Fohat (Cosmic Electricity), by infusing energy into primordial matter, electrifies into life and scatters into atoms. It is through Fohat that the ideas of the Universal Mind are impressed upon matter. Occultism asserts that Electricity is Matter, not mere motion. Force, or Energy, may be better names for it. Electricity is “immaterial” only in the sense that its molecules are not subject to perception and experiment; yet, Occultism says it is atomic, therefore material. Fohat is connected with Vishnu, from the root vish, “to pervade,” therefore, he is called the Pervader and the Manufacture because he shapes the atoms from crude material. From the first awakening of Kosmos to a new Day of Brahmā or Motion, which even during the periods of Rest (Night) pulsates and thrills through every slumbering atom, assuming an ever-growing tendency to circular movement. The gyratory movement of atoms and spheres exists from eternity. The Elementary Germs with which Fohat fills the Universe from the “Heaven of Mind,” are the atoms of Science and the monads of Leibniz. A perpetual exchange of atoms is taking place in Space, thus changing their combining equivalents on every planet. Atoms enter into new forms of existence, undreamt of, and incognisable to, physical Science. The essence of cometary matter, for instance, is totally different from any of the chemical or physical characteristics with which the greatest chemists and physicists of the earth are familiar with. Enshrined in its pristine state within the bosom of the Eternal Mother, every atom born beyond the threshold of her realm is doomed to incessant differentiation. If we follow the atoms and molecules of the lower plane in their transformation upwards, these will come to a point where they pass altogether beyond the range of our faculties. As the spiritual Monad is One, Universal, Boundless and Impartite, whose rays form what we, in our ignorance, call the “Individual Monads” of men, so the Mineral Monad — being at the opposite point of the circle — is also One, and from it proceed the countless physical atoms, which Science is beginning to regard as individualized. Instead of saying a Mineral Monad, the more correct phraseology in physical science which differentiates every atom would have been to call it the Monad manifesting in that form of Prakriti called the Mineral Kingdom. The atom, as represented in the ordinary scientific hypothesis, is not a particle of something, animated by a psychic something, destined after aions to blossom as a man. It is a concrete manifestation of the Universal Energy which itself has not yet become individualized, i.e., a sequential manifestation of the One Universal Monad. As the monads are uncompounded things, it is the spiritual essence which vivifies them in their degrees of differentiation, which properly constitutes the Monad — not the atomic aggregation, which is only the vehicle and the substance through which thrill the lower and the higher degrees of Intelligence. Every form on earth and in Space strives towards self-formation following the model placed for it in the “Heavenly Man.” The atom’s evolution and involution, its external and internal growth and development, have all one and the same object — Man or Humanity at large. Not only the chemical compounds are the same, but the same infinitesimal invisible lives compose the atoms of the bodies of the mountain and the daisy, of man and the ant, of the elephant and of the tree which shelters him from the sun. Each particle, whether organic or inorganic, is a life. Each atom may reach, by “self-induced and self-devised efforts,” that plane where it re-becomes the One Unconditioned All. Starting upon the long journey immaculate; descending more and more into sinful matter, and having connected himself with every atom in manifested space — the Pilgrim, having struggled through and suffered in every form of life and being, is only at the bottom of the valley of matter, and half through his cycle, when he has identified himself with Humanity at large. This, he has made in his own image. Myths are now proved to be fables, just in proportion as we misunderstand them; truths, in proportion as they were once understood. The Ether of Science, the Ilus of Berosus, the Protyle of Sir William Crookes, are one the same, primordial matter out of which the “Builders,” following the plan traced out for them in the Divine Thought, fashion the systems in Cosmos. Such grand metaphysical concepts can no longer be brushed aside as myths. Materialism and the malignancy of Scepticism are two evils that must remain in the world as long as man has not quitted his present gross form to don the one he had during the first and second Root-Races of this Round. The atom of the chemist, the atom of the physicist, that of the mathematician, and that of the metaphysician, have absolutely nothing in common but the name! Each lower mind constructs an atom to suit his own fancy, in order to explain some special phenomenon with which he is particularly concerned. The primordial Atom belongs wholly to the domain of metaphysics. It is an entified abstraction and has nought to do with physics, strictly speaking, as it can never be brought to the test of retort or balance. The