The Theosophical Society,
The Formation of a Solar System
From
A Textbook of Theosophy
By
C
The
beginning of the universe (if ever it had a beginning) is beyond our ken. At
the earliest point of history that we can reach,
the two great opposites of Spirit and matter, of life and form, are already in
full activity. We find that the ordinary conception of matter needs a revision,
for what are commonly called force and matter are in reality only two varieties
of Spirit at different stages in evolution, and the real matter or basis of
everything lies in the background unperceived. A French scientist has recently
said: “There is no matter; there is nothing but holes in the aether”.
This
also agrees with the celebrated theory of Professor Osborne Reynolds.
Occult
investigation shows this to be the correct view, and in that way explains
what Oriental sacred books mean when they say that
matter is an illusion.
The
ultimate root-matter as seen at our level is what scientists call the aether
of space. ( This has been
described in Occult Chemistry under the name of
koilon) To every physical
sense the space occupied by it appears empty, yet in
reality this aether is
far denser than anything of which we can conceive. Its
density is defined by Professor Reynolds as
being ten thousand (Page 19) times
greater than that of water, and it means
pressure as seven hundred and fifty
thousand tons to the square inch.
This
substance is perceptible only to highly developed clairvoyant power. We
must assume a time (though we have no direct
knowledge on this point) when this substance filled all space. We must also
suppose that some great Being (not the Deity of a solar system, but some Being
almost infinitely higher than that)
changed this condition of rest by pouring out
His spirit or force into a certain
section of this matter, a section of the size of
a whole universe. The effect of
the introduction of this force is at that of the
blowing of a mighty breath; it
has formed within this aether
an incalculable number of tiny spherical bubbles
(The
bubbles are spoken of in The Secret Doctrine as the holes which Fohat digs in space), and these bubbles are the ultimate
atoms of which what we call matter is composed. They are not the atoms of the
chemist, nor even the ultimate atoms of the physical world. They stand at a far
higher level, and what are usually called atoms are
composed of vast aggregations of these bubbles, as will be seen later.
When
the Solar Deity begins to make His system, He finds ready to His hand this
material – this infinite mass of tiny bubbles which can be built up into
various kinds of matter as we know it. He commences by defining the limit of
His field of activity, a vast sphere whose circumference is far larger than the
orbit of the outermost of His future planets. Within the limit of that sphere
He sets up a kind of gigantic vortex – a motion which sweeps together all the
bubbles into a vast central mass, the material
of the nebula that is to be.
Into
this vast revolving sphere He sends forth successive impulses of force,
gathering together the bubbles into ever more and
more complex aggregations, and producing in this way seven gigantic
interpenetrating worlds of matter of
different degrees of density, all concentric and
all occupying the same space.
Acting
through His Third Aspect, He sends forth into this stupendous sphere the first
of these impulses. It sets up all through the sphere a vast number of tiny
vortices, each of which draws into itself
forty-nine bubbles and arranges them
in a certain shape. These little groupings of
bubbles so formed are the atoms of
the second of the interpenetrating worlds. The
whole number of the bubbles is
not used in this way, sufficient being left in the
dissociated state to act as
atoms for the first and highest of these worlds. In
due time comes the second
impulse, which seizes upon nearly all these
forty nine bubble atoms (leaving
only enough to provide atoms for the second world),
draws them back into itself
and then, throwing them out again, sets up among
them vortices, each of which
holds within itself 2,401 bubbles (49 2). These form
the atoms of the third
world. Again after a time comes a third impulse,
which in the same way seizes
upon nearly all these 2,401 bubble atoms, draws them
back again into their
original form, and again throws them outward once
more as the atoms of the
fourth world – (Page 21) each atom containing this
time 49 3 bubbles. This
process is repeated until the sixth of these
successive impulses has built the
atom of the seventh or lowest world – that atom
containing 49 6 of the original
bubbles.
