Gods, Monads and Atoms

Philosophers in the present as in the past—men who certainly have not worked in the laboratory—have reached the same view from another side.

Thus Mr. Herbert Spencer records his conviction that “the chemical atoms are produced from the true or physical atoms by processes of evolution under conditions which chemistry has not yet been able to produce.”… And the poet has forestalled the philosopher.

Milton (Paradise Lost, Book V.) makes the Archangel Raphael say to Adam instinct with the evolutionary idea, that the Almighty had created

… “One first matter, all Indued with various forms, various degrees Of substance.”

Nevertheless, the idea would have remained crystallized “in the air of Science,” and would not have descended into the thick atmosphere of Materialism and profane mortals for years to come, perhaps, had not Mr. Crookes bravely and fearlessly reduced it to its simple constituents, [pg 683]and thus publicly forced it on scientific notice. Says Plutarch:

An idea is a Being incorporeal, which has no subsistence by itself, but gives figure and form unto shapeless matter, and becomes the cause of the manifestation.1074

The revolution produced in old Chemistry by Avogadro was the first page in the volume of “New Chemistry.”

Protyle once accepted and recognized—as invisible Ether was, both being logical and scientific necessities—Chemistry will have virtually ceased to live: it will reäppear in its reïncarnation as—“New Alchemy,” or “Meta-chemistry.”

The discoverer of radiant matter will have vindicated in time the Archaic Âryan works on Occultism, and even the Vedas and Purânas.

For what are the manifested “Mother,” the “Father-Son-Husband” (Aditi and Daksha, a form of Brahmâ, as Creators), and the “Son”—the three “First-born”—but simply Hydrogen, Oxygen, and that which in its terrestrial manifestation is called Nitrogen.

Even the exoteric descriptions of the “First-born” Triad give all the characteristics of these three “gases.” Priestley, the “discoverer” of Oxygen, or of that which was known in the highest antiquity!

Yet all the ancient, mediæval, and modern Poets and Philosophers have been anticipated even in the exoteric Hindû books as to the Elemental Vortices inaugurated by the Universal Mind—Descartes’ “Plenum” of Matter differentiated into particles;

Leibnitz’s “ethereal fluid”

Kant’s “primitive fluid” dissolved into its elements

Kepler’s solar vortex and systemic vortices

In short, through Anaxagoras, down to Galileo, Torricelli, and Swedenborg, and after them to the latest speculations by European Mystics—all this is found in the Hindû Hymns, or Mantras, to the “Gods, Monads and Atoms,” in their Fulness, for they are inseparable.

In Esoteric Teachings, the most transcendental conceptions of the Universe and its mysteries, as also the most seemingly materialistic speculations, are found reconciled, because these Sciences embrace the whole scope of evolution from Spirit to Matter. As declared by an American Theosophist:

The Monads [of Leibnitz] may from one point of view be called force, from another matter. To Occult Science, force and matter are only two sides of the same substance.1075

Let the reader remember these “Monads” of Leibnitz, every one of [pg 684]which is a living mirror of the Universe, every Monad reflecting every other, and compare this view and definition with certain Sanskrit Shlokas translated by Sir William Jones, in which it is said that the creative source of the Divine Mind,

Hidden in a veil of thick darkness, formed mirrors of the atoms of the world, and cast reflection from its own face on every atom.

When, therefore, Mr. Crookes declares that:

If we can show how the so-called chemical elements might have been generated we shall be able to fill up a formidable gap in our knowledge of the universe,

the answer is ready. The theoretical knowledge is contained in the Esoteric meaning of every Hindû cosmogony in the Purânas; the practical demonstration thereof—is in the hands of those who will not be recognized in this century, save by the very few.

The scientific possibilities of various discoveries, that must inexorably lead exact Science into the acceptation of Eastern Occult views, which contain all the requisite material for the filling of those “gaps,” are, so far, at the mercy of Modern Materialism.

It is only by working in the direction taken by Mr. William Crookes that there is any hope for the recognition of a few, hitherto Occult, truths.