whole Universe focuses on a single metaphysical point. Atoms, Ether, and the Evolution itself of modern Science are based on the conceptions of archaic nations. “Conceptions” for the profane, under the shape of allegories; plain truths taught during the Initiations of the Elect. Force is not in the Atom: it is in the space which separates atoms from each other. Matter exists in two conditions, latent or undifferentiated, and patent or differentiated. Atomic, however, is a substance not subject to the qualities of matter, from which it is quite different. The Matter of the Esoteric Doctrine is eternal because it is Unevolved Cause. Eternal Matter becomes atomic only periodically. In the language of the Initiates, Atoms are Souls and Intelligences. The atom imagined by modern Science, now called “energy,” is inseparable from Spirit. Stones, minerals, rocks, and even chemical atoms are simply organic units in profound lethargy. Their coma comes to an end when their inertia becomes activity. Replace the chemical terms molecule, atom, particle, etc., by the words Hosts, Monads, Devas, etc., and one might think the genesis of gods, the primeval evolution of manvantaric Intelligent Forces, was being described. Were Leibniz’ and Spinoza’s systems to be reconciled, the essence 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 and the Spirit which is at the heart of the Occult Doctrine and Thought. Though both admitted but one real Entity, while Spinoza made it impersonal and indivisible, Leibniz divided his personal Deity into a number of divine and semi-divine Beings. Spinoza was a subjective, Leibniz an objective Pantheist, yet both were great philosophers in their intuitive perceptions. To the follower of the true Eastern Archaic Wisdom, to him who worships in spirit nought outside the Absolute Unity, that ever-pulsating great Heart that beats throughout, as in every atom of nature, each such atom contains the germ from which he may raise the Tree of Knowledge, whose fruits will give life eternal and not physical life alone. Spirit is abstract light, uncreated, latent in every atom, in whose profound and sacred repose all motion must cease for ever. Latent Electricity becomes patent under certain conditions. The “elementary atoms” are compound bodies that contain primordial globules, the gross encasement of the still finer atom-spark — the spark of Life and source of Electricity — which is matter, still. When the Life-energy is active in the atom, that atom is organic; when dormant or latent, “inorganic.” The distinction between the two states is arbitrary and spurious. Life is as much present in the inorganic as in the organic matter. Matter, in atomizing, differentiates. Restore the differentiated matter to the status quo ante, and there is no difficulty in seeing how it can pass through the interstices of dense substance in its differentiated state, as we easily conceive of the travel of electricity and other forces through their conductors. There are no “blind” forces in nature. Every atom in the universe is permeated with Universal Intelligence, from the latent spark in the mineral up to the quasi-divine light in man’s brain. Matter and force are ever allied. Matter without force, and force without matter, are inconceivable. Every atom is endowed with consciousness, yet the potential of man’s ability to control the cells and atoms of his body, have not been honoured with the imprimatur of the popes of modern science. Every atom is a little universe of its own. Every cell and organ in the human body has a brain and memory of its own, and thus also, experience and discriminative powers. Physical Science calls “atoms” that which the Occultists regard as particles or molecules. The real atoms are the inner principles and the intelligent, spiritual guides of the cells, and the particles they inform. Atom is not the smallest constituent unit of matter, not even a mathematical point. It is an immutable Entity, a reality within an appearance — the molecule being in Occult Philosophy but a figment of maya-illusion. It may be described as a compact or crystallized point of Divine Energy and Ideation. The Hermetic Divine Fire is the fons et origo of life, that Uncreated Spirit which starts from, and is immediately reabsorbed into primordial matter. It is the ultimate essence of every atom whether pertaining to animate or inanimate, organic or inorganic substance. Before that Spirit is immersed into matter, it is self-existent and independent of matter. The real Atom does not exist on the material plane, it is beyond space and time. Atom, in its eternal state, is invisible even to the eye of an Archangel. Brahmā is called Atom, because we have to imagine it as a mathematical point which, however, can be extended to Absoluteness. He who would be an occultist must not separate either himself or anything else from the rest of creation or non-creation. For, the moment he distinguishes himself from even a vessel of dishonour, he will not be able to join himself to any vessel of honour. He must think of himself as an infinitesimal something, not even as an individual atom, but as a part of the world-atoms as a whole — or become an illusion, a nobody, and vanish like a breath leaving no trace behind.