This
atom of the seventh world is the ultimate atom of the physical world – not
any of the atoms of which chemists speak, but that
ultimate out of which all
their atoms are made. We have at this stage arrived
at that condition of affairs
in which the vast whirling sphere contains within
itself seven types of matter,
all one in essence, because all built of the same
kind of bubbles, but differing in their degree of density. All these types are freely
intermingled, so that specimens of each type would be found in a small portion
of the sphere taken at random in any part of it, with, however, a general
tendency of the heavier atoms to gravitate more and more towards the center.
The
seventh impulse sent out from the Third Aspect of the Deity does not, as
before, draw back the physical atoms which were last
made into the original
dissociated bubbles, but draws them together into
certain aggregations, thus
making a number of different kinds of what may be
called proto-elements, and
these again are joined together into the various
forms which are known to
science as chemical elements. The making of
these extends over a period of ages, and they are made in a certain definite
order by the interaction of several
forces, as is correctly indicated in Sir William Crookes’ paper on The Genesis
of the Elements. Indeed the process of their
making it is not even now
concluded; uranium is the latest and heaviest
element so far as we know, but
others still more complicated may perhaps be produced
in the future.
As
ages roll on the condensation increased, and presently the stage of a vast
glowing nebula was reached. As it cooled, still
rapidly rotating, it flattened
into a huge disc and gradually broke up into rings
surrounding a central body –
an arrangement not unlike that which Saturn
exhibits at the present day, though
on a far larger scale. As the time drew near when
the planets would be required
for the purposes of evolution, the Deity set up
somewhere in the thickness of
each ring a subsidiary vortex, into which a great
deal of the matter of the ring
was by degrees collected. The collisions of the
gathered fragments caused a
revival of the heat, and the resulting planet
was for a long time a mass of
glowing gas. Little by little it cooled once
more, until it became fit to be the
theatre of life such as ours. Thus were all the
planets formed.
Almost
all the matter of those interpenetrating worlds was by this time
concentrated into the newly formed
planets. Each of them was and is composed of all those different kinds of
matter. The earth upon which we are now living is
not merely a great ball of physical matter, built
of the atoms of that lowest
world, but has also attached to it an abundant supply
of matter of the sixth,
the fifth, the fourth and other worlds. It is well
known to all students of
science that particles of matter never actually
touch one another, even in the
hardest of substances. The spaces between them are
always far greater in proportion than their own size – enormously greater. So
there is ample room
for
all the other kinds of atoms of all those other worlds, not only to lie between
the atoms of the denser matter, but to move quite freely among them and around
them. Consequently this globe upon which we live is not one world, but seven
interpenetrating worlds, all occupying the same space,
except that the finer types of matter extend further from the center than does
the denser matter.
We
have given names to these interpenetrating worlds for convenience in speaking
of them. No name is needed for the first, as man is not yet in direct
connection with it; but when it is necessary to mention it, it may be called
the divine world. The second is described as the monadic, because in it exist
those Sparks of the divine Life which we call the human Monads; but neither of
these can be touched by the highest clairvoyant investigations at present
possible for us.
The
third sphere, whose atoms contain 2,401 bubbles, is called the spiritual
world, because in it functions the highest Spirit in
man as now constituted. The
fourth is the intuitional world (Previously called in
theosophical literature
the buddhic plane)
because from it come the highest intuitions. The fifth is the
mental world, because of its matter is built the mind
of man. The sixth is
called the emotional or astral world, because the
emotions of man cause
undulations in its matter. (The name astral was
given to it by mediaeval
alchemists, because its matter is starry or shining
as (Page 24) compared to
that of the denser world). The seventh world,
composed of the type of matter
which we see all around us, is called the physical.
The
matter of which all these interpenetrating worlds are built is essentially
the same matter, but differently arranged and of
different degrees of density.
Therefore
the rates at which these various types of matter normally vibrate
differ also. They may be considered as a vast gamut of
undulations consisting of
many octaves. The physical matter uses a certain
number of the lowest of these
octaves, the astral matter another group of
octaves just above that, the mental
matter a still further group, and so on.
