This is
the sixth chapter of the book “The Secret Doctrine of the
Rosicrucians.”
In the Secret Doctrine of the
Rosicrucians, we find the following Fifth Aphorism:
“The One
is the Flame of Life. The Many are the Sparks in the Flame. The Flame once
lighted kindles everything within its sphere. The Fire is in everything and
everywhere; there is nothing dark or cold within its sphere.”
In this Fifth Aphorism of Creation,
the Rosicrucian is directed to apply his attention to the concept of the
Universal Life — the Life of the World Soul, permeating everything everywhere
within its sphere of existence. This concept of the World Soul as a Flaming
Fire of Life, abiding in the entire Universe in all of its parts, is
represented by the Rosicrucians by the symbol of a circle filled with flaming
fire.
Figure 9. Symbol of the Universal
Flame of Life
(I suspect this is not a Rosicrucian figure
as I have not seen it before in true Rosicrucian teaching.)
The symbol of Life has always been
the Flaming Fire, in all occult teachings. The Eternal, Universal Fire, or
Flame, which kindles ever all that presents itself to its influence, yet ever
remains unchanged and undiminished in its Essence, has ever been the favorite
symbol of the occultists for the Universal Life in Manifestation. When the term
"Spirit" is used to indicate "Life," then the Flame or Fire
has always been the symbol for Spirit.
And, indeed, the Flame is the most
appropriate symbol for Life that can be thought of. For the Flame while ever
remaining the same, yet is never composed of the same particles or sparks for
even two consecutive seconds. The Flame, itself, in its Essence, ever remains
the same and unchanged, yet its Manifestation is always accompanied and
correlated to the appearance and disappearance of innumerable
tiny particles of material substance which it kindles into sparks, then
destroys by the process of combustion, and then replaces by others of similar
nature.
And so it is with the Universal
Life. It ever persists unchanged and unaltered in its Essence, yet constantly
manifesting itself through and in countless material forms which come and go
and are in turn replaced by other forms. The form appears, is consumed, and
perishes — yet the Flame abides and survives all change. Those who have plunged
deep into the esoteric teachings are aware that there are many other very good
reasons why the Flame or Fire is the best possible symbol for Life, but it is
not thought expedient to go into these further reasons at this time and in this
place.
It was formerly the teachings of
science that the Universe was composed of two great classes of Things, as follows:
(1) Living Things, and (2) Lifeless Things. In the first class were placed all
human and animal life, at least during their term of vital existence; plants
were afterward added, though somewhat grudgingly, by science. In the second
class, all Things below the plane of animal or plant life were placed; it being
taught that minerals, chemical elements, etc., were utterly lifeless. Any who
ventured to question this accepted classification were deemed of unsound mind,
and unworthy of serious consideration.
But the esoteric schools of thought,
and the occultists, were always insistent upon the principle that there was
nothing lifeless in the universe — that everything was instinct with life in
some form, degree, or phase. And, lo! modern science has at last reached the
point where it is practically looking Occultism squarely in the face, in full
agreement upon this important point. The old idea of a half-lifeless universe
is fast passing away, and men of advanced science are beginning to whisper to
each other that "The Universe is Alive, as a Whole and in all of its
parts." Surely this is a remarkable change in scientific opinion.
This changed conception of science
is picturesquely expressed by Luther Burbank, the "wizard of plant
life," as follows:
« All my investigations have led
me away from the idea of a dead material universe tossed about by various
forces, to that of a universe which is absolutely all force, life, soul,
thought, or whatever name we may choose to call it. Every atom, molecule,
plant, animal, or planet, is only an aggregation of organized unit forces, held
in place by stronger forces, thus holding them for a time latent, though
teeming with inconceivable power. All life on our planet is, so to speak, just
on the outer fringe of this infinite ocean of force. The universe is not
half-dead, but all alive. »
Prof. Dolbear goes back even to the
Ether of Space in his assumption of Omnipresent Life, when he says:
-
"The Ether has
besides the function of energy and motion, other inherent qualities, out of
which could emerge under proper circumstances, other phenomena, such as life,
mind, or whatever may be in that substratum."
