Were a truly learned Occultist-alchemist to write the "Life and Adventures of an Atom" he would secure thereby the eternal scorn of the modern chemist, perchance also his subsequent [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * This is again corroborated by the same man of science in the same lecture, who quotes Clerk Maxwell, saying "that the elements are not absolutely homogeneous." He writes: "It is difficult to conceive of selection and elimination of intermediate varieties, for where can these eliminated molecules have gone to, if, as we have reason to believe, the hydrogen, &c.
of the fixed stars is composed of molecules identical in all respects with our own." And he adds: "In the first place we may call in question this absolute molecular identity, since we have hitherto had no means for coming to a conclusion save the means furnished by the spectroscope, while it is admitted that, for accurately comparing and discriminating the spectra of two bodies, they should be examined under identical states of temperature, pressure, and all other physical conditions.
We have certainly seen, in the spectrum of the sun, rays which we have not been able to identify." ** "Each world has its Fohat, who is omnipresent in his own sphere of action.
But there are as many Fohats as there are worlds, each varying in power and degree of manifestations.
The individual Fohats make one Universal, Collective Fohat -- the aspect-Entity of the one absolute Non-Entity, which is absolute Be-Ness, 'SAT.' "Millions and billions of worlds are produced at every Manvantara" -- it is said.
Therefore there must be many Fohats, whom we consider as conscious and intelligent Forces.
This, no doubt, to the disgust of scientific minds.
Nevertheless 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.
[[Vol.
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gratitude.* However it may be, " The Breath of the Father-Mother issues cold and radiant and gets hot and corrupt , to cool once more, and be purified in the eternal bosom of inner Space ," says the Commentary.
Man absorbs cold pure air on the mountain-top, and throws it out impure, hot and transformed.
Thus -- the higher atmosphere being the mouth, and the lower one the lungs of every globe -- the man of our planet breathes only the refuse of "Mother"; therefore, "he is doomed to die on it."** ( b ) The process referred to as "the small wheels giving birth, one to the other," takes place in the sixth region from above, and on the plane of the most material world of all in the manifested Kosmos -- our terrestrial plane.
These "Seven Wheels" are our planetary chain (see Commentary Nos.
5 and 6).
By "Wheels" the various spheres and centres of forces are generally meant; but in this case they refer to our septenary ring.
------- STANZA VI.
-- Continued.
4.
H E BUILDS THEM IN THE LIKENESS OF OLDER W HEELS ( worlds ), PLACING THEM ON THE IMPERISHABLE CENTRES ( a ).
H OW DOES F OHAT BUILD THEM?
H E COLLECTS THE FIERY DUST.
H E MAKES BALLS OF FIRE, RUNS THROUGH THEM AND ROUND THEM, INFUSING LIFE THEREINTO; THEN SETS THEM INTO MOTION, SOME ONE, SOME THE OTHER WAY.
T HEY ARE COLD -- HE MAKES THEM HOT.
T HEY ARE DRY -- HE MAKES THEM MOIST.
T HEY SHINE -- HE FANS AND COOLS THEM ( b ).
T HUS ACTS F OHAT FROM ONE Twilight TO THE OTHER DURING S EVEN E TERNITIES.*** ( a ) The Worlds are built "in the likeness of older Wheels" -- i.e.
, those that existed in preceding Manvantaras and went into Pralaya, [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * Indeed, if such an imaginary Chemist happened to be intuitional, and would for a moment step out of the habitual groove of strictly "Exact Science," as the Alchemists of old did, he might be repaid for his audacity.
** He who would allotropise sluggish oxygen into Ozone to a measure of alchemical activity, reducing it to its pure essence (for which there are means), would discover thereby a substitute for an "Elixir of Life" and prepare it for practical use.
*** A period of 311,040,000,000,000 years, according to Brahminical calculations.
[[Vol.
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because the L AW for the birth, growth, and decay of everything in Kosmos, from the Sun to the glow-worm in the grass, is O NE.
It is an everlasting work of perfection with every new appearance, but the Substance-Matter and Forces are all one and the same.
But this L AW acts on every planet through minor and varying laws.
The "imperishable Laya Centres" have a great importance, and their meaning must be fully understood if we would have a clear conception of the Archaic Cosmogony, whose theories have now passed into Occultism.
At present, one thing may be stated.
The worlds are built neither upon , nor over , nor in the Laya centres, the zero-point being a condition, not any mathematical point.
( b ) Bear in mind that Fohat, the constructive Force of Cosmic Electricity, is said, metaphorically, to have sprung like Rudra from Brahma "from the brain of the Father and the bosom of the Mother," and then to have metamorphosed himself into a male and a female, i.e.
, polarity, into positive and negative electricity.
He has seven sons who are his brothers; and Fohat is forced to be born time after time whenever any two of his son-brothers indulge in too close contact -- whether an embrace or a fight.
To avoid this, he binds together and unites those of unlike nature and separates those of similar temperaments.
This, of course, relates, as any one can see, to electricity generated by friction and to the law involving attraction between two objects of unlike, and repulsion between those of like polarity.