Not
only has each of these worlds its own type of matter; it has also its own
set of aggregations of that matter – its own
substances. In each world we
arrange these substances in seven classes
according to the rate at which their
molecules vibrate. Usually, but not invariably, the
slower oscillation involves
also a larger molecule – a molecule, that is built
up by a special arrangement
of the smaller molecules of the next higher
subdivision. The application of heat
increases the size of the molecules and also
quickens and amplifies their
undulation, so that they cover more ground, and the
object as a whole expands,
until the point is reached where the aggregation of
molecules breaks up, and the
latter passes from one condition to that next above
it. In the matter of the
physical world the seven subdivisions are
represented by seven degrees of
density of matter, to which, beginning from
below upwards, we give the names
solid liquid, gaseous, etheric,
super-etheric, subatomic and atomic.(Page 25)
The
atomic subdivision is one in which all forms are built by the compression
into certain shapes of the physical atoms, without
any previous collection of
these atoms into blocks or molecules. Typifying the
physical ultimate atom for
the moment by a brick, any form in the atomic
subdivision would be made by
gathering together some of the bricks, and
building them into a certain shape.
In
order to make matter for the next lower subdivision, a certain number of the
bricks (atoms) would be first gathered together and
cemented into small blocks
of say four bricks each, five bricks each, six
bricks or seven bricks; and then
these blocks so made would be used as
building-stones. For the next subdivision several of the blocks of the second
subdivision cemented together in certain shapes would form building-stones, and
so on to the lowest.
To
transfer any substance from the solid condition to the liquid (that is to
say, to melt it) is to increase the vibration of
its compound molecules until at
last they are shaken apart into the simpler
molecules of which they were built.
This
process can in all cases be repeated again and again until finally any and
every physical substance can be reduced to the
ultimate atoms of the physical
world.
Each
of these worlds has its inhabitants, whose senses are normally capable of
responding to the undulations of their own world
only. A man living (as we are
all doing) in the physical world sees, hears,
feels, by vibrations connected
with the physical matter around him. He is equally surrounded
by the astral and
mental and other worlds which are interpenetrating his
own denser world, but of
them he is normally unconscious, because his senses
cannot respond to the oscillations of their matter, just as our physical eyes
cannot see by the vibrations of ultraviolet light, although scientific
experiments show that they exist and there are other consciousnesses with
differently-formed organs who can see by them. A being living in the astral
world might be occupying the very same space as a being living in the physical
world, yet each would be entirely unconscious of the other and would in no way
impede the free movement of the other. The same is true of all the other
worlds. We are at this moment surrounded by these worlds of finer matter, as
close to us as the world we see, and their inhabitants are passing through us
and about us, but we are entirely unconscious of them.
Since
our evolution is centered at present upon this globe which we call the
earth, it is in connection with it only that we shall
be speaking of these
higher worlds, so in future when I use the term
“astral world” I shall mean by
it the astral part of our own globe only, and not
(as heretofore) the astral
part of the whole solar system. This astral part of
our own world is also a
globe, but of astral matter. It occupies the same
place as the globe which we
see, but its matter (being so much lighter) extends
out into space on all sides
of us further than does the atmosphere of the
earth – a great deal further. It
stretches to a little less than the mean distance
of the moon, so that though
the two physical globes, the earth and the moon,
are nearly 240,000 miles apart,
the astral globes of these two bodies touch one
another when the moon is in
perigee, but not when she is in apogee. I shall
apply (Page 27) the term “mental
world” to the still larger globe of mental matter in
the midst of which our
physical earth exists. When we come to the still
higher globes we have spheres
large enough to touch the corresponding spheres of
other planets in the system,
though their matter also is just as much about us here
on the surface of the
solid earth as that of the others. All these globes
of finer matter are a part
of us, and are all revolving round the sun with
their visible part. The student
will do well to accustom himself to think of our
earth as the whole of this mass
of interpenetrating worlds – not only the
comparatively small physical ball in
the center of it.
The Theosophical Society,