This is
the fifth chapter of the book “The Secret Doctrine of the
Rosicrucians.”
THE
ONE AND THE MANY
In the Secret Doctrine of the
Rosicrucians, we find the following Fourth Aphorism:
“The One becomes
Many. The Unity becomes Diversity. The Identical becomes Variety. Yet the Many
remains One; the Diversity remains Unity; and the Variety remains Identical.”
In this Fourth Aphorism of Creation,
the Rosicrucian is directed to apply his attention to the concept of the World
Soul —the First Manifestation of the Eternal Parent— as a One Manifesting as
Many; a Unity manifesting as Diversity; an Identical manifesting as Variety:
yet, notwithstanding such manifestations, remaining ever One, Unity, and Identical.
This concept of the World Soul, so
manifesting itself in Manifoldness, Diversity, and Variety, yet ever remaining
One, Unity, and Identical, is represented by the Rosicrucians by the symbol of
a small circle within a larger circle, the smaller circles being filled with
tiny points or centres of manifestation.
Figure 8. Symbol of the Many in the
One
(This figure was invented by William
Atkinson because I have not seen it in any esoteric teaching including the
Rosicrucian.)
The outer circle is, of course, the
Infinite Unmanifest; the smaller circle, of course, being the World Soul; and
the small dots, or points, being the individualized centres of life, being, and
activity manifested by the World Soul.
That all beings are, in truth, but expressions
of the One Being —centres of consciousness, form, and activity within itself,— is
a fundamental tenet of all occult and esoteric teaching. That all Being is One;
all Life, One; all Form, One; all Consciousness, One, is known to all true
disciples of the occult and esoteric teachings of the past and present,
occidental and oriental, philosophical and theological. Hidden behind and under the orthodox, exoteric teachings, there
is always to be found this insistence upon Essential Oneness on the part of the
Inner Teachings of all schools.
That there is but One Life, and not
Many Lives, is a fundamental article of all occult and esoteric faith. The One
Life, moreover, is not to be thought of as dividing and splitting itself up
into bits, parts, and particles, in order to accomplish the process of
Creation, and the Manifestation of the World. Instead, it is to be thought of
as merely reflecting itself in
the many individual mirrors of expression, just as the sun reflects itself as
One in the millions of falling raindrops, or in a million tiny jars filled with
water. There are millions of reflections of the One, but only the one One
in reality. Or, using another figure of speech, the One may be thought of as an
Infinite Ocean of Being, in which there are millions of tiny bubbles, each
apparently apart and separate, but all of which are in reality, but centres of
activity and expression in the One Great Ocean.
Separateness is, to quote a writer,
"but the working fiction of Creation." All the apparently separated
Things are contained within the circle of the World Soul — and the latter is
contained within the circle of the Infinite Unmanifest.
Not only is this esoteric conception
of the Many in One, and the One in Many, a fundamental conception of the ancient
esoteric and occult teachings, but the same truth in another form is presented
by advanced modern science in its conception of the Universal Substance.
Science postulates the existence of
a Universal Substance, known under many names, from which all Things proceed.
It matters not whether this Universal Substance be called "Primordial
Substance," or "Infinite and Eternal Energy," or "The
Universal Ether," the fact remains that science postulates its existence
as a fundamental, substantial Something, of and in which all forms and phases
of phenomenal existence are but manifestations.
In the same way, those schools of
transcendental philosophy which postulate the existence of a Universal Mind
teach that all forms and phases of phenomenal existence are but Thought Forms
in the Universal Mind. And the old Brahmanical teachings likewise hold that the
Many exist but as incidents of the "dream" or "meditation"
of the Lord High Brahma.
In all forms, phases, and schools of
philosophy we find this insistence upon the presence and existence of a One
Something of which all else are but manifestations. In fact, as the wisest
philosophers have informed us, the whole purpose of philosophy is to discover
the One Unconditioned Ground of all that exists Conditionally. All philosophy
worthy of the name is Monistic in essence. A leading authority on the history
of philosophy informs us:
« The Monism is, in strictness,
a name applicable to any system of thought which sees in the universe the
manifestation or working of a single principle. Such a unity may be at once the
tacit presupposition and the goal of all philosophic effect, and in so far as a
philosophy fails to harmonize the apparently independent and even conflicting
facts of experience, as aspects or elements within a larger whole, it must be
held to fall short of the necessary ideal of thought. Dualism, in an ultimate
metaphysical reference, is a confession of the failure of philosophy to achieve
its proper task; and this is a justification of those who consistently use the
word as a term of reproach. »
(This is an extract
of James Mark Baldwin’s Dictionary of
Philosophy and Psychology.)