Meanwhile, any one thirsting to have a glimpse at a practical diagram of the evolution of primordial Matter—which, separating and differentiating under the impulse of cyclic law, divides itself on a general view into a septenary gradation of Substance—can do no better than examine the plates attached to Mr. Crookes’ lecture, Genesis of the Elements, and ponder well over some passages of the text. In one place he says:

Our notions of a chemical element have expanded. Hitherto the molecule has been regarded as an aggregate of two or more atoms, and no account has been taken of the architectural design on which these atoms have been joined. We may consider that the structure of a chemical element is more complicated than has hitherto been supposed.

Between the molecules we are accustomed to deal with in chemical reactions and ultimate atoms as first created, come smaller molecules or aggregates of physical atoms; these sub-molecules differ one from the other, according to the position they occupy in the yttrium edifice.

Perhaps this hypothesis can be simplified if we imagine yttrium to be represented by a five-shilling piece. By chemical fractionation I have divided it into five separate shillings, and find that these shillings are not counterparts, but like the carbon atoms in the benzol ring, have the impress of their position, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, stamped on them….

If I throw my shillings into the melting-pot or dissolve them chemically, the mint stamp disappears and they all turn out to be silver.1076

This will be the case with all the Atoms and molecules when they [pg 685]have separated from their compound forms and bodies—when Pralaya sets in. Reverse the case, and imagine the dawn of a new Manvantara.

The pure “silver” of the absorbed material will once more separate into Substance, which will generate “Divine Essences” whose “Principles”1077 are the Primary Elements, the Sub-elements, the Physical Energies, and subjective and objective Matter; or, as these are epitomized—Gods, Monads, and Atoms.

If leaving for one moment the metaphysical or transcendental side of the question—dropping out of the present consideration the supersensuous and intelligent Beings and Entities believed in by the Kabalists and Christians—we turn to the theory of atomic evolution, the Occult Teachings are still found corroborated by exact Science and its confessions, so far, at least, as regards the supposed “simple” Elements, now suddenly degraded into poor and distant relatives, not even second cousins to the latter. For we are told by Mr. Crookes that:

Hitherto, it has been considered that if the atomic weight of a metal, determined by different observers, setting out from different compounds, was always found to be constant … then such metal must rightly take rank among the simple or elementary bodies.

We learn … that this is no longer the case. Again, we have here wheels within wheels. Gadolinium is not an element but a compound. … We have shown that yttrium is a complex of five or more new constituents.

And who shall venture to gainsay that each of these constituents, if attacked in some different manner, and if the result were submitted to a test more delicate and searching than the radiant-matter test, might not be still further divisible?

Where, then, is the actual ultimate element? As we advance it recedes like the tantalizing mirage lakes and groves seen by the tired and thirsty traveller in the desert. Are we in our quest for truth to be thus deluded and baulked? The very idea of an element, as something absolutely primary and ultimate, seems to be growing less and less distinct.1078

I wrote in Isis Unveiled:

This mystery of first creation, which was ever the despair of Science, is unfathomable unless we accept the doctrine of Hermes. Could he [Darwin] remove his quest from the visible universe into the invisible, he might find himself on the right path. But then, he would be following in the footsteps of the Hermetists.1079

But between Hermes and Huxley there is a middle course and point. Let the men of Science only throw a bridge half-way, and think seriously over the theories of Leibnitz.

We have shown our theories with regard to the evolution of Atoms—their last formation into compound chemical molecules being produced within our terrestrial workshops in the Earth’s atmosphere and not elsewhere—as strangely agreeing with the evolution of Atoms shown on Mr. Crookes’ plates.

Several times already it has been stated in this volume that Mârttânda, the Sun, had evolved and aggregated, together with his seven smaller Brothers, from his Mother Aditi’s bosom, that bosom being Prima Mater-ia—the lecturer’s primordial Protyle. Esoteric Doctrines teach the existence of

An antecedent form of energy having periodic cycles of ebb and swell, rest and activity.1080

And behold a great scholar in Science now asking the world to accept this as one of his postulates! We have shown the “Mother,” fiery and hot, becoming gradually cool and radiant, and this same Scientist claims as his second postulate—a scientific necessity, it would seem.

An internal action, akin to cooling, operating slowly in the protyle.

Occult Science teaches that the “Mother” lies stretched in Infinity, during Pralaya, as the great Deep, the “dry Waters of Space,” according to the quaint expression in the Catechism, and becomes wet only after the separation and the moving over its face of Nârâyana, the

Spirit which is invisible Flame, which never burns, but sets on fire all that it touches, and gives it life and generation.1081

Science tells us that “the first-born element … most nearly allied to protyle” would be “hydrogen … which for some time would be the only existing form of matter” in the Universe. What says Old Science?

