECOMES RADIANT, ITS SONS EXPAND AND CONTRACT THROUGH THEIR OWN SELVES AND HEARTS; THEY EMBRACE INFINITUDE.
( b ) The expanding of the Universe under the breath of F IRE is very suggestive in the light of the "Fire mist" period of which modern science speaks so much, and knows in reality so little.
Great heat breaks up the compound elements and resolves the [[Vol.
1, Page]] 84 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
heavenly bodies into their primeval one element, explains the commentary.
"Once disintegrated into its primal constituent by getting within the attraction and reach of a focus, or centre of heat (energy), of which many are carried about to and fro in space, a body, whether alive or dead, will be vapourised and held in "the bosom of the Mother" until Fohat, gathering a few of the clusters of Cosmic matter (nebulae) will, by giving it an impulse, set it in motion anew, develop the required heat, and then leave it to follow its own new growth.
The expanding and contracting of the Web -- i.e., the world stuff or atoms -- expresses here the pulsatory movement; for it is the regular contraction and expansion of the infinite and shoreless Ocean of that which we may call the noumenon of matter emanated by Swabhavat, which causes the universal vibration of atoms.
But it is also suggestive of something else.
It shows that the ancients were acquainted with that which is now the puzzle of many scientists and especially of astronomers: the cause of the first ignition of matter or the world-stuff, the paradox of the heat produced by the refrigerative contraction and other such Cosmic riddles.
For it points unmistakeably to a knowledge by the ancients of such phenomena.
"There is heat internal and heat external in every atom," say the manuscript Commentaries, to which the writer has had access; "the breath of the Father (or Spirit) and the breath (or heat) of the Mother (matter);" and they give explanations which show that the modern theory of the extinction of the solar fires by loss of heat through radiation, is erroneous.
The assumption is false even on the Scientists' own admission.
For as Professor Newcomb points out (Popular Astronomy, pp.
506-508), "by losing heat, a gaseous body contracts, and the heat generated by the contraction exceeds that which it had to lose in order to produce the contraction." This paradox, that a body gets hotter as the shrinking produced by its getting colder is greater, led to long disputes.
The surplus of heat, it was argued, was lost by radiation, and to assume that the temperature is not lowered pari passu with a decrease of volume under a constant pressure, is to set at nought the law of Charles (Nebular Theory, Winchell).
Contraction develops heat, it is true; but contraction (from cooling) is incapable of developing the whole amount of heat at any time existing in the mass, or even of maintaining a body at a constant temperature, etc.
Professor Winchell tries to reconcile the paradox -- only a seeming one in fact, as [[Vol.
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Homer Lanes proved, -- by suggesting "something besides heat." "May it not be," he asks, "simply a repulsion among the molecules, which varies according to some law of the distance?" But even this will be found irreconcileable, unless this "something besides heat" is ticketed "Causeless Heat," the "Breath of Fire," the all-creative Force Plus ABSOLUTE INTELLIGENCE, which physical science is not likely to accept.
However it may be, the reading of this Stanza shows it, notwithstanding its archaic phraseology, to be more scientific than even modern science.
------- STANZA III.
-- Continued.
12.
T HEN S VABHAVAT SENDS F OHAT TO HARDEN THE ATOMS.
E ACH ( of these ) IS A PART OF THE WEB ( Universe ) .
R EFLECTING THE " S ELF- E XISTENT L ORD" ( Primeval Light ) LIKE A MIRROR, EACH BECOMES IN TURN A WORLD.* .
.
.
"Fohat hardens the atoms"; i.e.
, by infusing energy into them: he scatters the atoms or primordial matter.
"He scatters himself while scattering matter into atoms" ( MSS .
Commentaries.) It is through Fohat that the ideas of the Universal Mind are impressed upon matter.
Some faint idea of the nature of Fohat may be gathered from the appellation "Cosmic Electricity" sometimes applied to it; but to the commonly known properties of electricity must, in this case, be added others, including intelligence.
It is of interest to note that modern science has come to the conclusion, that all cerebration and brain-activity are attended by electrical phenomena.
( For further details as to " Fohat " See Stanza V.
and Comments.
") [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * This is said in the sense that the flame from a fire is endless, and that the lights of the whole Universe could be lit at one simple rush-light without diminishing its flame.
---------------------
The doctrine of the periodic restoration or recurrence of all things to their original state after vast cycles.
The opening states the Sons 'dissociate and scatter, to return into their Mother's Bosom at the end of the Great Day and rebecome one with her,' describing a periodic restoration of all things to their original unity after vast cycles.
Narratives or doctrines of cosmic origin — how heaven, earth, and the primordial deities first came into being. The Kojiki's deities born alone on the Plain of High Heaven, Voluspo's Ginnungagap, Genesis's tohu wa-bohu, the Timaeus's Demiurge fashioning the Receptacle, the Hesiodic Theogony, the Kalevala's egg-cosmogony, Egyptian Nun-and-Atum. Distinct from emanation_hierarchy (structural-ontological cascade), letters_of_creation (mechanism of creation), and apocatastasis/frashokereti (end-state restoration); cosmogony is temporally-narrative beginning.