And, now, let us take a brief
passing glance at the Rosicrucian teachings concerning the manner in which the
One proceeded to become the Many — the Unity to become Diversity — the
Identical to become Variety — and yet remain the One, Unity, Identity of the
World Soul, unaffected and unchanged by its plunge into Manifestation.
Evolution we see on all sides around us, but all Evolution must be preceded by
Involution, as all occultists and scientists know full well.
(Scientists don't know that.)
Modern Science, in pursuing its
discoveries along the lines of Evolution, has almost entirely ignored the
twin-activity of Manifestation, which is known as Involution. Not so the
ancient occultists, however, for they knew full well the truth so forcibly expressed
in the words of a modern "plain speaking" philosopher who said:
-
"You can never
get out of a thing anything which is not already involved in it."
And to the ancient student of the
esoteric teachings any idea of Evolution which did not begin with the teachings
concerning Involution was like the play of Hamlet with Hamlet left out. There
is an ancient saying which runs: "That which is evolved must previously
have been involved;" and in this simple statement is condensed a volume of
important occult lore.
The term "Involve" means
"to wrap up; to cover; to hide; etc." The term "Evolve"
means "to unwrap; to unfold; to un-roll; etc." With these meanings in
mind, the student sees at once that before a thing can be "unwrapped,
un-folded, un-rolled," it must have first been wrapped-up, folded-up,
rolled-up. We must not lose sight of the meaning attached to the simple terms,
no matter how many high-sounding terms are substituted for these. The same
thing remains the same thing, no matter how many new names are attached to it.
(Here William Atkinson is wrong, since
beings do not make an involution because first they have to be "coiled
before unrolling again" as he states, but because in order for beings to
descend from the divine planes into physical manifestation, first they must make a journey towards matter and that
process implies an involution.)
The esoteric teachings, as has been
said, clearly and positively state that before there began the wonderful
process of Evolution from simple to more complex forms of manifestation —from
lower to higher— there must first have been an "involution" or
in-folding of the World Soul into the simple, gross, elemental forms of matter.
The vibrations must have been first lowered, before they can have been increased.
Plunging at once, with terrific
speed and force, into the abyss of Manifestation, the World Soul created for
itself material garments of the densest and grossest elemental matter.
(It has not been a quick process but on
the contrary it has required a lot of time.)
This extreme form of elemental
matter is not known to us today, for it has been discarded in the course of
evolution on this particular planet. It, however, still exists on other planets
of our solar system. This form, or forms, of elemental matter is below the
scale of the minerals, and is as much lower than the grossest mineral known to
science as that mineral is lower than the highest plant. In texture, structure,
and density the extreme form of elemental matter is as much grosser than the
lowest form of mineral known to us, as the latter is grosser than the highest
form of ethereal vapor or radiant matter known to modern science. It is useless
to try to describe this form of matter, for the ordinary mind cannot grasp it
in the absence of concrete illustration.
(Here William Atkinson is very lost
because the end of the involutional arc is simply the mineral kingdom.)
When the lowest point in the scale
of Involution was reached, then the Law of Rhythm asserted itself, and the
upward climb began — the first movement of Evolution began to manifest itself.
And, at this precise point, there was begun the manifestation of what may be
termed "individualization," or the forming of centres of activity and
consciousness.
(This is also false since individualization
of consciousness is just beginning to emerge in the animal kingdom and develops
in the human kingdom.)
The World Soul descended into the
depth of Involution en masse, and then began to emerge from those depths by an
apparent "splitting up" process, in which the active new-born centres
of activity began to assert themselves and to move upward toward
self-expression. The simpler centres which occultists know to be the centers of
activity in the electrons of matter began to form molecules. There was of
course manifested the presence of mind within this gross matter — but only the
faint glimmerings were manifested, for the gross enveloping sheaths of matter
almost smothered the mental principles involved within them. The Process of
Evolution once begun, it proceeded rapidly.