It answers: Just so; but we would call Hydrogen (and Oxygen), which—in the pre-geological and even pre-genetic ages—instils the fire of life into the “Mother” by incubation, the spirit, the noumenon, of that which becomes in its grossest form Oxygen and Hydrogen and Nitrogen on Earth—Nitrogen being of no divine origin, but merely an earth-born cement for uniting other gases and fluids, and serving as a sponge to carry in itself the Breath of Life, pure air.1082

Before these gases and fluids become what they are in our atmosphere, they are interstellar Ether; still earlier and on a deeper plane—something else, and so on in infinitum.

The eminent and learned gentleman must pardon an Occultist for quoting him at such length; but such is the penalty of a Fellow of the Royal Society who approaches so near the precincts of the Sacred Adytum of Occult Mysteries as virtually to overstep the forbidden boundaries.

But it is time to leave Modern Physical Science and turn to the psychological and metaphysical side of the question.

We would only remark that to the “two very reasonable postulates” required by the eminent lecturer, “to get a glimpse of some few of the secrets so darkly hidden” behind “the door of the Unknown,” a third should be added1083—lest no battering at it should avail; the postulate that Leibnitz stood on a firm groundwork of fact and truth in his speculations.

The admirable and thoughtful synopsis of these speculations—as given by John Theodore Mertz in his “Leibnitz”—shows how nearly he has brushed the hidden secrets of Esoteric Theogony in his Monadologie. And yet this philosopher has hardly risen in his speculations above the first planes, the lower principles of the Cosmic Great Body.

His theory soars to no loftier heights than those of the manifested life, self-consciousness and intelligence, leaving the regions of the earlier post-genetic mysteries untouched, as his ethereal fluid is post-planetary.

But this third postulate will hardly be accepted by the modern men of Science; and, like Descartes, they will prefer keeping to the properties of external things, which, like extension, are incapable of explaining the phenomenon of motion, rather than accept the latter as an independent Force. They will never become anti-Cartesian in this generation; nor will they admit that:

This property of inertia is not a purely geometrical property; that it points to the existence of something in external bodies which is not extension merely.

This is Leibnitz’s idea as analyzed by Mertz, who adds that he called this “something” Force, and maintained that external things were endowed with Force, and that in order to be the bearers of this Force they must have a Substance, for they are not lifeless and inert masses, but the centres and bearers of Form—a purely Esoteric claim, since Force was with Leibnitz an active principle—the division between Mind and Matter disappearing by this conclusion.

The mathematical and dynamical enquiries of Leibnitz would not have led to the same result in the mind of a purely scientific enquirer.

But Leibnitz was not a scientific man in the modern sense of the word. Had he been so, he might have worked out the conception of energy, defined mathematically the ideas of force and [pg 688]mechanical work, and arrived at the conclusion that even for purely scientific purposes it is desirable to look upon force, not as a primary quantity, but as a quantity derived from some other value.

But, luckily for truth:

Leibnitz was a philosopher; and as such he had certain primary principles, which biassed him in favour of certain conclusions, and his discovery that external things were substances endowed with force was at once used for the purpose of applying these principles.

One of these principles was the law of continuity, the conviction that all the world was connected, that there were no gaps and chasms which could not be bridged over. The contrast of extended thinking substances was unbearable to him.

The definition of the extended substances had already become untenable: it was natural that a similar enquiry was made into the definition of mind, the thinking substance.

The divisions made by Leibnitz, however incomplete and faulty from the standpoint of Occultism, show a spirit of metaphysical intuition to which no man of Science, not Descartes, not even Kant, has ever reached. With him there existed ever an infinite gradation of thought. Only a small portion of the contents of our thoughts, he said, rises into the clearness of apperception, “into the light of perfect consciousness.” Many remain in a confused or obscure state, in the state of “perceptions”; but they are there. Descartes denied soul to the animal. Leibnitz, as do the Occultists, endowed “the whole creation with mental life, this being, according to him, capable of infinite gradations.” And this, as Mertz justly observes:

