Crookes, F.R.S ., to admit that Science is yet a thousand leagues from the knowledge of the compound nature of the simplest molecule.
From him we learn that such a thing as a really simple [[Footnote continued on next page]] [[Vol.
1, Page]] 141 WERE THE ANCIENTS IGNORANT OF THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES?
ment; as, at any rate, their initiated philosophers 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 AEther; 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, and remaining ignorant of its nature.
But that which [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- [[Footnote continued from previous page]] molecule entirely homogeneous is terra incognita in chemistry.
"Where are we to draw the line?" he asks; "is there no way out of this perplexity?
Must we either make the elementary examinations so stiff that only 60 or 70 candidates can pass, or must we open the examination doors so wide that the number of admissions is limited only by the number of applicants?" And then the learned gentleman gives striking instances.
He says: "Take the case of yttrium.
It has its definite atomic weight, it behaved in every respect as a simple body, an element, to which we might indeed add, but from which we could not take away.
Yet this yttrium, this supposed homogeneous whole, on being submitted to a certain method of fractionation, is resolved into portions not absolutely identical among themselves, and exhibiting a gradation of properties.
Or take the case of didymium.
Here was a body betraying all the recognised characters of an element.
It had been separated with much difficulty from other bodies which approximated closely to it in their properties, and during this crucial process it had undergone very severe treatment and very close scrutiny.
But then came another chemist, who, treating this assumed homogeneous body by a peculiar process of fractionation, resolved it into the two bodies praseodymium and neodymium, between which certain distinctions are perceptible.
Further, we even now have no certainty that neodymium and praseodymium are simple bodies.
On the contrary, they likewise exhibit symptoms of splitting up.
Now, if one supposed element on proper treatment is thus found to comprise dissimilar molecules, we are surely warranted in asking whether similar results might not be obtained in other elements, perhaps in all elements, if treated in the right way.
We may even ask where the process of sorting-out is to stop -- a process which of course pre-supposes variations between the individual molecules of each species.
And in these successive separations we naturally find bodies approaching more and more closely to each other." (Presidential address before the Royal Society of Chemists, March, 1888.) [[Vol.
1, Page]] 142 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
modern Science seems to fail to perceive is that, differentiated as may have been those simple chemical atoms -- which archaic philosophy called "the creators of their respective Parents," fathers, brothers, husbands of their mothers, and those mothers the daughters of their own sons, like Aditi and Daksha, for example -- differentiated as these elements were in the beginning, still, they were not the compound bodies known to science, as they are now.
Neither Water, Air, Earth (synonym for solids generally) existed in their present form, representing the three states of matter alone recognised by Science; for all these are the productions already recombined by the atmospheres of globes completely formed -- even to fire -- 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 of its own, Occult Science teaches that there is a perpetual exchange taking place in space of molecules, or of atoms rather, correlating, and thus changing their combining equivalents on every planet.
Some men of Science, and those among the greatest physicists and chemists, begin to suspect this fact, which has been known for ages to the Occultists.
The spectroscope only shows the probable similarity (on external evidence) of terrestrial and sidereal substance; it is unable to go any farther, or to show whether atoms gravitate towards one another in the same way and under the same conditions as they are supposed to do on our planet, physically and chemically.
The scale of temperature, from the highest degree to the lowest that can be conceived of, may be imagined to be one and the same in and for the whole Universe; nevertheless, its properties, other than those of dissociation and reassociation, differ on every planet; and thus atoms enter into new forms of existence, undreamt of, and incognizable to, physical Science.
As already expressed in "Five Years of Theosophy," the essence of Cometary matter, for instance, "is totally different from any of the chemical or physical characteristics with which the greatest chemists and physicists of the earth are acquainted" (p.
242).
And even that matter, during rapid passage through our atmosphere, undergoes a certain change in its nature.
Thus not alone the elements of our planets, but even those of all its sisters in the Solar System, differ as widely from each other in their combinations, as from the Cosmic elements beyond our [[Vol.
1, Page]] 143 THE SLEEP OF THE ETERNAL MOTHER.
Solar limits.* Therefore, they cannot be taken as a standard for comparison with the same in other worlds.** Enshrined in their virgin, pristine state within the bosom of the Eternal Mother, every atom born beyond the threshold of her realm is doomed to incessant differentiation.
"The Mother sleeps, yet is ever breathing." And every breath sends out into the plane of manifestation her Protean products, which, carried on by the wave of the efflux, are scattered by Fohat, and driven toward and beyond this or another planetary atmosphere.
Once caught by the latter, the atom is lost; its pristine purity is gone for ever, unless Fate dissociates it by leading it to "a current of EFFLUX" (an occult term meaning quite a different process from that which the ordinary term implies); when it may be carried once more to the borderland where it had perished, and taking its flight, not into Space above but into Space within , it will be brought under a state of differential equilibrium and happily re-absorbed.
The doctrine of the periodic restoration or recurrence of all things to their original state after vast cycles.
The possibility that an atom 'will be brought under a state of differential equilibrium and happily re-absorbed' suggests a periodic restoration to original state, though framed as individual rather than cosmic-scale.