Prof. Cope has intimated that:
-
"The basis of
Life lies back of the atoms and may be found in the Universal Ether."
(Here William Atkinson is very out of date because scientists
had already rejected the "Ether of Space" or "Universal Ether"
theory in 1905, that is, thirteen years before he published this book.
And the Orient sages affirm that the basis of life is found in
Jiva, which is the cosmic principle of life and which is manifests itself in
the universe through pranic energy.)
Saleeby,
in his well-known work of Evolution, in which he carries to its logical
conclusions the work of Herbert Spencer, says:
« Life
is potential in matter; life-energy is not a thing unique and created at a
particular time in the past. If evolution be true, living matter has been
evolved by natural processes from matter which is, apparently, dead. But if
life is potential in matter, it is a thousand times more evident that mind is
potential in life. The evolutionist is impelled to believe that mind is
potential in matter. (I adopt that form of words for the moment, but not
without future criticism).
The
microscopic cell, a minute speck of matter that is to become man, has in it the
promise and germ of mind. May we not draw the inference that the elements of
mind are present in those chemical elements —carbon, oxygen, hydrogen,
nitrogen, sulphur, phosphorus, sodium, potassium, chlorine— that are found in
the cell. Not only must we do so, but we must go further, since we know that
each of these elements, and every other, is built up out of one invariable
unit, the electron, and we must therefore assert that mind is potential in the
unit of matter — the electron itself.
(The answer is no, because the mental substance belongs to
another plane of existence.)
It
is to assert the sublime truth first perceived by Spinoza, that mind and matter
are the warp and woof of what Goethe called “the living garment of God.” Both
are complementary expressions of the Unknowable Reality which underlies both. »
Flammarion
has said:
« The universe is a dynamism.
Life itself, from the most rudimentary cell up to the most complicated
organism, is a special kind of movement, a movement determined and organized by
a directing force. Visible matter, which stands for us at the present moment
for the universe, and which certain classic doctrines consider as the origin of
all things —movement, life, thought— is only a word void of meaning. The
universe is a great organism, controlled by a dynamism of the psychical order.
Mind gleams through its every atom. There is mind in everything, not only in
human and animal life, but in plants, in minerals, in space. »
The student must always remember
that where there is "mind," there must be "life;" and where
"life," there must be "mind." Hence the importance of these
admissions of modern science.
(This is false, since the mind is only an instrument for
creation and there are planes of existence where the mind is no longer used. And
this discussion would be easier if Atkinson pointed out that for occultists:
everything has life, but life is expressed also in different ways than we know
at the biological life.)
Haeckel in his "Riddle of
the Universe," sometimes called "The Bible of Materialism,"
makes the following statement, remarkable coming from such a source:
-
"I cannot
imagine the simplest chemical and physical process, without attributing the
movements of the material particles to unconscious sensation."
Again, he says:
-
"The idea of
chemical affinity consists in the fact that the various chemical elements
perceive the qualitative differences in other elements — experience 'pleasure'
or 'revulsion' at contact with them, and execute specific movements on this
ground."
He adds, at another point:
-
"The sensations
and responses in plant and animal life are connected by a long series of
evolutionary stages with the simpler forms of sensation that we find in the
inorganic elements, and that reveal themselves in chemical affinity."
He quotes with approval the
statement of Nageli that:
-
"If the
molecules possess something that is related, however distantly, to sensation,
it must be uncomfortable to be able to follow their attractions and repulsions;
uncomfortable when they are forced to do otherwise."
But
not only is modern science giving approval to the oldest conceptions of the
occultists concerning Universal Life in the manner mentioned above, i.e. by
general statements; it is also quoting with approval the experiments and
discoveries of leading scientists along the same line — experiments which go to
prove the general statements above quoted. Let us consider a few of these
experiments and discoveries in the laboratories of modern science.