The entire passage narrates the origin of the cosmos: the Web cooling and becoming radiant, the Sons expanding, Fohat hardening atoms, and each atom becoming a World—this is a temporally-narrative account of cosmic origin.
The uncreated luminous quality of the divine, sometimes experienced directly in mystical states; illumination as revelation.
The 'Self-Existent Lord' is identified as 'Primeval Light' and each atom reflects it 'like a mirror,' presenting light as a fundamental luminous quality of the divine.
A chain of divine beings or principles flowing downward from a single transcendent source (the One or the Father), each level less perfect than the one above.
The passage describes a clear cascade: Swabhavat emanates the noumenon of matter, sends Fohat to harden atoms, and the Sons (Elements) return to their Mother's Bosom, forming a structured descent from a single source.
The Hermetic doctrine that a masculine-feminine generative principle operates on every plane of being, not only the biological — present at all times as a structural feature of creation itself. Distinct from divine_marriage (a specific reunification event or symbol) and aeons (paired divine beings arranged in syzygies, not a universal structural claim).
The passage assigns a masculine-feminine generative principle at the atomic level: 'the breath of the Father (or Spirit) and the breath (or heat) of the Mother (matter),' making gender a structural feature of creation at every scale.
The doctrine of the universe as boundless and without center or circumference, populated by innumerable worlds — Bruno's rejection of the closed Aristotelian sphere; the divine and the cosmos as ontologically infinite.
The passage explicitly describes 'the infinite and shoreless Ocean of that which we may call the noumenon of matter' and states that the Sons 'embrace infinitude,' presenting the cosmos as boundless.
The doctrine that the cosmos unfolds as a structured descent of spirit into matter — a directional process traced stage by stage from an unconditioned principle down through successive planes to full materialization — complemented by its own eventual return ('evolution'). Distinct from emanation_hierarchy (the static structure of the resulting levels of the cascade) and cosmogony (a single originating event rather than an ongoing staged process) in naming the directional cosmic PROCESS of descent itself, paired with its own complementary ascent.
The passage traces a directional descent from Swabhavat through Fohat into matter and atoms, with the Universal Mind's ideas being 'impressed upon matter,' describing a structured process of spirit descending into materialization.
The divine reason, word, or ordering principle through which the universe was created; mediates between the transcendent God and the material world.
Fohat functions as a mediating ordering principle between the Universal Mind and matter: 'It is through Fohat that the ideas of the Universal Mind are impressed upon matter,' and it is described as 'Cosmic Electricity' with intelligence.
The human being as a small-scale image of the entire cosmos; the body, soul, and intellect mirroring the structure of the heavens and the divine — distinct from correspondence in that it makes the human the privileged mirror.
Each atom is described as 'a part of the Web (Universe)' that 'reflecting the Self-Existent Lord like a mirror, each becomes in turn a World,' making each atom a small-scale image of the whole cosmos.
The absolutely simple, undivided first principle from which all multiplicity and existence flows.
The 'primeval one element' into which all heavenly bodies are resolved and the 'Self-Existent Lord' (Primeval Light) that each atom reflects suggest an undivided first principle, though it is not the central focus.
The Hermetic doctrine that apparent opposites are identical in nature but differ in degree — two extremes of the same scale (hot/cold, love/hate) — such that one pole can be shifted toward its opposite by a change of degree ('mental transmutation'). Distinct from opposites_transcended (a completion-state marking the path's end, not this doctrine's active technique) and magical_equilibrium (balance held BETWEEN two forces, not identity-by-degree of what looks like two forces).
The passage notes 'there is heat internal and heat external in every atom'—the breath of the Father (Spirit) and the breath of the Mother (matter)—suggesting polar opposites as two extremes of the same reality within each atom.
The Hermetic doctrine of a measured swing or pendulum motion between poles — action and reaction, flow and outflow, rise and fall — operating in mental, physical, and cosmic-historical registers alike. Distinct from apocatastasis (cosmic-scale eschatological restoration after vast cycles) in naming a constant, ever-present oscillation rather than a singular restorative event.
The 'expanding and contracting of the Web' is explicitly identified as 'pulsatory movement' and 'the regular contraction and expansion' of the noumenon of matter, a measured oscillation operating at the cosmic scale.
The doctrine that all existence is ultimately one substance or one divine reality; non-duality as a theological claim.
The Sons 'rebecome one with' their Mother and the footnote states the lights of the whole Universe could be lit from one rush-light 'without diminishing its flame,' suggesting all existence is ultimately one substance.
The Hermetic doctrine that nothing rests — matter, energy, mind, and spirit are a single continuum differing only in rate of vibration, from the grossest matter to the least material spirit. Distinct from cosmic_sympathy (affinity resonating BETWEEN separate things) in being a claim about what constitutes any one thing in the first place, and from magical_equilibrium (Lévi's operational balancing technique, which presupposes some vibration doctrine rather than stating this general principle).
The 'regular contraction and expansion of the infinite and shoreless Ocean of that which we may call the noumenon of matter' is said to 'cause the universal vibration of atoms,' directly stating a vibration doctrine for matter.