At once widened the realm of mental life, destroying the contrast of animate and inanimate matter; it did yet more—it reäcted on the conception of matter, of the extended substance. For it became evident that external or material things presented the property of extension to our senses only, not to our thinking faculties. The mathematician, in order to calculate geometrical figures, had been obliged to divide them into an infinite number of infinitely small parts, and the physicist saw no limit to the divisibility of matter into atoms. The bulk through which external things seemed to fill space was a property which they acquired only through the coarseness of our senses…. Leibnitz followed these arguments to some extent, but he could not rest content in assuming that matter was composed of a finite number of very small parts. His mathematical mind forced him to carry out the argument in infinitum. And what became of the atoms then? They lost their extension and they retained only their property of resistance; they were the centres of force. They were reduced to mathematical points…. But if their extension in space was nothing, so much fuller was their inner life. Assuming that inner existence, such as that of the human mind, is a new dimension, not a geometrical but a metaphysical dimension, … having reduced the geometrical extension of the atoms to nothing, Leibnitz endowed them with an infinite extension in the [pg 689]direction of their metaphysical dimension. After having lost sight of them in the world of space, the mind has, as it were, to dive into a metaphysical world to find and grasp the real essence of what appears in space merely as a mathematical point…. As a cone stands on its point, or a perpendicular straight line cuts a horizontal plane only in one mathematical point, but may extend infinitely in height and depth, so the essences of things real have only a punctual existence in this physical world of space; but have an infinite depth of inner life in the metaphysical world of thought.1084

This is the spirit, the very root of Occult doctrine and thought. The “Spirit-Matter” and “Matter-Spirit” extend infinitely in depth, and like the “essence of things” of Leibnitz, our essence of things real is at the seventh depth; while the unreal and gross matter of Science and the external world, is at the lowest extreme of our perceptive senses. The Occultist knows the worth or worthlessness of the latter.

The student must now be shown the fundamental distinction between the system of Leibnitz1085 and that of Occult Philosophy, on the question of the Monads, and this may be done with his Monadologie before us. It may be correctly stated that were Leibnitz’ and Spinoza’s systems reconciled, the essence and spirit of Esoteric Philosophy would be made to appear. From the shock of the two—as opposed to the Cartesian system—emerge the truths of the Archaic Doctrine. Both oppose the Metaphysics of Descartes. His idea of the contrast of two Substances—Extension and Thought—radically differing from each other and mutually irreducible, is too arbitrary and too un-philosophical for them. Thus Leibnitz made of the two Cartesian Substances two attributes of one universal Unity, in which he saw God. Spinoza recognized but one universal indivisible Substance, an absolute All, like Parabrahman. Leibnitz, on the contrary, perceived the existence of a plurality of Substances. There was but One for Spinoza; for Leibnitz an infinitude of Beings, from, and in, the One. Hence, though both admitted but One Real Entity, while Spinoza made it impersonal and indivisible, Leibnitz divided his personal Deity into a number of divine and semi-divine Beings. Spinoza was a subjective, Leibnitz an objective Pantheist, yet both were great Philosophers in their intuitive perceptions.

Now, if these two teachings were blended together and each corrected [pg 690]by the other—and foremost of all the One Reality weeded of its personality—there would remain as sum total a true spirit of Esoteric Philosophy in them; the impersonal, attributeless, absolute Divine Essence, which is no “being” but the root of all Being. Draw a deep line in your thought between that ever-incognizable Essence, and the as invisible, yet comprehensible Presence, Mûlaprakriti or Shekinah, from beyond and through which vibrates the Sound of the Verbum, and from which evolve the numberless Hierarchies of intelligent Egos, of conscious as of semi-conscious, “apperceptive” and “perceptive” Beings, whose Essence is spiritual Force, whose Substance is the Elements, and whose Bodies (when needed) are the Atoms—and our Doctrine is there. For, says Leibnitz:

The primitive element of every material body being force, which has none of the characteristics of [objective] matter—it can be conceived but can never be the object of any imaginative representation.

That which was for him the primordial and ultimate element in everybody and object was thus not the material atoms, or molecules, necessarily more or less extended, as those of Epicurus and Gassendi, but, as Mertz shows, immaterial and metaphysical Atoms, “mathematical points,” or real souls—as explained by Henri Lachelier (Professeur Agrégé de Philosophie), his French biographer.

