Two proofs of it are to be found in the world of Science -- two great chemists, each among the greatest in his own country, and these are Mr.
Crookes and the late Professor Butlerof: one, a thorough believer in abnormal phenomena; the other, as fervid a Spiritualist as he was great in natural Sciences.
It becomes evident that while pondering over the ultimate divisibility of matter, and in the hitherto fruitless chase after the element of negative atomic weight, the scientifically trained mind of the chemist must feel irresistibly drawn towards those ever-shrouded worlds, to the mysterious beyond, whose measureless depths seem to close against the approach of the too materialistic hand that would fain draw aside its veil.
"It is the unknown and the ever unknowable ," warns the Monist-Agnostic.
Not so; answers the persevering chemist: -- "We are on the track and are not daunted, and fain would we enter the mysterious region which ignorance tickets unknown.
"* A few lines at the very close of his lecture on the Genesis of the Elements -- two or three sentences -- showed the eminent Scientist to be on the royal road to the greatest discoveries.
He has been overshadowing for some time "the original protyle ," and came to the conclusion that "he who grasps the Key will be permitted to unlock some of the deepest mysteries of creation." The protyle , as that great chemist explains: -- ".
.
.
is a word analogous to protoplasm, to express the idea of the original primal matter existing before the evolution of the chemical elements.
The word I have ventured to use for this purpose is compounded of [[ pro ]] (earlier than) and [[ hyle ]] (the stuff of which things are made).
The word is scarcely a new coinage, for 600 years ago Roger Bacon wrote in his Arte Chymiae , "The elements are made out of [[ hyle ]] and every element is converted into the nature of another element." The Knowledge of Roger Bacon did not come to this wonderful old magician** by inspiration, but because he studied ancient works on [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * Mr.
Crookes' "Presidential Address" at Birmingham.
"There is but one unknown -- the ultimate substratum of Spirit (Space).
That which is not the Absolute and the One is, in virtue of that very differentiation, however far removed from the physical senses, always accessible to the spiritual human mind, which is a coruscation of the undifferentiable Integral." -- ( Practical Lessons on the Occult.
) ** Thus, what the writer of the present work said ten years ago in " Isis Unveiled " ( Vol.
I.
) was prophetic, it seems.
These are the words: "Many of these mystics, by following what they were taught by some treatises, secretly preserved from one generation to another, achieved discoveries which would not be despised even in our modern days of exact sciences.
Roger Bacon, the friar, was laughed at as a quack, and is now generally numbered among 'pretenders' to magic art; but his discoveries were nevertheless accepted, and are now used by those who ridicule him the most.
Roger Bacon belonged by right, if not by fact, to that Brotherhood which includes all those who [[Footnote continued on next page]] [[Vol.
1, Page]] 582 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
magic and alchemy, having a key to the real meaning of words.
But see what Mr.
Crookes says of protyle , next neighbour to the unconscious Mulaprakriti of the Occultists: -- .
.
.
.
.
"Let us start at the moment when the first element came into existence.
Before this time, matter, as we know it, was not.
It is equally impossible to conceive of matter without energy, as of energy without matter; from one point of view both are convertible terms.
Before the birth of atoms, all those forms of energy, which become evident when matter acts upon matter, could not have existed* -- they were locked up in the protyle as latent potentialities only.
Coincident with the creation of atoms, all those attributes and properties, which form the means of discriminating one chemical element from another, start into existence fully endowed with energy." ( Presidential Address , p.
16.) With every respect due to the great knowledge of the lecturer, the Occultist would put it otherwise.
They would say that no atom is ever "created," for the atoms are eternal within the bosom of the One Atom , -- "the atom of atoms" -- viewed during Manvantara as the Jagad-Yoni the material causative womb of the world.
Pradhana (unmodified matter), that which is the first form of Prakriti , or material visible, as well as invisible nature, and Purusha , spirit, are eternally one; and they are Nirupadhi , (without adventitious qualities or attributes) only during Pralaya , and when beyond any of the planes of consciousness of existence.
The atom, as known to modern science, is inseparable from Purusha , which is spirit, but is now called "Energy" in Science.
The protyle atom has not been comminuted or subtilized: it has simply passed into that plane, which is no plane, but the eternal state of everything beyond the planes of illusion.