Fohat, the Light of Logos, shapes the atoms from crude material, which is as yet invisible to us. Since sound and rhythm are closely related to the Four Elements of the Ancients, the potency of the spoken word awakens their corresponding powers with good or bad results. As the differentiation of the Divine Monas precedes the evolution of the Dhyani-Chohans of the Third Hierarchy of Being in the primary creation, before those Devas can occupy their first ethereal form, so animal creation has to precede the evolution of man on earth. Then the Great Breath vibrates and differentiates the primordial, first manifested Atom. How could you make yourself understood by those semi-intelligent Forces, whose means of communication with us are not through spoken words but through sounds and colours in correlated vibrations between the two? By employing sound, light and colours, which are understood by these grades of intelligence. Light and heat are ghosts of matter in motion. Natural-born magicians are those whose inner selves are connected, by reason of their direct descent, with that group of Dhyani-Chohans who are “the first-born of Ether.” No substance possesses any inherent gustatory or olfactory property. Taste and odour are mere sensations caused by vibrations — hence illusionary perceptions. We taste and smell in our dreams and visions. Akasha is primordial substance, the vehicle of Divine Thought. Knowledge of Akasha and other mysteries can alone lead to knowledge of the Forces of Nature. Could air exist if there were no etheric medium in Space to buoy up its molecules? 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 Eternal Motion (Atman), cyclic and spiral, which keeps the wheels of Life rolling.

Part 1. The Voice of the Will is the Atomic Point, the Logos of the Silent All, a veil concealing Itself from the perception of lower minds. Part 2. The mediumistic state of passivity is dangerous, for passivity paralyzes the connection between man’s lower and higher principles. Part 3. Life is identical with Will, and Will is a property of the Kabbalistic Astral Light. Part 4. There is no special organ of will, any more than there is a physical basis for the activities of self-consciousness. Part 5. Insights to the laws governing compulsion and obsession. Part 6. The Yogi performs his wonders by exercising his Will-Power and Thought. Part 7. Free will is a nameless Intelligent Force, guiding and shaping the imprisoned intelligence and force inherent in every atom of matter. Part 8. Hypnotism is the new scientific name for the old “superstition” variously called fascination and enchantment. Part 9. Will is the offspring of the Divine, Desire, the motive power of animal life.