That which exists outside of us in an absolute manner, are Souls whose essence is force.1086

Thus, reality in the manifested world is composed of a unity of units, so to say, immaterial—from our standpoint—and infinite. These Leibnitz calls Monads, Eastern Philosophy Jîvas, while Occultism, with the Kabalists and all the Christians, gives them a variety of names. With us, as with Leibnitz, they are “the expression of the universe,”1087 and every physical point is but the phenomenal expression of the noumenal, metaphysical Point. His distinction between “perception” and “apperception” is the philosophical though dim expression of the Esoteric Teachings. His “reduced universes,” of which “there are as many as there are Monads”—is the chaotic representation of our Septenary System with its divisions and sub-divisions.

As to the relation his Monads bear to our Dhyân Chohans, Cosmic Spirits, Devas, and Elementals, we may reproduce briefly the opinion [pg 691]of a learned and thoughtful Theosophist, Mr. C. H. A. Bjerregaard, on the subject. In an excellent paper, “On the Elementals, the Elementary Spirits, and the Relationship between Them and Human Beings,” read by him before the Âryan Theosophical Society of New York, Mr. Bjerregaard thus distinctly formulates his opinion:

To Spinoza, substance is dead and inactive, but to Leibnitz’s penetrating powers of mind everything is living activity and active energy. In holding this view, he comes infinitely nearer the Orient than any other thinker of his day, or after him. His discovery that an active energy forms the essence of substance is a principle that places him in direct relationship to the Seers of the East.1088

And the lecturer proceeds to show that to Leibnitz Atoms and Elements are Centres of Force, or rather “spiritual beings whose very nature it is to act,” for the

Elementary particles are vital forces, not acting mechanically, but from an internal principle. They are incorporeal spiritual units [“substantial,” however, but not “immaterial” in our sense] inaccessible to all change from without … [and] indestructible by any external force. Leibnitz’ monads differ from atoms in the following particulars, which are very important for us to remember, otherwise we shall not be able to see the difference between Elementals and mere matter. Atoms are not distinguished from each other, they are qualitatively alike; but one monad differs from every other monad qualitatively; and every one is a peculiar world to itself. Not so with the atoms; they are absolutely alike quantitatively and qualitatively, and possess no individuality of their own.1089 Again, the atoms [molecules, rather] of materialistic philosophy can be considered as extended and divisible, while the monads are mere “metaphysical points” and indivisible.

Finally, and this is a point where these monads of Leibnitz closely resemble the Elementals of mystic philosophy, these monads are representative beings. Every monad reflects every other. Every monad is a living mirror of the Universe within its own sphere. And mark this, for upon it depends the power possessed by these monads, and upon it depends the work they can do for us; in mirroring the world, the monads are not mere passive reflective agents, but spontaneously self active; they produce the images spontaneously, as the soul does a dream. In every monad, therefore, the adept may read everything, even the future. Every monad—or Elemental—is a looking-glass that can speak.

It is at this point that Leibnitz’s philosophy breaks down. There is no provision made, nor any distinction established, between the “Elemental” Monad and that of a high Planetary Spirit, or even the Human Monad or Soul. He even goes so far as to sometimes doubt whether

God has ever made anything but monads or substances without extension.1090

He draws a distinction between Monads and Atoms,1091 because, as he repeatedly states:

Bodies with all their qualities are only phenomenal, like the rainbow. Corpora omnia cum omnibus qualitatibus suis non sunt aliud quam phenomena bene fundata, ut Iris.1092

But soon after he finds a provision for this in a substantial correspondence, a certain metaphysical bond between the Monads—vinculum substantiale. Esoteric Philosophy, teaching an objective Idealism—though it regards the objective Universe and all in it as Mâyâ, Temporary Illusion—draws a practical distinction between Collective Illusion, Mahâmâyâ, from the purely metaphysical standpoint, and the objective relations in it between various conscious Egos so long as this Illusion lasts. The Adept, therefore, may read the future in an Elemental Monad, but he has to draw together for this object a great number of them, as each Monad represents only a portion of the Kingdom it belongs to.

It is not in the object, but in the modification of the cognition of the object that the monads are limited. They all tend (confusedly) to the infinite, to the whole, but they are limited and distinguished by the degrees of distinctness in their perception.1093

And as Leibnitz explains:

All the portions of the universe are distinctly represented in the monads, but some are reflected in one monad, some in another.

