The All
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People outside
Helena Petrovna Blavatsky
1831 – 1891
____________________
The Formation of
a
Solar System
From
A Textbook of Theosophy
By
C
The
beginning of the universe (if ever it had a beginning) is beyond our ken. At
the earliest point of history that we can reach, the two great opposites of
Spirit and matter, of life and form, are already in full activity. We find that
the ordinary conception of matter needs a revision, for what are commonly
called force and matter are in reality only two varieties of Spirit at
different stages in evolution, and the real matter or basis of everything lies
in the background unperceived. A French scientist has recently said: “There is
no matter; there is nothing but holes in the aether”.
This also
agrees with the celebrated theory of Professor Osborne Reynolds. Occult investigation shows this to be the
correct view, and in that way explains what Oriental sacred books mean when
they say that matter is an illusion.
The
ultimate root-matter as seen at our level is what scientists call the aether of space. ( This has been
described in Occult Chemistry under the name of koilon)
To every physical sense the space occupied by it appears empty, yet in reality
this aether is far denser than anything of which we
can conceive. Its density is defined by Professor Reynolds as being ten
thousand times greater than that of water, and it means pressure as seven
hundred and fifty thousand tons to the square inch.
This
substance is perceptible only to highly developed clairvoyant power. We must
assume a time (though we have no direct knowledge on this point) when this
substance filled all space. We must also suppose that some great Being (not the
Deity of a solar system, but some Being almost infinitely higher than that)
changed this condition of rest by pouring out His
spirit or force into a certain section of this matter, a section of the size of
a whole universe. The effect of the introduction of this force is at that of
the blowing of a mighty breath; it
has formed within this aether
an incalculable number of tiny spherical bubbles
(The
bubbles are spoken of in The Secret Doctrine as the holes which Fohat digs in space), and these bubbles are the ultimate
atoms of which what we call matter is composed. They are not the atoms of the
chemist, nor even the ultimate atoms of the physical world. They stand at a far
higher level, and what are usually called atoms are
composed of vast aggregations of these bubbles, as will be seen later.
When the
Solar Deity begins to make His system, He finds ready to His hand this material
– this infinite mass of tiny bubbles which can be built up into various kinds
of matter as we know it. He commences by defining the limit of His field of
activity, a vast sphere whose circumference is far larger than the orbit of the
outermost of His future planets. Within the limit of that sphere He sets up a
kind of gigantic vortex – a motion which sweeps together all the bubbles into a
vast central mass, the material of the nebula that is to be.
Into this vast
revolving sphere He sends forth successive impulses of force, gathering
together the bubbles into ever more and more complex aggregations, and
producing in this way seven gigantic interpenetrating worlds of matter of
different degrees of density, all concentric and all occupying the same space.
Acting
through His Third Aspect, He sends forth into this stupendous sphere the first
of these impulses. It sets up all through the sphere a vast number of tiny
vortices, each of which draws into itself forty-nine bubbles and arranges them
in a certain shape. These little groupings of bubbles so formed are the atoms
of the second of the interpenetrating worlds. The whole number of the bubbles
is not used in this way, sufficient being left in the dissociated state to act
as atoms for the first and highest of these worlds. In due time comes the
second impulse, which seizes upon nearly all these forty nine bubble atoms
(leaving only enough to provide atoms for the second world), draws them back
into itself and then, throwing them out again, sets up among them vortices,
each of which holds within itself 2,401 bubbles (49 2). These form the atoms of
the third world. Again after a time comes a third impulse, which in the same
way seizes upon nearly all these 2,401 bubble atoms, draws them back again into
their original form, and again throws them outward once more as the atoms of
the fourth world – each atom containing this time 49 3 bubbles. This process is
repeated until the sixth of these successive impulses has built the atom of the
seventh or lowest world – that atom containing 49 6 of the original bubbles.