Kama-Deva is the first conscious all-embracing desire for universal good, love, and for all that lives and feels, needs help and kindness, the first feeling of infinite tender compassion and mercy that arose in the consciousness of the Creative Force, that came into life and being by a single ray of Light and Truth. That pure desire, of whom Love is born, is the progenitor of affection. Pythagoras’ Primeval Monad which, having flashed out like lightning from the Central Point and thrilled through the Germ retires into Darkness is the Rootless Root of all things. The Pythagorean system is based entirely upon sacred numbers, harmony, and correspondences or affinities. Space is filled with atoms actuated by ceaseless rotationary motion. Aggregated atoms, through mutual collisions, produce lateral movements of affinity. Sounds and colours are spiritual numerals. The cause of the splendour and variety of colours lies deep in the affinities of nature, for there is a singular and mysterious alliance between colour and sound. The Creative Force produces colours, sounds, and numbers, in the shape of rates of vibration, which compound and dissociate atoms and molecules. There is mutual sympathy between terrestrial and celestial things. Terrestrial natures receive the plenitude of the celestial; and celestial, of supercelestial essences, while every order of things proceeds gradually in a majestic descent from the highest to the lowest. True magic is firmly based on the mysterious affinities between organic and inorganic bodies, the visible productions of the four kingdoms, and the invisible powers of the universe. That which science calls gravitation, the ancients and the mediæval Hermetists called magnetism, attraction, affinity. Magnetism is attraction to the virtue of the substance, rather than blind attraction between two masses. Eastern Occultists bring down the properties of matter to attraction and repulsion; modern Scientists, to gravitation and phylogenetic relations. Affection is one of the most powerful attractions between two loving spirits — the embodied and the disembodied one — further enhanced by the harmony between the two and the magnetic purity of those left on earth. The attraction of the “shells” of the departed to places and persons is brought forth by the law of magneto-vital affinities. But the ascent of the higher Ego to the bliss of pure subjectivity will be impeded if its alter ego is weighted down with base feelings. The reincarnating Ego is drawn by magnetic attraction to the atmosphere of the parent or parents, whose vibrational frequency is most sympathetic to its own, and with whom its karmic affinities are strongest. The virtues of the Macrocosm are represented in the Microcosm or Man. The magnetic power of Man can thus draw those celestial virtues which correspond to his own. It is the science of Astrology that determines the nature of effects, by a knowledge of the law of magnetic affinities and attractions of the planetary bodies. But it is the Karma of the individual himself, which places him in that particular magnetic relation. The Occultist follows the ethnological affinities and their divergences in various nationalities, races, and sub-races, by observing the auric shades and gradations of colour of the inner man. He can thus unerringly pronounce to which of several distinct human families, and to what particular group or sub-group that man belongs. The secret of healing lies in the knowledge of the affinities between kindred atoms. Find that metal, wood, stone, or plant that has the most correspondential affinity with the body of the sufferer, and that particular agent will lead invariably to his cure. Strong will creates and sympathy attracts even adepts. In Europe, more than anywhere else, there is a Universal Brotherhood, an alliance of affinities, of strong magnetic yet dissimilar forces and polarities, centred around one dominant idea. The cause of spiritual failure lies in the egotism of the age, whether conscious or unconscious. And even western philanthropy, so often pervaded by selfish motives and worldly affinities, is unable to warm humanity with its beneficent rays. Blessed are the pure-hearted who have only intuition, for intuition is better than intellect.

The Tetragrammaton is a mere mask concealing its connection with the supernal and the infernal worlds. Four statements, allegedly from the Kabbalah, which have been brought forward to oppose our septenary doctrine, are completely wrong. Ignorance is the curse of God. Knowledge barely understood is like a headstrong horse that throws the rider. Admitting ignorance is the first step to enlightenment. The four letters of the Tetragrammaton is a mere mask concealing its polar connection with the supernal and the infernal worlds. The Tetragrammaton is Microprosopus, a “Lesser Face,” and the infernal reflection of Macroprosopus, the “Limitless Face.” AHIH and IHVH are glyphs of existence and symbols of terrestrial-androgynous life; they cannot be confounded with EHEIEH which is the Parabrahman of the Vedantist, That of the Chhandogya Upanishad, The Absolute of