The Seven "Sons-brothers," however, represent and personify the seven forms of Cosmic magnetism called in practical Occultism the "Seven Radicals," whose co-operative and active progeny are, among other energies, Electricity, Magnetism, Sound, Light, Heat, Cohesion, etc.
Occult Science defines all these as Super-sensuous effects in their hidden behaviour, and as objective phenomena in the world of senses; the former requiring abnormal faculties to perceive them -- the latter, our ordinary physical senses.
They all pertain to, and are the emanations of, still more supersensuous spiritual qualities, not personated by, but belonging to, real and conscious CAUSES.
To attempt a description of such ENTITIES would be worse than useless.
The doctrine of the periodic restoration or recurrence of all things to their original state after vast cycles.
The cyclical doctrine of Manvantara (manifestation) and Pralaya (dissolution) with worlds being rebuilt 'in the likeness of older Wheels' from preceding cycles expresses periodic restoration and recurrence.
Describing the divine only by negation—God transcends all positive categories and concepts; the via negativa.
The description of the ultimate principle as 'the one absolute Non-Entity' and the warning that 'to attempt a description of such ENTITIES would be worse than useless' employ negation to point beyond positive categories.
The Hermetic axiom that the structure of the cosmos is reflected at every scale — 'as above, so below; as within, so without' — making each level a legible map of the others.
The passage states that 'the Law for the birth, growth, and decay of everything in Kosmos, from the Sun to the glow-worm in the grass, is ONE' and that worlds are built 'in the likeness of older Wheels,' indicating structural reflection across scales.
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 is a cosmogonic narrative: 'He collects the fiery dust. He makes balls of fire, runs through them and round them, infusing life thereinto; then sets them into motion,' describing how worlds come into being.
A secondary creator deity—often ignorant or malevolent—responsible for fashioning the material world, distinct from the supreme transcendent God.
Fohat is described as the constructive force that builds worlds and infuses life, functioning as a secondary creative agent distinct from the absolute Non-Entity, though not portrayed as ignorant or malevolent.
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.
Fohat is described as 'omnipresent in his own sphere of action' and the Universal Fohat pervades all worlds, suggesting the divine force pervades creation rather than remaining solely transcendent.
The doctrine that God has no parts, divisions, or composite attributes; pure undivided being.
The 'one absolute Non-Entity, which is absolute Be-Ness, SAT' is presented as undivided and beyond all differentiation, consistent with the doctrine of divine simplicity.
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 cascading structure from 'the one absolute Non-Entity' through the Universal Fohat to individual Fohats and the Seven Radicals, forming a clear hierarchy of emanating forces.
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 states Fohat 'metamorphosed himself into a male and a female, i.e., polarity,' establishing the masculine-feminine generative principle as a structural feature of cosmic creation at the level of electricity and magnetism.
Esoteric teachings reserved for those ready to receive them; outer meaning conceals an inner liberating truth.
The passage references 'the Commentary' and presents esoteric cosmogonic knowledge as belonging to a tradition of hidden teaching ('the Archaic Cosmogony, whose theories have now passed into Occultism').
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.
'Millions and billions of worlds are produced at every Manvantara' establishes an innumerable multiplicity of worlds without bound.
A non-physical dimension of reality, interpenetrating the physical world, populated by forces, beings, and forms ordinarily imperceptible to physical senses and instruments, that can affect embodied life without being seen — Dion Fortune's 'mind-side of nature,' the astral plane of Western esotericism broadly construed. Distinct from astral_light (a specific transmitting medium or fluid operating within this realm, not the realm itself), pleroma (the divine fullness at the summit of a cosmic hierarchy, not a parallel plane coextensive with ordinary life), and animism (particular indwelling spirits bound to specific natural objects, not the general unseen dimension itself).
The passage explicitly states that Occultists consider all forces of Nature as 'supersensuous states of Matter' and 'possible objects of perception to Beings endowed with the requisite senses,' describing a non-physical dimension interpenetrating the physical.
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 the absolute Non-Entity through Fohat to the material terrestrial plane, with the 'Seven Wheels' representing successive stages of materialization.
The absolutely simple, undivided first principle from which all multiplicity and existence flows.
The 'one absolute Non-Entity, which is absolute Be-Ness, SAT' functions as the undivided first principle from which all multiplicity (worlds, Fohats, forces) flows.
Numbers, proportions, and mathematical relationships as the underlying structure of divine reality.
The number seven is structurally central: Seven Wheels, Seven Radicals, Seven Eternities, Seven Sons-brothers, and the septenary ring of the planetary chain all encode cosmic structure numerically.
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).
Polarity is explicitly and centrally discussed: Fohat 'metamorphosed himself into a male and a female, i.e., polarity, into positive and negative electricity,' and the law of attraction/repulsion between unlike and like poles is elaborated as a fundamental cosmic principle.
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 cyclical structure of Manvantara and Pralaya, with worlds being built and dissolving repeatedly 'from one Twilight to the other during Seven Eternities,' expresses a cosmic pendulum motion.
The doctrine that all existence is ultimately one substance or one divine reality; non-duality as a theological claim.
The passage asserts 'the Substance-Matter and Forces are all one and the same' and that the Law is ONE for everything, presenting all existence as one underlying reality.