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 passage narrates how elements came to be in their present form during 'the first periods of the earth's formation' and how the atmosphere became 'a crucible of its own,' describing the temporal origin of the material cosmos.
The supreme God's radical concealment beyond ordinary knowledge or perception; the Hidden Father.
The Eternal Mother 'sleeps' and her true nature is accessible only through 'Space within' rather than the physical 'Space above,' indicating radical concealment of the divine from ordinary perception.
The doctrine that the divine is present within all things and the universe itself, pervading creation rather than remaining solely transcendent above it. Distinct from unity_of_being (the general claim that all existence is one substance, agnostic about whether that substance indwells its parts) and from kingdom_within (the divine present specifically IN THE INDIVIDUAL human, accessible without mediation) — divine_immanence is the general pervading-presence claim applied to all of creation, not a human-specific indwelling.
The Eternal Mother pervades all of creation — every atom is 'enshrined in their virgin, pristine state within the bosom of the Eternal Mother' even after being scattered across the cosmos, indicating the divine present within all things.
Fragments of divine light or spirit trapped inside material bodies, awaiting liberation and return to their source.
Atoms born from the Eternal Mother, losing their pristine purity in the material world, and potentially re-absorbed back to their source function as fragments of divine substance trapped in matter awaiting liberation and return.
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's central structural theme is the flow of atoms from the Eternal Mother through the efflux, scattered by Fohat, caught by planetary atmospheres, and differentiated — a clear cascade from a single transcendent source downward through successive levels.
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 Eternal Mother, her 'bosom,' and the description of elements as 'fathers, brothers, husbands of their mothers, and those mothers the daughters of their own sons' present masculine-feminine generative principles as a structural feature of creation itself.
Esoteric teachings reserved for those ready to receive them; outer meaning conceals an inner liberating truth.
The passage explicitly marks 'a current of EFFLUX (an occult term meaning quite a different process from that which the ordinary term implies),' concealing true meaning behind outwardly familiar language.
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 references 'the whole Universe,' 'all its sisters in the Solar System,' and elements 'beyond our Solar limits,' implying a cosmos extending far beyond any single planetary system.
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 explicitly describes the directional process of atoms descending from their pristine state into material differentiation ('doomed to incessant differentiation'), complemented by the possibility of return via the 'current of EFFLUX' back to the borderland — a staged descent paired with its complementary ascent.
The absolutely simple, undivided first principle from which all multiplicity and existence flows.
The 'pristine' atom before differentiation, existing in its 'virgin, pristine state within the bosom of the Eternal Mother,' functions as an absolutely simple, undivided first principle from which multiplicity flows.
The doctrine that reality has two registers — an Absolute truth as the divine or ultimate mind knows it, and a Relative truth as finite human reason perceives and must act on — with both held as legitimate on their own plane rather than the second being simply an error to correct. Distinct from apophatic_theology (a claim about how the divine may be described, by negation) and unity_of_being (a claim that being is ultimately one) in being a claim about two coexisting registers of truth-claim itself.
The passage contrasts what modern Science 'is obliged to call' Fire (Motion, evolution of light and heat) with what it truly is, holding both as legitimate descriptions on their own plane while the occult knowledge penetrates deeper.
The soul's journey back to its divine origin, reversing the fall into matter through stages of purification or illumination.
The passage describes how Fate can dissociate an atom and carry it 'once more to the borderland where it had perished' and 'happily re-absorbed' — an explicit reversal of the fall into material differentiation.
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 'wave of the efflux,' the 'perpetual exchange' of atoms between planets, and the cycle of differentiation and re-absorption express a measured oscillation between states operating in the cosmic register.
The felt condition of exile from one's divine origin — Rumi's reed flute torn from its bed, Plotinus's 'we have forgotten,' the Gnostic forgetfulness; the affective wound that complements return_to_source and gives the return its motive.
The atom's 'pristine purity is gone for ever' once caught by a planetary atmosphere, expressing the felt condition of exile from the original undifferentiated state within the Mother's bosom.
Form-mutability as a constitutional property of divine and preternatural beings — gods, heroes, spirits, and their human practitioners possessing inherent capacity to alter form across human, animal, plant, or elemental states. Loki and Odin's transformations in Norse, Math's pigs and Blodeuwedd's owl-shape and Pwyll's exchange with Arawn in the Mabinogion, the Greek Proteus, the Indian dasavatara, Vainamoinen's bird-flight in the Kalevala, Ovid's metamorphoses, the shamanic and witch's capacity for ritual form-change. Distinct from anthropomorphism (divine taking specific human form, single embodiment) in that anthropomorphism establishes a stable form whereas this concept establishes form's plurality and instability.
Atoms 'enter into new forms of existence, undreamt of, and incognizable to, physical Science' and the Mother's 'Protean products' change form as they pass through different planetary conditions.
The doctrine that all existence is ultimately one substance or one divine reality; non-duality as a theological claim.
All atoms originate from the single Eternal Mother and can return to her, implying that all existence is ultimately one substance or one divine reality despite apparent differentiation.