Q. But what is an atom, in fact?

A. An atom may be compared to (and is for the Occultist) the seventh principle of a body or rather of a molecule. The physical or chemical molecule is composed of an infinity of finer molecules and these in their turn of innumerable and still finer molecules. Take for instance a molecule of iron and so resolve it that it becomes non-molecular; it is then, at once transformed into one of its seven principles, viz., its astral body; the seventh of these is the atom. The analogy between a molecule of iron, before it is broken up, and this same molecule after resolution, is the same as that between a physical body before and after death. The principles remain minus the body. Of course this is occult alchemy, not modern chemistry.

Q. What is the meaning of the allegorical "churning of the ocean", and "cow of plenty" of the Hindus, and what correspondence is there between them and the "war in heaven"?

The relation and corres

A. A process which begins in the state of "non-being," and ends with the close of Maha-Pralaya, can hardly be given in a few words or even volumes. It is simply an allegorical representation of the unseen and unknown primeval intelligences, the atoms of occult science, Brahmâ himself being called Anu or the Atom, fashioning and differentiating the shoreless ocean of the primordial radiant essence. pondence between the " churning of the ocean and the "war in heaven” is a very long and abtruse subject to handle. To give it in its lowest symbolical aspect, this "war in heaven" is going on eternally. Differentiation is contrast, the equilibrium of contraries: and so long as this exists there will be "war" or fighting. There are, of course, different stages and aspects of this war: such for instance as the astronomical and physical. For everyone and everything that is born in a Manvantara, there is "war in heaven" and also on the earth: for the fourteen Root and Seed-Manus who preside over our Manvantaric cycle, and for the countless Forces, human or otherwise, that proceed from them. There is a perpetual struggle of adjustment, for everything tends to harmonise and equilibrate; in fact it` must do so before it can assume any shape. The elements of which we are formed, the particles of our bodies, are in a continual war, one crowding out the other and changing with every moment. At the "Churning of the Ocean" by the gods, the Nagas came and some stole of the Amrita-the water of Immortality, and thence arose war between the gods and the Asuras, the no-gods, and the gods were worsted. This refers to the formation of the Universe and the differentiation of the primordial primeval matter. But you must remember, that this is only the cosmogonical aspect, one out of the seven meanings. The war in heaven had also

immediate reference to the evolution of the intellectual principle in man kind. This is the metaphysical key.

Q. Why are numbers so much used in the Stanzas; and what is really the secret of their being so freely used in the World-Scriptures-in the Bible and in the Purânas, by Pythagoras and by the Aryan Sages?

A. Balzac, the unconscious occultist of French literature, says some, where, "the Number is to Mind the same as it is to matter, an incomprehensible agent. But I would answer-perhaps so to the profane, never to the initiated mind. Number is, as the great writer thought, an Entity, and at the same time, a Breath emanating from what he called God and what we call the ALL; the breath which alone could organise the physical Kosmos, where nought obtains its form but through the Deity, which is an effort of Number.' "God geometrizes" says Plato.

Q. In what sense can numbers be called Entities?

A. When intelligent Entities are meant ; when they are regarded simply as digits they are, of course, not Entities but symbolical signs.

Q. Why is the radiant essence said to become seven inside and seven outside ?

A. Because it has seven principles on the plane of the manifested and seven on that of the unmanifested. Always argue on analogy and apply the old occult axiom "As above so below".

Q. But are the planes of "non-being" also Septenary?

A. Most undeniably. That which in the Secret Doctrine is referred to as the unmanifested planes, are unmanifested or planes of non-being only from the point of view of the finite intellect; to higher intelligences they would be manifested planes and so on to infinity, analogy always holding good.

*Vol. i., p. 66.

VIII.

Meeting held at 17, Lansdowne Road, London, W., on February 28th, 1889; Mr. W. KINGSLAND in the chair.

STANZA III. (continued).

THE ROOT REMAINS, THE LIGHT REMAINS, THE CURDS REMAIN, AND STILL OEAOHOO IS ONE.

Q. What is meant by saying that these remain?

A. It means simply that whatever the plurality of manifestation may be, still it is all one. In other words these are all different aspects of the one element; it does not mean that they remain without differentiation.

6

"The curds are the first differentiation and probably refer to that cosmic matter which is supposed to be the origin of the Milky Way '—the matter we know. This matter', which, according to the revelation received from the primeval Dhyani-Buddhas, is, during the periodical sleep of the universe, of the ultimate tenuity conceivable to the eye of the perfect Bodhisatva-this matter, radiant and cool, becomes at the first reawakening of cosmic motion, scattered through space, appearing when seen from the earth, in clusters and lumps, like curds in thin milk. These are the seeds of future worlds, the star-stuff'."*

Q. Is it to be supposed that the Milky Way is composed of matter in a state of differentiation other than that with which we are acquainted?

A. I thoroughly believe so. It is the store-house of the materials from which the stars, planets and other celestial bodies are produced. Matter in this state does not exist on earth; but that which is already differentiated and found on earth is also found on other planets and vice-versâ. But, as I understand, before reaching the planets from its condition in the Milky Way matter has first to pass through many stages of differentiation. The matter, for instance, within the Solar system is in an entirely different state from that which is outside or beyond the system.