Hegel, The One Life of the Buddhist, the Ain-Soph (the Hebrew Parabrahman). They are transient reflections of EHEIEH, and therefore illusions of separateness. The Tetragrammaton is a phantom veiled with four breaths. It is dual, triple, quaternary, and septenary. Man is cube unfolding as cross. The One is She, the Spirit of the Elohim of Life. The “lesser countenance” of the Tetragrammaton is the fourth kabbalistic world. “Father-Mother,” being of bisexual material, belong to the creative world, out of which the “Son” or Universe is formed. This “Son” is Microprosopus, a blind to conceal the septenary constitution of man from the profane. The Tetragrammaton is “Father-Mother-Son” or Jehovah, whose name is IHVH and whose letters, when read symbolically, can be interpreted in two or twelve ways. Jehovah is merely a composite name for membrum virile and Eve, a hermaphrodite. He is, in one sense, Noah (Hebrew Yah) or, literally translated, inch — the British inch! Jehovah-Tsebaoth refused to create, as the seven mind-born sons of Brahmā did, but instead fought and conquered the Dragon of Wisdom. Thus the child of matter and sin was born, and Divinity was hurled down into the bottomless pit. The Theosophist’s Deity is not the two-faced Tetragrammaton, but the Crown, which has nought to do with the material world. Madame Blavatsky declined union with the lower sevenfold and seven-lettered Jehovah, and preferred pinning her faith to Ain-Soph — Pure and Simple. The nature of the material world is also seven-fold. Is the Tetragrammaton in the midst of us, or the Negatively Existent One? Shekinah is primordial light emanating from the ever-concealed Ain-Soph. In the archetypal world she is Sephirah. In the material and formative worlds she becomes Shekinah, which is latent life and light. She is the Buddhi of the physical body. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil has seven branches, on each of which are four leaves and three fruits. Anyone endowed with a moderate dose of ingenuity can make what he likes of the unpointed Hebrew words and letters. But the explanations herewith presented require nothing but knowledge of the Seventh Esoteric Key. There now follow six different readings of the first word only (B’rashith) in Genesis — one of countless examples of Christian deceit and scriptural manipulation. Madame Blavatsky always sought conciliation with disputants over doctrinal mistakes or misinterpretations, and shunned quarrels and point-scoring. The Occultist prefers working for the Cause and the triumph of Truth with all his heart and soul, than prevailing over piffling disputations. Materialism is raising its ghastly head higher than ever. Pontifications of an anti-kabbalistic champion of modern science. The whole essence of Truth cannot be transmitted from mouth to ear. Nor can any pen describe it, not even that of the recording Angel, unless man finds the answer in the sanctuary of his own heart, in the innermost depths of his divine intuitions. A spurious prophecy attributed to Hosea See how, by the Notarikon method of kabbalistic reading, one could make biblical sentences read almost anything. The Seven Scales of Consciousness Every sense is primarily a mental sense. The transference of a sensation from any organ to consciousness is nearly instantaneous. The Occultist should train himself to receive and transmit along the line of the seven scales of his consciousness every impression simultaneously. He who does this quicker progresses faster. The consciousness of the Higher Ego is atomic and spiritual, and so are the atoms which form the higher principles of the man. That of the lower ego is molecular, forming around the atoms, and is normally invisible unless condensed. The Higher Ego, being the subject of every state of consciousness, is Absolute Unity. Knowing, feeling, and willing are not faculties of the lower mind.

The Visible Sun is a veil of the Invisible Central Spiritual Sun of Truth. The Invisible Sun is the ever-concealed Central Point of all Universes and Solar Systems from which all emerged, and toward which all gravitates. It is the Central Sun’s passive emissions of Creative Light, that impart Motion and awaken Life in the numberless Solar systems of the Infinite Kosmos (manifested worlds). The Atoms of Science are the Vibrations of Occultism: they keep the wheels of life going. The “extra-cosmic” God has killed the belief in intra-cosmic Intelligent Forces, that govern the rotatory motion in the infinitudes of Space. Cosmic Motion, circular and perpetual, is Attraction and Repulsion, not as understood by modern physics and the “law of gravity;” but in harmony with the Immutable Laws of Manvantaric Motion regulated by interhuman (not supernatural) Intelligences within the Cosmic Soul. The Solar Flames are reflections of the Central Spiritual Sun, the Life-giver to Kosmos, radiating from the Central Point which is “everywhere and nowhere,” from whence emanates and whither returns the Kosmic Intelligence (sentient Beings) scattered throughout the manifested worlds. The visible Sun is the Father of the physical man; the Moon is