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Besant & LeadbeaterPAGE 4
CHAPTER I
THE NATURE OF MATTER
An article, bearing the title Occult Chemistry, appeared in Lucifer (London), November 1895, and was
reprinted as a separate pamphlet in 1905. In that article three chemical elements, Hydrogen. Oxygen and Nitrogen, were clairvoyantly examined, and their analyses were presented tentatively to the public. The work was done by Mr Leadbeater and myself. The pressing nature of our other labours prevented further investigation at the time, but we have, however, lately (1907) had the opportunity of pursuing these researches further, and as a considerable amount of work has been done, it seems worth while, still tentatively, to report the observations made. Certain principles seem to emerge from the mass of details, and it is possible that readers, who are better versed in chemistry than ourselves, may see suggestions to which we are blind. An observer's duty is to state clearly his observations: it is for others to judge of their value, and to decide whether they indicate lines of research that may be profitably followed up by scientists.
The drawings of the elements (in the first edition) were done by two Theosophical artists, Herr Hecker and
Mrs M. L. Kirby, whom we sincerely thank; the diagrams, showing the details of the construction of each element, we owe to the most painstaking labour of Mr C. Jinarajadasa, without whose aid it would have been impossible for us to have presented clearly and definitely the complicated arrangements by which the chemical elements are built up. We have also to thank him for a number of most useful notes, implying much careful research, which are incorporated in the present series, and without which we could not have written these papers. Lastly, we have to thank Sir William Crookes for kindly lending his diagram of the grouping of the elements, showing them as arranged on successive "figures of eight", a grouping which, as will be seen, receives much support from clairvoyant observations.
As we study these complex arrangements, we realize the truth of the old Platonic idea that the LOGOS
geometrizes; and we recall H. P. Blavatsky's statement that nature ever builds by form and number.
The physical world is regarded (1895) as being composed of between sixty and seventy chemical
elements, aggregated into an infinite variety of combinations. These combinations fall under the three main heads of solids, liquids and gases, the recognized substates of physical matter, with the theoretical ether (Aether of space) scarcely admitted as material. It would not be allowed (by scientists) that gold could be raised to the etheric condition as it might be to the liquid and gaseous. The clairvoyant finds that the gaseous is succeeded by the etheric state, as the solid is succeeded by the liquid. The etheric state is found to cover four substates, as distinct from each other as are solids, liquids and gases. All chemical elements have their four etheric substates, which, with the solid, liquid, and gaseous, give us seven substates of matter in the physical world.
The method by which these four etheric substates were studied consisted in taking what is called by
chemists an atom of an element and breaking it up, time after time, until what proved to be the ultimate physical unit was reached.
HYDROGEN
The first chemical atom selected for examination was an atom of Hydrogen (H).
On looking carefully at it, it was seen to consist of six small bodies, contained in an egg-like form, Fig. 1. It
rotated with great rapidity on it own axis, vibrating at the same time, the internal bodies performing similar gyrations. The whole atom spins and, quivers and has to be steadied before exact observation is possible.
The six little bodies are arranged in two sets of three, forming two triangles that are not interchangeable.
The lines in the diagram of the atom on the gaseous sub-plane, Fig 1, are not lines of force, but show the two triangles; on a plane surface the interpenetration of the triangles cannot be clearly indicated. The six bodies are not all alike; they each contain three smaller bodies -- each of these being an ultimate physical atom or Arnoo. In two of them the three Arnoo are arranged in a line, while in the remaining four they are arranged in a triangle.
The first thing that happens on removing a gaseous atom from its 'hole' or encircling wall, is that the
contained bodies are set free, and, evidently released from tremendous pressure, assume spherical or ovoid forms, the Arnoo within each re-arranging themselves, more or less, within the new 'hole' or 'wall'. The figures are, of course, three-dimensionaI and often remind one of crystals; tetrahedra, octahedra, and other like forms being of constant occurrence.
It is, of course, impossible to convey in words the clear conceptions that are gained by direct vision of the
objects of study, and Fig. 2 is offered as a substitute, however poor, for the lacking vision of the readers. The horizontal lines separate from each other the seven substates of matter; solid, liquid, gas, ether 4, ether 3, ether 2, ether 1. The successive changes undergone by the Hydrogen atom are shown in the compartments vertically above it. It must be remembered that the bodies shown diagrammatically in no way indicate relative size; as a body is raised from one substate to the one immediately above it, it is enormously magnified for the purpose of investigation.
When the gaseous .atom of Hydrogen is raised to the E4 level the wall of the limiting spheroid in which the
bodies are enclosed, being composed of the matter of the gaseous kind, drops away and the six bodies are set free. They at once re-arrange themselves in two triangles, each enclosed by a limiting sphere; one sphere having a positive character, the other being negative. These form the Hydrogen particles of the lowest etheric plane, marked E4 (Ether 4) in Fig. 2.