A number of Monads could represent simultaneously the thoughts of the two million inhabitants of Paris.

But what say the Occult Sciences to this, and what do they add?

They say that what is called collectively Monads by Leibnitz—roughly viewed, and leaving every subdivision out of calculation, for [pg 693]the present—may be separated into three distinct Hosts,1094 which, counted from the highest planes, are, firstly, “Gods,” or conscious, spiritual Egos; the intelligent Architects, who work after the plan in the Divine Mind. Then come the Elementals, or “Monads,” who form collectively and unconsciously the grand Universal Mirrors of everything connected with their respective realms. Lastly, the “Atoms,” or material molecules, which are informed in their turn by their “perceptive” Monads, just as every cell in a human body is so informed. There are shoals of such informed Atoms which, in their turn, inform the molecules; an infinitude of Monads, or Elementals proper, and countless spiritual Forces—Monadless, for they are pure incorporealities,1095 except under certain laws, when they assume a form—not necessarily human. Whence the substance that clothes them—the apparent organism they evolve around their centres? The Formless (Arûpa) Radiations, existing in the harmony of Universal Will, and being what we term the collective or the aggregate of Cosmic Will on the plane of the subjective Universe, unite together an infinitude of Monads—each the mirror of its own Universe—and thus individualize for the time being an independent Mind, omniscient and universal; and by the same process of magnetic aggregation they create for themselves objective, visible bodies, out of the interstellar Atoms. For Atoms and Monads, associated or dissociated, simple or complex, are, from the moment of the first differentiation, but the “principles,” corporeal, psychic and spiritual, of the “Gods”—themselves the Radiations of Primordial Nature. Thus, to the eye of the Seer, the higher Planetary Powers appear under two aspects: the subjective—as influences, and the objective—as mystic forms, which, under Karmic law, become a Presence, Spirit and Matter being One, as repeatedly stated. Spirit is Matter on the seventh plane; Matter is Spirit at the lowest point of its cyclic activity; and both are—Mâyâ.

Atoms are called Vibrations in Occultism; also Sound—collectively. This does not interfere with Mr. Tyndall’s scientific discovery.

He traced, on the lower rung of the ladder of monadic being, the whole course of the atmospheric Vibrations—and this constitutes the objective part of the process in Nature. He has traced and recorded the rapidity of their motion and transmission; the force of their impact; their setting up vibrations in the tympanum and their transmission of these to the otoliths, etc., till the vibration of the auditory nerve commences—and a new phenomenon now takes place: the subjective side of the process or the sensation of sound.

Does he perceive or see it? No; for his specialty is to discover the behaviour of Matter. But why should not a Psychic see it, a spiritual Seer, whose inner Eye is opened, one who can see through the veil of Matter? The waves and undulations of Science are all produced by Atoms propelling their molecules into activity from within. Atoms fill the immensity of Space, and by their continuous vibration are that Motion which keeps the wheels of Life perpetually going. It is that inner work that produces the natural phenomenon called the correlation of Forces. Only, at the origin of every such “Force,” there stands the conscious guiding Noumenon thereof—Angel or God, Spirit or Demon, ruling powers, yet the same.

As described by Seers—those who can see the motion of the interstellar shoals, and follow them clairvoyantly in their evolution—they are dazzling, like specks of virgin snow in radiant sunlight. Their velocity is swifter than thought, quicker than any mortal physical eye can follow, and, as well as can be judged from the tremendous rapidity of their course, the motion is circular. Standing on an open plain, on a mountain summit especially, and gazing into the vast vault above and the spatial infinitudes around, the whole atmosphere seems ablaze with them, the air soaked through with these dazzling coruscations. At times, the intensity of their motion produces flashes like the Northern Lights in the Aurora Borealis. The sight is so marvellous, that, as the Seer gazes into this inner world, and feels the scintillating points shoot past him, he is filled with awe at the thought of other, still greater mysteries, that lie beyond, and within, this radiant ocean.

However imperfect and incomplete this explanation on “Gods, Monads and Atoms,” it is hoped that some students and Theosophists, at least, will feel that there may indeed be a close relation between Materialistic Science and Occultism, which is the complement and missing soul of the former.