1) Science has practically
created counterparts of the diatoms or "living crystals" — created
artificially, in the laboratories, creatures similar to these links between the
mineral and the animal forms. The diatoms are tiny geometrical forms, composed
of a tiny shell of siliceous material enclosing a minute drop of plasm,
resembling glue. These creatures are visible through the microscope, and are so
small that thousands of them might be gathered together on the head of a pin.
They so closely resemble crystals that a very careful examination is required
to distinguish them from true crystals; and yet they are alive, and perform all
the functions of life.
Crystals, as you know, are born,
grow, live, and may be killed by chemicals or electricity. Some investigators
have discovered indications of elementary sex functions in certain crystals. A
scientific writer has said:
-
"Crystallization,
as we are to learn now, is not a mere mechanical grouping of dead atoms — it is
a birth."
The crystal forms from the mother
liquor, and its body is built up systematically, regularly, and according to a
well-defined pattern, plan, or design — as true to the pattern as are the
bodies of plants and animals. The certainty is present in the crystal creative
life activity. And, not only does the crystal grow in this way, like a plant or
an animal, but it also reproduces itself by separation and division, just as do
the individuals of the lower forms of plant-life and animal-life.
The distinguishing point between the
growth and reproduction of crystal forms and that of the higher forms of life
has, heretofore, been held to be as follows: the crystal takes its nourishment
from the outside and builds up its bodily structure on its outer surface, while
the lowly forms of plant-life and animal-life takes its nourishment from the
outside but builds up its bodily structure from within. If the crystal had a
soft-centre and took its nourishment in the way of the low form of plant-life
or animal-life (building from within) it would be almost identical with the
diatom; or if the diatom grew from the outside, and had a hard centre, it would
be considered a true crystal; so, as you see there is very little real
difference between them. And, now, lo! even this distinction is apparently to
be wiped out by the discovery of artificial living crystals, evolved in the
laboratory.
2) Careful scientific tests
have determined that there is what is known as "the fatigue of
elasticity" in metals, which is relieved by a rest or
"vacation." This has also been found true of razors, the edges of
which are restored by a little rest, thus corroborating the ancient
"superstition" of users of razors. Tuning forks have been found to
lose their power of vibration by over-use, a short rest restoring the same.
Machinery in mills and factories have been found to be benefited by an
occasional "day off." Metals have been discovered to be subject to
disease and infection, and in some cases have been found to have been actually
poisoned and afterward restored by antidotes.
Window glass, especially the fine
stained glass of cathedral windows, is found to be subject to an infectious
disease, spreading from pane to pane, and resulting in the disintegration of
the substance of the glass. Workmen's tools have been found to experience
fatigue, and to be the better for an occasional holiday or longer vacation.
Every observing machinist has observed certain idiosyncrasies in particular
machines which need "humoring."
The most conclusive scientific
report upon this interesting subject, so far as known to the present writer, is
that which recites the celebrated series of experiments conducted upon
so-called "non-living matter, several years ago, and which are recorded in
the book entitled "Response in the Living and Non-Living," by the
scientists who conducted the experiments, Professor J. Chunder Bose, of the
Calcutta University, who occupies a high position in the scientific world. Professor
Bose's experiments have aroused the greatest interest in prominent scientific
circles, and have aided greatly in corroborating the conclusions of other
scientists who hold that "there is no such thing as dead matter."
Proceeding from the fundamental
postulate that the best and only true test of the presence of life is the
response of matter to external stimulus, Professor Bose has demonstrated that
in many instances so-called inorganic matter, such as metals, minerals, etc.,
give a response to such stimulus which is similar, if not indeed identical, to
the response of the matter composing the bodies of "living" animals,
plants, and men. He devised certain very delicate apparatus for registering and
measuring such responses, the same being traced as curves on a revolving
cylinder. He employed that most delicate scientific instrument called, the
Galvanometer in these experiments. The Galvanometer will register the faintest
irritation of nerve-matter, or living muscle; and the experiments proved that
it would also register the variations of minerals, metals, etc., subjected to
the stimulus of outside force; the curves or tracings being practically
identical in either case.