Both Purusha and Pradhana are immutable and unconsumable, or Aparinamin and Avyaya , in eternity; and both during the Mayavic periods may be referred to as Vyaya and Parinamin , or that which can expand, pass away and disappear, and is "modifiable." In this sense Purusha , must of course, be held distinct in our conceptions from Parabrahmam .
Nevertheless that, which is called "energy" or "force" in Science and has been explained as a dual Force by Metcalfe, is never, in fact, and cannot be energy alone; for it is the substance of the world, its soul, the all - permeant "Sarvaga," in conjunction with Kala "time." The three are the trinity in one, during Manvantara, the all-potential Unity, which acts on the plane of illusion (Maya) as three distinct things.
In Orphic [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- [[Footnote continued from previous page]] study the occult sciences.
Living in the thirteenth century, almost a contemporary, therefore, of Albertus Magnus and Thomas Aquinas, his discoveries -- such as gunpowder and optical glasses, and his mechanical achievements -- were considered by everyone as so many miracles.
He was accused of having made a compact with the Evil One." * Just so; "those forms of energy .
.
.
which become evident .
.
." in the laboratory of the chemist and physicist; but there are other forms of energy wedded to other forms of matter, -- which are supersensuous , yet known to the adepts.
[[Vol.
1, Page]] 583 ALL-POTENTIAL UNITY.
philosophy in Greece they were called Phanes , Chaos , and Chronos -- the triad of the Occult philosophers of that period.
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 systematically maps scientific concepts onto occult ones—protyle to Mulaprakriti, energy to Purusha, the Orphic triad to the occult trinity—making each level a legible map of the others.
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 the origin of chemical elements from protyle, the 'Genesis of the Elements,' and how atoms 'start into existence' from a prior state of latent potentiality.
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 One Atom is viewed during Manvantara as the Jagad-Yoni (material causative womb), with Pradhana and Purusha as eternally one principles that differentiate on successive planes of consciousness—a cascade from the undifferentiable Integral through planes to material manifestation.
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).
Roger Bacon is placed in a historical chain of transmission: his knowledge 'did not come...by inspiration, but because he studied ancient works' and he 'belonged by right...to that Brotherhood'—a cross-generational chain of secret wisdom.
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 describes the all-potential Unity acting on the plane of illusion as three distinct things, and the One Atom unfolding into multiple atoms during Manvantara—a structured descent from unconditioned unity to material multiplicity.
The absolutely simple, undivided first principle from which all multiplicity and existence flows.
The passage's central metaphysical claim is the 'One Atom,' the 'undifferentiable Integral,' and the 'all-potential Unity' from which all multiplicity flows—the absolutely simple first principle.
Organized, persisting groups — fraternities, orders, lodges — that maintain esoteric knowledge or practices as an institution distinct from public religion or mainstream society, holding 'the keys' collectively rather than through any one master-disciple pair. Distinct from esoteric_lineage (a genealogical chain of individual transmission, not an institution) and hidden_sayings (the concealment of a teaching's meaning, independent of whether any organized body holds it).
The passage describes 'that Brotherhood which includes all those who study the occult sciences' and 'magic and alchemy, having a key to the real meaning of words'—an organized persisting group maintaining esoteric knowledge.
The doctrine that the one Godhead or first principle subsists as three co-equal aspects or persons rather than a bare unity — the Christian Father/Son/Holy Ghost invoked in the recurring liturgical formula 'In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost,' but structurally the same pattern as the Egyptian Amen/Ptah/Osiris, the Hindu Brahma/Vishnu/Siva, and the Kabbalistic Chochmah/Binah/Kether triads that esoteric writers explicitly map onto it as instances of one universal law. Distinct from unity_of_being (the general claim that all existence is one substance, agnostic about internal plurality) and divine_simplicity (God as having no parts or divisions at all) in asserting a definite three-aspected differentiation within a single divine essence.
The passage explicitly identifies a trinity: energy (Purusha), substance, and time (Kala) as 'the trinity in one, during Manvantara, the all-potential Unity, which acts on the plane of illusion as three distinct things,' paralleled by the Orphic Phanes-Chaos-Chronos triad.
The doctrine that all existence is ultimately one substance or one divine reality; non-duality as a theological claim.
The passage asserts that Pradhana and Purusha are 'eternally one,' that matter and energy are 'convertible terms,' and that the all-potential Unity is the singular substance behind apparent multiplicity.