On raising to E3, they undergo another disintegration, losing their limiting walls. The positive sphere
becomes two bodies, one consisting of the two groups distinguishable by the linear arrangement of the contained Arnoo, enclosed in a wall and the other being the third body enclosed on the E4 level and now set free. The negative sphere also becomes two bodies, one consisting of the two groups of three Arnoo, and the second, the remaining body, being set free. These free bodies do not remain on the E3 level but pass immediately to E2 leaving the positive and negative groups, each containing two groups of three Arnoo, as the representatives of Hydrogen on E3. On taking these bodies a step higher to E2 in their turn, their wall disappears and the internal triads are set free, those containing the Arnoo arranged lineally being positive, and those with the triangular arrangement being negative.
On again raising these bodies a step further, the faIling away of the walls sets the contained Arnoo free and
we reach the ultimate physical atom, the matter of El, the Arnoo. The disintegration of this sets free particles of astral matter, so that we have thus reached the limit of physical matter.
The building up of a gaseous atom of Hydrogen may also be traced downwards from the El level. Every
combination begins by a welling up of force at a centre, which is to form the centre of the combination. In the first positive Hydrogen combination on the E2 level an Arnoo revolving at right: angles to the plane of the paper and also revolving on its own axis, forms the centre, and force, rushing out at its lower point, rushes in at the depressions of two other Arnoo, which then set themselves with their points to the centre. As this triad whirls round, it clears itself a space, pressing back the undifferentiated matter of the plane, and making to itself a whirling wall of this matter, thus taking the first step towards building up the chemical Hydrogen atom. A negative triad is similarly formed, the three Arnoo being symmetrically arranged round the centre of out-welling force.
These triads then combine, two of the linear arrangements being attracted to each other and two of the
triangular, force again welling up and forming a centre and acting on the triads as on a single Arnoo, and a limiting wall being again formed as the combination revolves round its centre.
The next stage, the E4 level is produced by each of these combinations attracting to itself a third triad of
the triangular type by the setting up of a new centre of up-welling force. Two of these uniting, and their triangles interpenetrating, the chemical atom is formed and we find it to contain all eighteen Arnoo.
Further details and diagrams concerning Hydrogen, based on later researches, are given in Chapter 2.
THE NATURE OF MATTER: THE ULTIMATE PHYSICAL ATOM OR ARNOO
As we have seen, a chemical atom may be dissociated into less complicated bodies; these, again, into
still less complicated; these, again, into yet still less complicated. After the third dissociation but one more is possible; the fourth dissociation gives the ultimate physical atom on the atomic sub-plane, the Arnoo. This may vanish from the plane, but it can undergo no further dissociation on it. In this ultimate state of physical matter two types of units, or Arnoo, have been observed; they are alike in everything save the direction of their whorls and of the force which pours through them. In the one case force pours in from the "outside", from fourth-dimensional space, the Astral plane, and passing through the Arnoo, pours into the physical world. In the second, it pours in from the physical world, and out through the Arnoo into the "outside " again, i.e., vanishes from the physical world. The one is like a spring, from which water bubbles out; the other is like a hole, into which water disappears. We call the Arnoo from which force comes out positive or male; those through which it disappears, negative or female. All Arnoo, so far observed: are of one or other of these two forms. Fig. 3.
Fig. 3. THE ARNOO
It will be seen that the Arnoo is a sphere, slightly flattened, and there is a depression at the point where the
force flows in, causing a heart-like form. Each is surrounded by a field.
The Arnoo can scarcely be said to be a "thing", though it is the material out of which all things physical are
composed. It is formed by the flow of the life-force and vanishes with its ebb. The life-force is known to Theosophists as Fohat, the force of which all the physical plane forces are differentiations.
When this force arises in "space", that is when Fohat "digs holes in space," -- the apparent void which
must be filled with substance of some kind, of inconceivable tenuity -- Arnoo appear; if this be artificially stopped for a single Arnoo, the Arnoo disappears; there is nothing left. Presumably, were that flow checked but for an instant, the whole physical world would vanish as a cloud melts away in the empyrean. It is only the persistence of that flow (the first life-wave, the work of the third Logos) which maintains the physical basis of the universe.