Professor Bose reports that when he
attached the Galvanometer to bars of various metals they gave a similar
response when struck or twisted; the greater the degree of irritation caused in
the metal the greater the degree of response. It should be noted that the
living nerve or muscle reacts and registers in precisely the same way, and so
far as the instrument indicated the response of muscle, nerve, metal, and
mineral was identical. Just as the nerve or registered "fatigue"
after frequently repeated stimulus, so did the metal or mineral so register.
And, just as the nerve or muscle registered the renewal of vigor after a rest,
so did the metal or mineral.
To all intents and purposes the
"living" and "non-living" matter gave the same response and
evidence of "life." Moreover, the instrument showed something like
"tetanus" in metals, caused by repeated shocks; recovery after the
rest being also recorded. Moreover, several metals recorded fatigue from other
causes; and in some cases the metals showed the effect of poisoning, recovery
by the application of antidotes, and also the signs of excitement or
intoxication from other forms of stimulus.
The experiments also showed that
metals manifest a condition akin to sleep; that they can be killed; that they
exhibit torpor and sluggishness; that they wake up, and can be roused into
activity; that they may be stimulated, strengthened, weakened, drugged or
intoxicated; that they suffer from extreme cold or heat; that they respond to
the presence of certain drugs just as do living plant and animal. A piece of
steel subjected to the effect of poison recorded on the delicate instrument a
gradual fluttering and weakening, resulting in final death, just as does a
portion of animal matter, or an organ of the body of an animal, or a piece of
the living substance of a plant. When revived before it was too late, the
response of the metal was gradual in the case of both muscle and metal.
A most interesting fact is the
statement of the experimenter that even the poisons which served to
"kill" the metals showed a like susceptibility to the actions of
other poisons, and were found to be, themselves, capable of being
"killed" by poisons. In the case of these metal "killings,"
however, the molecular structure was apparently not affected, just as the
similar structure in the animal tissue is not affected — in both cases there
was apparently a causing of a "something within" to cease to function
in the substance, a "something" which may as well be called a
"soul" as any other term.
(Personally, I do not think it is
appropriate to use the terms: "sick", "poison" or
"murder" for metals, nor to compare them with plants, animals and humans,
because although esotericists consider that the mineral kingdom is also alive, but mineral life is very
different from that of biological beings.)
3) Other scientific laboratory
experiments have revealed most interesting facts concerning the production of
living things from "non-living matter." Dr. Charles Bastian, of London,
England, has prepared and exhibited more than five thousand microphotographs
showing the evolution of organic living forms from the inorganic
"non-living" (so-called). He claims to have produced certain
microscopic black spots from a previously perfectly clear liquor, which spots
gradually enlarge and are transformed into certain forms of lowly bacteria.
Professor Burke, of Cambridge,
England, claims to have produced from sterilized bouillon, by the action of
sterilized radium chloride, certain minute living bodies which manifest
subsequent growth and reproduction by subdivision.
The ordinary student of chemistry
and physics is familiar with what is called "metallic vegetation,"
notably in the case of the "lead tree," in which there is manifested
the appearance of plant forms on the part of the acidulated solution of certain
metallic substances. In the case of the "lead tree" an acidulated
solution of acetate of lead is placed in a wide-necked bottle, from the cork of
which bottle a piece of copper wire is suspended, at the end of which dangles a
piece of zinc which hangs at the centre of the lead solution. When the bottle
is corked the copper wire begins at once to be surrounded with a growth of
metallic lead closely resembling a very fine moss, which moss gradually develops
branches and limbs and finally foliage, in the end a miniature bush or tree
being formed.
(Here William Atkinson makes a mistake identifying
these two phenomena: the mineral and the vegetable as the same, since although
the two are similar, their mechanisms are different. For example: if I put a
computer simulation where I reproduce the same phenomenon, you are not going to conclude that the
computer has the same metabolism as a plant. And that is the mistake that Atkinson makes.)