his Mother. The visible Sun is a ball of electromagnetic forces, glowing but not burning. It is not even the proximal source of visible light and heat in our solar system. It is the focus, reflector, and veil of the ever-Concealed Central Spiritual Sun — therefore mere illusion. Our Sun will become a comet in future manvantaras. The Central Spiritual Sun is the storehouse of Vital Force (noumenon of Electricity), those life currents which thrill through Space, as through every creature on Earth. The Vital Force, intelligently guided, radiates around man like a luminous sphere. Suspended like a fœtus within the Macrocosm (Universe or Spiritus Mundi, i.e., Spirit of the visible Universe) the Microcosm (Mankind) is vitalised and energised by the Archæus or Liquor Vitæ, the Fluid of Life (Nerve Aura), through which the Cosmic Forces, regulated and sustained by the never-resting Breaths (Agents of Cosmic Laws) act upon the astral body of man curled in the spleen. Pantheism was known and felt by the whole of antiquity. It manifests itself in the vast expanse of the starry heavens, in the breathing of the seas and oceans, and in the quiver of life of the smallest blade of grass. Esoteric Philosophy rejects the finite and imperfect God in our Universe, as the anthropomorphic deity of the monotheist is represented by his followers. The Vedic Aryans were as familiar with the mysteries of colour and sound as our physiologists are on the physical plane. Moreover, they had mastered the potencies of colour, sound, and number on planes inaccessible to the materialists. The spiritual senses, those that act on higher planes of consciousness, are rejected by physiology because the latter is ignorant of the Sacred Science. Yet mental as well as physical correlations of the senses (seven on the physical, and seven on the mental planes) are clearly explained and defined in the Vedas. The seven notes of the scale are the principles of sound. The qualities of every element, as of every sense, are also septenary and to dogmatize upon them, from their likewise septenary manifestation, is whimsical. It is only when Manas (Higher Ego) soars above the mists of ignorance, that the qualities of objects of sense on their dual plane of manifestations (visible and invisible) can be clearly seen and comprehended. The division of the physical senses into five comes to us from great antiquity. But while adopting the number, no modern philosopher has asked himself how these senses could exist, i.e., be perceived in a self-conscious way, unless there was a sixth sense (mental perception) to register and record them; and this, for the Occultist, is the Seventh Sense, that preserves the spiritual fruition and remembrance thereof, as in a Book of Life. Nature shall unveil her mysteries only to those sincere and diligent students of Occult Philosophy — who when pure, impartial, and unexpecting, act as centres of benevolent work — and shall lead them to the contemplation of celestial powers. We keep cycling back and forward. Having lost in spirituality pro rata what we had gained in physicality near the end of the Four Race (Atlantean), we are now cycling forward and upward until we reach the period that will bring the Sixth Race (Enlightened) on a parallel line with the spirituality of the Second (Sweat-born), the long extinct Race of humanity. Then, by cutting the Tree of Life, the slaves of birth–life–death shall be finally freed from the trammels and tyranny of matter. Colours and sounds are associated with the Hierarchy of Compassion, the Manifested Logos. Colour is Spirit (Atman), sound is Voice (Buddhi), and proportion of numbers is Word (Higher Manas). Each prismatic colour is the “Father of the Sound” which corresponds to it; Sound, being the Word or Logos, is his “Father’s Thought.” Thus the Creative Force produces colours, sounds, and numbers, in the shape of rates of vibration, which compound and dissociate atoms and molecules. Perfect knowledge of the correspondences between colours, sounds, and numbers is the first requisite for the student of Occult Philosophy. Who can assume the flower of power, the plant of the golden stem, and the azure blossom? The calamitous error leading to the sum total of mistaken views among the materialists is this: the so-called Nervous Ether is not an animal product, it is the living animal itself. It is the lowest principle of Primordial Essence, which is Life — that animal vitality diffused all around Nature; the flowers of self-consciousness, unfolding from within outwardly, are its products. But beware, under every flower there is a serpent coiled. Even when death arrives the Fluid of Life does not abandon the body. It only changes its state from activity to passivity, assuming dormancy because of the morbid state of tissues upon which it has no more hold. Once the rigor mortis has set it, the Liquor Vitæ reactivates and begins its work on the atoms chemically. The Vital Force radiates within and around a person like a luminous aura. It can be made to act at a distance to poison a fellow human being or, conversely, to heal the sick and restore health.