In order to examine the construction of the Arnoo, a space is artificially made. (By a certain action of the will
known to students, it is possible to make such a space by pressing back and walling off the matter of space.) Then, if an opening be made in the wall thus constructed, the surrounding force flows in, and three whorls immediately appear surrounding the "hole" with their triple spiral of two and a half coils, and returning to their origin by a spiral within the Arnoo; these are at once followed by seven finer whorls, which, following the spiral of the first three on the outer surface, and returning to their origin by a spiral within that, flowing in the opposite direction -- form a caduceus with the first three. Each of the three coarser whorls, flattened out, makes a closed circle; each of the seven finer ones, similarly flattened out, makes a closed circle. The forces which flow in them again come from "outside", from a fourth-dimensional space. Each of the finer whorls is formed of seven yet finer ones, set successively at right angles to each other, each finer than its predecessor; these we call spirillae. (Each spirilla is animated by the life-force of a plane, and four are at present normally active, one for each Round. Their activity in an individual may be prematurely forced by yoga practice.)
In the three whorls flow currents of different electricities; the seven whorls vibrate in response to etheric
waves of all kinds -- to sound, light, heat, etc.; they show the seven colours of the spectrum; give out the seven sounds of the natural scale; respond in a variety of ways to physical vibration -- flashing, singing, pulsing bodies, they move incessantly, inconceivably beautiful and brilliant.
The Arnoo is a sun in miniature in its own universe of the inconceivably minute.
Each of the seven whorls is connected with one of the Planetary Logoi, so that each PIanetary Logos bas a
direct influence playing on the very matter of which all things are constructed. It may be supposed that the three conveying electricity, a differentiation of Fohat, are related to the Solar Logos.
Force pours into the heart-shaped depression at the top of the Arnoo, and issues from the point, and is
changed in character by its passage; further, force rushes through every spiral and every spirilla, and the changing shades of colour that flash out from the rapidly revolving and vibrating Arnoo depend on the several activities of the spirals; sometimes one, sometimes another, is thrown into more energetic action, and with the change of activity from one spiral to another the colour changes.
The Arnoo has -- as observed so far -- three proper motions, i.e., motions of its own, independent of any
imposed upon it from outside. It turns incessantly upon its own axis, spinning like a top; it describes a small circle with its axis, as though the axis of the spinning top moved in a small circle; it has a regular pulsation, a contraction and expansion, like the pulsation of the heart. When a force is brought to bear upon it, it dances up and down, flings itself wildly from side to side, performs the most astonishing and rapid gyrations, but the three fundamental motions incessantly persist. If it be made to vibrate, as a whole, at the rate which gives any one of the seven colours, the whorl belonging to that colour glows out brilliantly.
THE NATURE OF MATTER
An electric current brought to bear upon the Arnoo checks their proper motions, i.e., renders them slower;
the Arnoo exposed to it arrange themselves in parallel lines, and in each line the heart-shaped depression receives the flow, which passes out through the apex into the depression of the next, and so on. The Arnoo always set themselves to the current. Fig. 4. In all the diagrams the heart-shaped body, exaggerated to show the depression caused by the inflow and the point caused by the outflow, is a single Arnoo.
ARNOO AFFECTED BY ELECTRIC CURRENT
The action of electricity opens up ground of large extent, and cannot be dealt with here. Does it act on the
Arnoo themselves, or on molecules, or sometimes on one and sometimes on the other? In soft iron, for instance, are the internal arrangements of the chemical atom forcibly distorted, and do they elastically return to their original relations when released? In steel is the distortion permanent?
It will be understood from the foregoing, that the Arnoo cannot be said to have a wall of its own, unless
these whorls of force can be so designated; its "wall" is the pressed back "space". As said in 1895, of the chemical atom, the force "clears itself a space, pressing back the undifferentiated matter of the plane, and making to itself a whirling wall of this matter". The wall belongs to space, not to the atom.
NOTE BY C. JINARAJADASA:
The sphere-wall of the Arnoo. Each Arnoo, as each group of Arnoo, whether few in number or making a
large configuration as in Radium, has round it what has been termed a " sphere-wall". This enclosing sphere is at a great distance from the central group and is generally a sphere; there are a few exceptions as in Nitrogen, an ovoid. When writing out for publication the structure of the Arnoo, Annie Besant stated that the sphere-wall of the Arnoo was composed of the "undifferentiated matter of the plane ". From the beginning this has created difficulties for me, since the term used by her to describe the sphere-wall could only be composed of Arnoo. It was only later that a special investigation was made to examine the nature of the sphere-wall of the Arnoo. Though there were no final conclusions on the matter, it appeared to the investigator as if the sphere-wall was composed of forces radiating from the centre, which after travelling a certain distance, returned to the centre. The nature of this radiating force was not analyzed. Therefore. though the sphere-wall appears as a part of the Arnoo. it is only a temporary phenomenon. It was later discovered that the sphere-walls of Arnoo within the solar system were all compressed by the attraction of the sun. When so compressed the sphere-wall did not, as expected, have the shape of the dodecahedron, but that of the rhombic dodecahedron.
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