Q. Is there a difference between the Nebulae and the Milky Way?

A. The same, I should say, that there is between a highway road and the stones and mud upon that road. There must be, of course, a differ

* Vol. i., p. 69.

ence between the matter of the Milky Way and that of the various Nebulæ,
and these again must differ among themselves. But in all your scientific
calculations and measurements it is necessary to consider that the light
by which the objects are seen is a reflected light, and the optical illusion
caused by the atmosphere of the earth renders it impossible that calcula-
tions of distances, &c., should be absolutely correct, in addition to the fact
that it entirely alters observations of the matter of which the celestial
bodies are composed, as it is liable to impose upon us a constitution similar
to that of the earth. This is, at any rate, what the MASTERS teach us.

Sloka (6). THE ROOT OF LIFE WAS IN EVERY DROP OF THE
OCEAN OF IMMORTALITY (Amrita) AND THE OCEAN
WAS RADIANT LIGHT, WHICH WAS FIRE AND HEAT
AND MOTION. DARKNESS VANISHED AND WAS NO
MORE. IT DISAPPEARED IN ITS OWN ESSENCE, THE
BODY OF FIRE AND WATER, OF FATHER AND
MOTHER.

Q. What are the various meanings of the term "fire" on the different planes of
Kosmos?

A. Fire is the most mystic of all the five elements, as also the most divine. Therefore to give an explanation of its various meanings on our plane alone, leaving all the other planes entirely out of the question, would be much too arduous, in addition to its being entirely incomprehensible for the vast majority. Fire is the father of light, light the parent of heat and air (vital air). If the absolute deity can be referred to as Darkness or the Motion Dark Fire, the light, its first progeny, is truly the first self-conscious god.

For what is light in its primordial root but the world-illuminating and lifegiving deity? Light is that, which from an abstraction has become a reality. No one has ever seen real or primordial light; what we see is only its broken rays or reflections, which become denser and less luminous as they descend into form and matter. Fire, therefore, is a term which comprehends ALL. Fire is the invisible deity, "the Father", and the Buddhi manifesting light is God "the Son", and also the Sun. Fire in the occult 30 sense-is æther, and æther is born of motion, and motion is the eternal dark, invisible Fire. Light sets in motion and controls all in nature, from that highest primordial æther down to the tiniest molecule in Space. MOTION is eternal per se, and in the manifested Kosmos it is the Alpha and Omega of that which is called electricity, galvanism, magnetism, sensation -moral and physical-thought, and even life, on this plane. Thus fire, on our plane, is simply the manifestation of motion, or Life.

47

47

All cosmic phenomena were referred to by the Rosicrucians as "animated geometry". Every polar function is only a repetition of primeval polarity, said the Fire-Philosophers. For motion begets heat, and æther in motion is heat. When it slackens its motion, then cold is generated, for "cold is æther, in a latent condition". Thus the principal states of nature are three positive and three negative, synthesized by the primeval light. The three negative states are [1] Darkness; [2] Cold; [3] Vacuum or Voidness. The three positive are [1] Light (on our plane) [2] Heat; [3] All nature. Thus Fire may be called the unity of the Universe. Pure cosmic fire (without, so to speak, fuel) is Deity in its universality; for cosmic fire, or heat which it calls forth, is every atom of matter in manifested nature. There is not a thing or a particle in the Universe which does not contain in it latent fire.

Q. Fire, then, may be regarded as the first Element?

A. When we say that fire is the first of the Elements, it is the first only in the visible universe, the fire that we commonly know. Even on the highest plane of our universe, the plane of Globe A or G, fire is in one respect only the fourth. For the Occultist, the Rosecroix of the Middle Ages, and even the medieval Kabalists, said that to our human perception and even to that of the highest "angels", the universal Deity is darkness, and from this Darkness issues the Logos in the following aspects, 25 [1] Weight [Chaos which becomes æther in its primordial state]; [2] Light; [3] Heat; [4] Fire.

Q. In what relation does the Sun, the highest form of Fire we can recognise, stand to Fire as you have explained it?

A. The Sun, as on our plane, is not even "Solar" fire. The Sun, we see, gives nothing of itself, because it is a reflection; a bundle of electromagnetic forces, one of the countless milliards of "Knots of Fohat". Fohat is called the "Thread of primeval Light", the "Ball of thread" of Ariadne, indeed, in this labyrinth of chaotic matter. This thread runs through the seven planes tying itself into knots. Every plane being septenary, there are thus forty-nine mystical and physical forces, larger knots forming stars, suns and systems, the smaller planets, and so on. Q. In what respect is the Sun an illusion?

A. The electro-magnetic knot of our Sun is neither tangible nor dimensional, nor even as molecular as the electricity we know. The Sun absorbs, psychisizes" and vampirizes its subjects within its system. Further than this it gives out nothing of itself. It is an absurdity, therefore, to say that the solar fires are being consumed and gradually extinguished. The Sun has but one distinct function; it gives the impulse of