How can Science presume to know anything certain of it?
How can it maintain its position and its hypotheses against those of the Occultists, who see in gravity only sympathy and antipathy, or attraction and repulsion, caused by physical polarity on our terrestrial plane, and by spiritual causes outside of its influence?
How can they disagree with the Occultists before they agree among themselves?
Indeed one hears of the conservation of energy, and in the same breath of the perfect hardness and inelasticity of the atoms; of the Kinetic theory of gases being identical with "potential energy," so called; and, at the same time, of the elementary units of mass being absolutely hard and inelastic!
An Occultist opens a scientific work and reads as follows: -- "Physical atomism derives all the qualitative properties of matter from the forms of atomic motion.
The atoms themselves remain as elements utterly devoid of property.
" (Wundt, " Die Theorie der Materie ," p.
381.) And further: "Chemistry in its ultimate form must be atomic mechanics.
" (Nazesmann, " Thermochemie ," p.
150.) And a moment after he is told that: "Gases consist of atoms which behave like solid, perfectly elastic spheres." (Kroenig, Clausius, Maxwell, etc., Philosophical Magazine , Vol.
XIX ., p.
18.) Finally, to crown all, Sir W.
Thomson is found declaring that: "We are forbidden by the modern theory of the conservation of [[Vol.
1, Page]] 514 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
energy to assume inelasticity, or anything short of perfect elasticity of the ultimate molecules whether of ultra mundane or mundane matter." (!!!) ("Philosophical Magazine," p.
321, loc.
cit.
) But what do the men of true Science say to all this?
By the "men of true Science" we mean those who care too much for truth and too little for their personal vanity to dogmatise on anything, as the majority do.
There are several among them -- perhaps more than dare publish openly their secret conclusions for fear of the cry "Stone him to death!" -- men, whose intuitions have made them span the abyss that lies between the terrestrial aspect of matter, and the -- to us, on our plane of illusion -- subjective, i.e.
, TRANSCENDENTALLY OBJECTIVE SUBSTANCE, and led them to proclaim the existence of the latter.
Matter, to the Occultist, it must be remembered, is that totality of existences in the Kosmos, which falls within any of the planes of possible perception.
We are but too well aware that the orthodox theories of sound, heat and light, are against the occult doctrines.
But, it is not enough for the men of Science, or their defenders, to say that they do not deny dynamic power to light and heat; and urge as a proof the fact that Mr.
Crookes' radiometer has unsettled no views.
If they would fathom the ultimate nature of these Forces, they have first to admit their substantial nature, however supersensuous.
Neither do the Occultists deny the correctness of the vibratory theory.* Only they limit its functions to our Earth -- declaring its inadequacy on other planes than ours, since "Masters" in the Occult Sciences perceive the CAUSES that produce ethereal vibrations.
Were all these only the fictions of the alchemists, or dreams of the Mystics, such men as Paracelsus, Philalethes, Van Helmont, and so many others, would have to be regarded as worse than visionaries: they would become impostors and deliberate mystificators.
The Occultists are taken to task for calling the Cause of light, heat, sound, cohesion, magnetism, etc., etc., a substance .** Mr.
Clerk Maxwell has stated that the pressure of strong sunlight on a square mile is about 3 1/4 lbs.
It is, they are told, "the energy of the myriad ether waves;" and when they call it a "substance" impinging on that area, their explanation is proclaimed unscientific.
There is no justification for such an accusation.
In no way -- as stated [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * Referring to the Aura , one of the Masters says in the "Occult World," "How could you make yourself understood by, command in fact, those semi-intelligent forces , whose means of communication with us are not through spoken words but through sounds and colours in correlation between the vibrations of the two." It is this "correlation" that is unknown to modern Science, yet was many times explained by the Alchemists.
** The "substance" of the Occultist, however, is to the most refined substance of the physicist, what radiant matter is to the leather of the Chemist's boots.
[[Vol.
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more than once before now -- 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 cause of these phenomena, it has, therefore, revealed ALL that lies beyond the threshold of Sense.
It merely traces the sequence of phenomena on a plane of effects, illusory projections from the region that Occultism has long since penetrated.
And the latter maintains that those etheric tremors, are not, as asserted by Science, set up 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., 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 ghost or shadow of matter in motion.
Such states can be perceived by the SEER or the Adept during the hours of trance, under the Sushumna ray -- the first of the Seven Mystic rays of the Sun.* Thus, we put forward the Occult teaching which maintains the reality of a supersubstantial and supersensible essence of that Akasa (not ether, which is only an aspect of the latter), the nature of which cannot be inferred from its remoter manifestations -- its merely phenomenal phalanx of effects -- on this terrene plane.
Science, on the contrary, informs us that heat can never be regarded as matter in any conceivable state.** We are also told that the two great obstacles to the fluid (?) theory of heat undoubtedly are: -- [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * The names of the Seven Rays -- which are, Sushumna, Harikesa, Viswakarman, Viswatryarchas, Sannaddha, Sarvavasu and Swaraj -- are all mystical, and each has its distinct application in a distinct state of consciousness, for occult purposes.
The Sushumna , which, as said in the Nirukta (11, 6), is only to light up the moon, is the ray nevertheless cherished by the initiated Yogis.
The universal fluid or medium of occult philosophy — Lévi's Great Magical Agent — that transmits will, thought, and magical influence between minds and matter, and preserves the impress of all forms and actions as a book of consciences; cognate with akasha and the anima mundi. Distinct from cosmic_sympathy (a doctrine of hidden affinity) in being a substantival medium that can be charged, directed, and abused.
The passage explicitly identifies Akasa as a universal medium distinct from mere ether, through which vibrations and forces operate, and the footnote describes 'semi-intelligent forces' communicating through sounds and colours in correlation between vibrations, matching the definition of a substantival transmitting medium.
A historical or mythical chain of transmission for secret wisdom from master to disciple across time and cultures — the credential of the teaching, not merely its content. Distinct from oral_tradition (the spoken-not-written modality of transmission, which a lineage may or may not use) and hidden_sayings (the concealment-for-readiness of a teaching's meaning, independent of who transmitted it or in what unbroken chain).
The passage invokes Paracelsus, Philalethes, Van Helmont, and 'Masters in the Occult Sciences' as a chain of transmitters who perceived the true causes of ethereal vibrations, establishing a historical lineage of secret knowledge.
Salvation through direct experiential knowledge of the divine nature, not through faith, ritual, or moral works alone.
The passage describes the Adept perceiving supersensuous states 'during the hours of trance, under the Sushumna ray' and the 'spiritual eye of man' seeing what is 'as fully objective... as a horse or a tree is to the ordinary mortal,' presenting direct experiential apprehension of higher realities as the mode of occult knowledge.
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 is centrally about the existence of supersensuous planes of matter and being that interpenetrate the physical world, perceivable only by the 'spiritual eye' of the Adept, with the terrestrial plane described as an 'illusory projection' from a higher region.
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 maintains that Science correctly describes 'the immediate objective agencies at work' on the terrestrial plane while the Occultist perceives 'the CAUSES that produce ethereal vibrations' on higher planes, holding both as valid on their own register rather than dismissing one as error.
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 passage extensively discusses vibratory theory, 'ethereal vibrations,' 'light and heat are the ghost or shadow of matter in motion,' and 'correlation between the vibrations of the two,' treating vibration as the fundamental nature of all phenomena across planes.