(Is not fast because both: the
involution and evolution processes require thousands and billions of years.)
Higher and higher in the scale of
manifestation rose the Things — in spiralic process, each spiral rising above
the one beneath it, and yet each proceeding apparently in a circle, as do all
proceeding things. In due time the first signs of the mineral kingdom began to
show themselves, building upon the basis of the sub-mineral forms of matter. In
the mineral kingdom began to manifest higher forms of life and mind — for, as
the occultists know well, the minerals possess both life and mind in a certain
degree.
(it is true that for occultists the
mineral possesses a form of life, but this life is so extremely elemental that
it cannot be considered life in a biological sense; and the mineral still does
not possess either mind or emotions, nor all the aspects that are developing in the
following kingdoms of nature.)
And then later appeared the first
signs of plant life — forms but slightly above those of certain crystals.
When the temperature of the earth
was at a point at which life is commonly believed to be impossible, there were
present certain strange forms of life, which may be described as half mineral —
half plant. These crystals reproduced themselves by a splitting up process, and
grew from the inside as do plants. These life forms were composed of the same
materials as the crystals from which they evolved — but they possessed a
greater degree of life and mind, and while from one point of view they may be
said to have been minerals, yet from another they may truly be said to have
been plants.
These strange creatures have
disappeared as have all other "intermediate forms" which have played
the parts of bridges in the evolutionary process. But they have left their traces
in the material bodies of both plants and animals. For it must be remembered
that even the bodies of the highest forms of plant or animal life are composed
of certain chemical elements which were derived from the mineral kingdom, as
for instance, oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, sulphur, phosphorus, etc.
The first forms of real plant life
are described by the old teachers as having been a now-extinct lowly form of
plant-life scarcely more than a crystal in appearance, and yet manifesting the
characteristics of plant life. Then appeared the ancestors of what are now
known as the "chlomacea" which are a strange group of lowly
creatures, comprising the characteristics of both plant and mineral life, and
being found even today in the deposits upon damp rocks, the bark of trees, etc.
From this and simpler creatures evolved the ancestors of what are now known as
the "angiospores," or lowest forms of plant-life; and later, the
ancestors of the "gymnospores," which are probably the lowest forms
of animal-life known to science today.
The Process of Evolution is caused
by the constant striving of the Life and Mind within the sheaths of matter—the
striving to express more and still more of themselves, and to mould and use the
sheaths of matter in the work of self-expression. Protoplasm, the physical
basis of plant and animal life, was evolved in this way. Then came the
single-celled creature which dwelt in the slime of the ancient ocean beds. Then
forms of life composed of colonies of cells appeared. Then more complex forms
of cell-combination, and so on, and on, until the highest forms of life known
to us today were evolved.
Finally, primitive man was evolved.
Then man began to improve in mind and feeling. And he is still making progress
along these lines. But man (of today) is merely a high stage of the
evolutionary process, and he, in turn, will be succeeded by the Super-Men of
the future, and these in turn by the god-like angelic creatures, the like of
whom are in existence on other and high spheres even this day.
But always remember that in all the
millions of types of living forms, and the millions upon millions upon millions
of individuals ensouling these forms, there is no real separateness. All life
is One — and all Life is the Life of the World Soul. Therefore, in the symbol
of the Rosicrucians —the countless points within the smaller circle, which in
turn is enclosed within the larger circle— we have the picture of the Eternal
Parent and its First Manifestation, the World Soul, the latter manifesting in
the countless life-forms of the World of Manifestation. And, the work of
Evolution is still underway, and higher and higher forms of expression will
proceed from within the Involved Being of the World Soul which is ever striving
and struggling to manifest itself in self-expression.
OBSERVATIONS
Although the statement made by William Atkinson that
"All is One" is correct, the way he expresses it, I find it embroiled since it brings the process of evolution into the
matter, but does not explain why beings carry out that process. Why do they regress if it is to evolve
again later? And his
explanation of involution is wrong. So, as usual, Atkinson gives a messy, incomplete, and flawed explanation.
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