In fact, to us the matter of the lower plane there vanishes from our perception into nothing -- or rather it passes on to the higher plane, and the state of matter corresponding to such a point of transition must certainly possess special and not readily discoverable properties.
Such "Seven Neutral Centres,"* then, are produced by Fohat, who, when, as Milton has it -- "Fair foundations (are) laid whereon to build .
.
." quickens matter into activity and evolution.
The Primordial Atom ( anu ) cannot be multiplied either in its pregenetic state, or its primogeneity; therefore it is called "SUM TOTAL," figuratively, of course, as that "SUM TOTAL" is boundless.
(See Addendum to this Book.) That which is the abyss of nothingness to the physicist, who knows only the world of visible causes and effects, is the boundless Space of the Divine Plenum to the Occultist.
Among many other objections to the doctrine of an endless evolution and re-involution (or re-absorption) of the Kosmos, a process which, according to the Brahminical and Esoteric Doctrine, is without a beginning or an end, the Occultist is told that it cannot be, since "by all the admissions of [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * Such, we believe, is the name applied by Mr.
Keely, of Philadelphia, the inventor of the famous "Motor" -- destined, as his admirers have hoped, to revolutionise the motor power of the world -- to what he again calls the "Etheric Centres." [[Vol.
1, Page]] 149 THE MOON IS NOT DEAD, BUT ONLY SLEEPETH.
modern scientific philosophy it is a necessity of Nature to run down." If the tendency of Nature "to run down" is to be considered so forcible an objection to Occult Cosmogony, "How," we may ask, "do your Positivists and Free-thinkers and Scientists account for the phalanx around us of active stellar systems?" They had eternity to "run down" in; why, then, is not the Kosmos a huge inert mass?
Even the moon is only hypothetically believed to be a dead planet, "run down," and astronomy does not seem to be acquainted with many such dead planets.* The query is unanswerable.
But apart from this it must be noted that the idea of the amount of "transformable energy" in our little system coming to an end is based purely on the fallacious conception of a "white-hot, incandescent Sun" perpetually radiating away his heat without compensation into Space.
To this we reply that nature runs down and disappears from the objective plane, only to re-emerge after a time of rest out of the subjective and to reascend once more.
Our Kosmos and Nature will run down only to reappear on a more perfect plane after every P RALAYA.
The matter of the Eastern philosophers is not the "matter" and Nature of the Western metaphysicians.
For what is Matter?
And above all, what is our scientific philosophy but that which was so justly and so politely defined by Kant as "the Science of the limits to our Knowledge"?
Where have the many attempts made by Science to bind, to connect, and define all the phenomena of organic life by mere physical and chemical manifestations, brought it to?
To speculation generally -- mere soap-bubbles, that burst one after the other before the men of Science were permitted to discover real facts.
All this would have been avoided, and the progress of knowledge would have proceeded with gigantic strides, had only Science and its philosophy abstained from accepting hypotheses on the mere one-sided Knowledge of their Matter.** [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * The moon is dead only so far as regards her inner "principles" -- i.e.
, psychically and spiritually , however absurd the statement may seem.
Physically, she is only as a semi-paralysed body may be.
She is aptly referred to in Occultism as the "insane mother," the great sidereal lunatic.
** The instance of Uranus and Neptune, whose satellites, four and one respectively, revolved, it was thought, in their orbits from East to West, whereas all the other satellites rotate from West to East, is a very good one, as showing how unreliable are all a priori speculations even when based on the strictest mathematical analysis.
The famous hypothesis of the formation of our Solar System out of the nebulous rings, put [[Footnote continued on next page]] [[Vol.
1, Page]] 150 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
If no physical intellect is capable of counting the grains of sand covering a few miles of sea-shore; or to fathom the ultimate nature and essence of those grains, palpable and visible on the palm of the naturalist, how can any materialist limit the laws changing the conditions and being of the atoms in primordial chaos, or know anything certain about the capabilities and potency of their atoms and molecules before and after their formation into worlds?