This atom
of the seventh world is the ultimate atom of the physical world – not any of
the atoms of which chemists speak, but that ultimate out of which all their
atoms are made.
We have at
this stage arrived at that condition of affairs in which the vast whirling
sphere contains within itself seven types of matter, all one in essence,
because all built of the same kind of bubbles, but differing in their degree of
density. All these types are freely intermingled, so that specimens of each
type would be found in a small portion of the sphere taken at random in any
part of it, with, however, a general tendency of the heavier atoms to gravitate
more and more towards the center.
The
seventh impulse sent out from the Third Aspect of the Deity does not, as
before, draw back the physical atoms which were last made into the original
dissociated bubbles, but draws them together into certain aggregations, thus
making a number of different kinds of what may be called proto-elements, and
these again are joined together into the various forms which are known to
science as chemical elements. The making of these extends over a period of
ages, and they are made in a certain definite order by the interaction of
several forces, as is correctly indicated in Sir William Crookes’
paper on The Genesis of the Elements. Indeed the process of their making it is
not even nowconcluded; uranium is the latest and
heaviest element so far as we know, but others still more complicated may
perhaps be produced in the future.
As ages
roll on the condensation increased, and presently the stage of a vast glowing
nebula was reached. As it cooled, still rapidly rotating, it flattened into a
huge disc and gradually broke up into rings surrounding a central body – an
arrangement not unlike that which Saturn exhibits at the present day, though on
a far larger scale.
As the
time drew near when the planets would be required for the purposes of
evolution, the Deity set up somewhere in the thickness of each ring a
subsidiary vortex, into which a great deal of the matter of the ring was by
degrees collected. The collisions of the gathered fragments caused a revival of
the heat, and the resulting planet was for a long time a mass of glowing gas.
Little by little it cooled once more, until it became fit to be the theatre of
life such as ours. Thus were all the planets formed.
Almost all
the matter of those interpenetrating worlds was by this time concentrated into
the newly formed planets. Each of them was and is composed of all those
different kinds of matter. The earth upon which we are now living is not merely
a great ball of physical matter, built of the atoms of that lowest world, but
has also attached to it an abundant supply of matter of the sixth, the fifth,
the fourth and other worlds. It is well known to all students of science that
particles of matter never actually touch one another, even in the hardest of
substances. The spaces between them are always far greater in proportion than
their own size – enormously greater. So there is ample room
for all
the other kinds of atoms of all those other worlds, not only to lie between the
atoms of the denser matter, but to move quite freely among them and around them.
Consequently this globe upon which we live is not one world, but seven
interpenetrating worlds, all occupying the same space, except that the finer
types of matter extend further from the center than does the denser matter.
We have
given names to these interpenetrating worlds for convenience in speaking of
them. No name is needed for the first, as man is not yet in direct connection
with it; but when it is necessary to mention it, it may be called the divine
world. The second is described as the monadic, because in it exist those Sparks
of the divine Life which we call the human Monads; but neither of these can be
touched by the highest clairvoyant investigations at present possible for us.
The third
sphere, whose atoms contain 2,401 bubbles, is called the spiritual world,
because in it functions the highest Spirit in man as now constituted. The
fourth is the intuitional world (Previously called in theosophical literature
the buddhic plane) because from it come
the highest intuitions. The fifth is the mental world, because of its matter is
built the mind of man. The sixth is called the emotional or astral world,
because the emotions of man cause undulations in its matter. (The name astral
was given to it by mediaeval alchemists, because its matter is starry or
shining as compared to that of the denser world). The seventh world, composed
of the type of matter which we see all around us, is called the physical.
The matter
of which all these interpenetrating worlds are built is essentially the same
matter, but differently arranged and of different degrees of density.
Therefore
the rates at which these various types of matter normally vibrate differ also.
They may be considered as a vast gamut of undulations consisting of many
octaves.
The
physical matter uses a certain number of the lowest of these octaves, the
astral matter another group of octaves just above that, the mental matter a
still further group, and so on.