Other metallic solutions produce
similar phenomena. Saltpeter, subjected to the effect of polarized light,
assumes forms closely resembling the orchid. Crystals of frost form on window
panes the shapes of leaves, branches, foliage, blossoms, flowers, etc. Many
metals tend to crystallize in the forms of vegetable growth; and this is
particularly significant when it is remembered that crystals are beginning to
be regarded as "almost alive" by modern science, as noted in a
preceding paragraph of the present chapter.
The scientific magazines, a few
years ago, contained references to an interesting experiment performed by a
German scientist using certain metallic salts. The scientist subjected the
salts to the action of a galvanic current, and was astounded to discover that
around the negative or cathode (female) pole of the battery the particles of
the metallic salt began to group themselves in the form of a tiny mushroom, with
stem and umbrella-like top.
These metallic mushrooms at first
displayed a transparent appearance, but gradually developed color, and finally
assumed a pale straw color on the stems, with a bright red color on the top of
the umbrella and a faint rose tint on the under surface. But the most startling
feature of the phenomenon was that the metallic mushroom had fine veins or tiny
tubes running along the interior of the steins, through which the nourishment,
or additional material for growth, was transported — the mushroom being fed from the inside, as in the
case of the true fungus mushroom. It seemed that, to all intents and purposes,
these metallic mushrooms were practically the connecting link between mineral
and vegetable life.
~ * ~
As has been stated elsewhere in this
chapter, modern science now stands on the threshold of the discovery (by actual
laboratory proof) that there is no such thing as "lifeless" matter — and
that Everything is Alive. This has been the contention of the occultists for
thousands of years. As a writer has said, it would seem that as in the case of
the great Tunnel of the Alps, the two bands of workers, each on its own side of
the mountain, were fast approaching the place where only a thin partition
separated them one from another; and that already they can faintly hear the
sounds of each others' picks penetrating the thin dividing wall between the two
camps. The occultist may now safely await the day when modern science will
actually "prove for him the old teaching of the esoteric schools."
Moreover, science is coming very
near to the place when it will perceive the truth of the old occult axiom that
"All Power is Will-Power," and that the movements of electrons,
atoms, molecules, and masses of matter are in response to an inward
"feeling" resulting from the attraction or repulsion to or from other
forms of matter, and the "will" action in response thereto, as
Haeckel and Nageli (materialistic scientists though they may be called) have
claimed for half a generation past.
The contention of the Materialists
that Life and Mind are but qualities of Matter, and are to be found in all forms
of material objects, needs but to be inverted
in order to show the Truth, long since uttered by the ancient occultists,
namely that Matter is but the Outer Garment of Soul (Life-Mind), and that all material forms are ensouled by Life
and Mind. The conception of the Materialists is but the Inverted Pyramid of
Error, while the conception of the Occultists is the firmly placed, and soundly
resting, true Pyramid of Truth—that Rock of Ages which can never be overturned,
for it rests squarely and firmly on the Eternal Base of Being.
Remember, O student, the Rosicrucian
aphorism that "The Fire is in
everything and everywhere: there is nothing dark or cold within its
sphere."
OBSERVATIONS
We thank William Atkinson for
seeking in this chapter to promote the idea that everything in the Universe has
life, but unfortunately he does it in a clumsy way, because scientists can
reply him that although the reactions of metals and living beings have
similarities, this is simply because the two are subject to the same rules that
govern matter. But on the other hand, metals do not procreate as biological
beings do. And in that respect the scientists are absolutely right.
Atkinson makes the mistake of
wanting to compare other life forms with biological life, which is a mistake
since the other life forms develop in very different ways. For example,
esotericism affirms that planets and stars, as well as atoms and particles, are
also alive. But it is a fact that the way life manifests on a macrocosmic and
microcosmic level is very different from the way life manifests in plants,
animals and humans.
And the explanation that Atkinson
gives at an esoteric level is also incomplete, since although fire can be used
in the occult to symbolize life, it is also used to symbolize other aspects,
such as: energy, love, power, divinity, etc.
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