These changeless and eternal molecules -- far thicker in space than the grains on the ocean shore -- may differ in their constitution along the line of their planes of existence, as the soul-substance differs from its vehicle, the body.
Each atom has seven planes of being or existence, we are taught; and each plane is governed by its specific laws of evolution and absorption.
Ignorant of any, even approximate, chronological data from which to start in attempting to decide the age of our planet or the origin of the solar system, astronomers, geologists, and physicists are drifting with each new hypothesis farther and farther away from the shores of fact into the fathomless depths of speculative ontology.* The Law of Analogy in the plan of structure between the trans-Solar systems and the intra-Solar planets, does not necessarily bear upon the finite conditions to which every visible body is subject, in this our plane of being.
In Occult Science this law is the first and most important key to Cosmic physics; but it has to be studied in its minutest details and, "to be [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- [[Footnote continued from previous page]] forward by Kant and Laplace, was chiefly based on the above fact that all the planets revolved in the same direction.
It is on this fact, mathematically demonstrated during the time of Laplace, that this great astronomer, calculating on the theory of probabilities, offered to bet three milliards to one that the next planet discovered would have in its system the same peculiarity of motion Eastward.
The immutable laws of scientific mathematics got "worsted by further experiments and observations," it was said.
This idea of Laplace's mistake prevails generally to this day; but some astronomers have finally succeeded in demonstrating (?) that the mistake had been in accepting Laplace's assertion for a mistake; and steps to correct it without attracting general attention to the bevue are now being taken.
Many such unpleasant surprises are in store for hypotheses of even a purely physical character.
What further disillusions, then, may there not be in questions of a transcendental, Occult Nature?
The doctrine of the periodic restoration or recurrence of all things to their original state after vast cycles.
The 'endless evolution and re-involution (or re-absorption) of the Kosmos' without beginning or end, with nature reappearing 'on a more perfect plane after every PRALAYA,' is a clear expression of periodic cosmic restoration.
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 'Law of Analogy in the plan of structure between the trans-Solar systems and the intra-Solar planets' is a direct statement of the Hermetic correspondence principle across cosmic 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 passage addresses the origin of the cosmos through the Primordial Atom, Fohat quickening matter into activity, and the formation of the solar system, engaging directly with narratives of cosmic origin.
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 quickens matter and the Divine Plenum is the boundless space in which all planes exist, suggesting the divine pervades all creation rather than remaining solely transcendent, though the emphasis is on cosmic structure.
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 describes the cosmos as 'without a beginning or an end,' the Plenum as 'boundless,' and references 'the phalanx around us of active stellar systems' with eternity of time — a boundless, centerless cosmos.
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 extensively describes higher planes of matter, the subjective plane from which nature re-emerges, and the seven planes of being of each atom — all non-physical dimensions 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 doctrine of 'evolution and re-involution (or re-absorption)' as a directional cosmic process of descent and return, with nature running down to re-emerge, is a direct statement of the involution doctrine.
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.
The passage states that each atom has seven planes of being mirroring the cosmic structure, and draws analogies between solar systems and planets, making the microcosm a legible image of the macrocosm.
The absolutely simple, undivided first principle from which all multiplicity and existence flows.
The Primordial Atom (anu) is described as indivisible, unmultipliable, and the 'SUM TOTAL' that is boundless — a clear expression of the monadic first principle from which all 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 the physicist's 'abyss of nothingness' with the Occultist's 'boundless Space of the Divine Plenum,' and distinguishes Eastern from Western conceptions of matter, implying two registers of legitimate knowledge on their own planes.
The soul's journey back to its divine origin, reversing the fall into matter through stages of purification or illumination.
Nature 're-emerge[s] after a time of rest out of the subjective and to reascend once more' and reappears 'on a more perfect plane' — a cosmic-scale return to a higher state, though framed as cyclical rather than a singular soteriological journey.
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 passage explicitly describes nature running down, disappearing, resting, and re-emerging to reascend — a cosmic pendulum motion of evolution and re-involution operating in cyclical rhythm.