Not only
has each of these worlds its own type of matter; it has also its own set of aggregations
of that matter – its own substances. In each world we arrange these substances
in seven classes according to the rate at which their molecules vibrate.
Usually, but not invariably, the slower oscillation involves also a larger
molecule – a molecule, that is built up by a special arrangement of the smaller
molecules of the next higher subdivision. The application of heat increases the
size of the molecules and also quickens and amplifies their undulation, so that
they cover more ground, and the object as a whole expands, until the point is
reached where the aggregation of molecules breaks up, and the latter passes
from one condition to that next above it.
In the
matter of the physical world the seven subdivisions are represented by seven degrees
of density of matter, to which, beginning from below upwards, we give the names
solid liquid, gaseous, etheric, super-etheric, subatomic and atomic.
The atomic
subdivision is one in which all forms are built by the compression into certain
shapes of the physical atoms, without any previous collection of these atoms
into blocks or molecules. Typifying the physical ultimate atom for the moment
by a brick, any form in the atomic subdivision would be made by gathering
together some of the bricks, and building them into a certain shape.
In order
to make matter for the next lower subdivision, a certain number of the bricks
(atoms) would be first gathered together and cemented into small blocks of say
four bricks each, five bricks each, six bricks or seven bricks; and then these
blocks so made would be used as building-stones. For the next subdivision
several of the blocks of the second subdivision cemented together in certain
shapes would form building-stones, and so on to the lowest.
To
transfer any substance from the solid condition to the liquid (that is to say,
to melt it) is to increase the vibration of its compound molecules until at
last they are shaken apart into the simpler molecules of which they were built.
This
process can in all cases be repeated again and again until finally any and
every physical substance can be reduced to the ultimate atoms of the physical
world.
Each of
these worlds has its inhabitants, whose senses are normally capable of
responding to the undulations of their own world only. A man living (as we are
all doing) in the physical world sees, hears, feels, by vibrations connected
with the physical matter around him. He is equally surrounded by the astral and
mental and other worlds which are interpenetrating his own denser world, but of
them he is normally unconscious, because his
senses cannot respond to the oscillations of their matter, just as our physical
eyes cannot see by the vibrations of ultraviolet light, although scientific
experiments show that they exist and there are other consciousnesses with
differently-formed organs who can see by them. A being living in the astral
world might be occupying the very same space as a being living in the physical
world, yet each would be entirely unconscious of the other and would in no way
impede the free movement of the other. The same is true of all the other
worlds. We are at this moment surrounded by these worlds of finer matter, as
close to us as the world we see, and their inhabitants are passing through us
and about us, but we are entirely unconscious of them.
Since our
evolution is centered at present upon this globe which we call the earth, it is
in connection with it only that we shall be speaking of these higher worlds, so
in future when I use the term “astral world” I shall mean by it the astral part
of our own globe only, and not (as heretofore) the astral part of the whole
solar system.
This
astral part of our own world is also a
globe, but of astral matter. It occupies the same
place as the globe which we see, but its matter (being so much lighter) extends
out into space on all sides of us further than does the atmosphere of the earth
– a great deal further. It stretches to a little less than the mean distance of
the moon, so that though the two physical globes, the earth and the moon, are
nearly 240,000 miles apart, the astral globes of these two bodies touch one
another when the moon is in perigee, but not when she is in apogee. I shall
apply the term “mental world” to the still larger globe of mental matter in the
midst of which our physical earth exists. When we come to the still higher
globes we have spheres large enough to touch the corresponding spheres of other
planets in the system, though their matter also is just as much about us here
on the surface of the solid earth as that of the others.
All these
globes of finer matter are a part of us, and are all revolving round the sun
with their visible part. The student will do well to accustom himself to think
of our earth as the whole of this mass of interpenetrating worlds – not only
the comparatively small physical ball in the center of it.
______________________
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