Theos-Talk Archives (November 2001 Message tt00387)

Here are some comments on the pages Daniel requested we look at. Hopefully
Dan will add his own comments?! Some parts are straight forward so I have
not responded to everything. I have broken it up into a number of posts,
for the comments do not make sense without including the passages from the
SD and to keep them all together would make the post huge! If I have time I
will send some thoughts on the remaining qoutes in the next few days.

...Peter


***********Quote # 1, SD Vol I pg 569*************
And this shows that the ancient Initiates, who were followed more or less
closely by all profane antiquity, meant by the term "ATOM," a Soul, a Genius
or Angel, the first-born of the ever-concealed CAUSE of all causes; and in
this sense their teachings become comprehensible. They claimed, as do their
successors, the existence of Gods and Genii, angels or "demons," not
outside, or independent of, the Universal Plenum, but within it. Only this
Plenum, during the life-cycles, is infinite. They admitted and taught a good
deal of that which modern Science teaches now --namely, the existence of a
primordial "World-stuff or Cosmic Substance," from which worlds are formed,
ever and eternally homogeneous, except during its periodic existence, when
it differentiates its universal diffusion throughout infinite space; and the
gradual formation of sidereal bodies from it. They taught the revolution of
the Heavens, the Earth's rotation, the Heliocentric System, and the Atomic
Vortices -- Atoms -- in reality Souls and intelligences. But those
"Atomists" were spiritual, most transcendental, and philosophical
Pantheists. It is not they who would have ever conceived, or dreamt that
monstrous contrasted progeny, the nightmare of our modern civilized Race;
namely -- inanimate material, self-guiding atoms, on the one hand, and an
extra-Cosmic God on the other.
****************************

JERRY: Rather than assuming inanimate matter directed by either chance or
God, she is saying here that the most fundamental of particles are
self-conscious and presumably guided by karma. Matter, as inanimate
independent external solid substance does not exist. Modern science would
agree with this, and would say that a vacuum, the total absence of matter in
space, does not exist either.
=============================

PETER comments: I think here, as throughout the SD, we are being given some
of the basic ideas of the OCCULT SCIENCE. There is no such thing as
inanimate matter. Quite so. But Theosophy teaches more.

By saying that with the Ancient Initiates the term "Atom" meant "a Soul, a
Genius or Angel, THE FIRST-BORN of the ever-concealed CAUSE of all causes"
this is a reference to 3 different types, or degree, of 'spiritual Atom'.
The reference to "Gods and Demons" within the Plenum is in part a link to
the hierarchy of Dhyan Chohans (spiritual intelligences) 'behind' all the
forces and states of matter on all planes. When we read in the Key to
Theosophy that each plane has its own consciousness, energy and state of
matter (of its own kind) she is referring in part to this hierarchy of
'Intelligences' in nature which range from the highest Dhyan Chohans down to
the lowest elementals. Each 'individuality' is part of a larger
'individuality' which in term is part of a larger 'individuality' and so on
up the hierarchical chain. One might say these embody the laws of Nature
and are the agents of Karma. This is the ongoing series of phenomenon and
noumenon that Steve correctly referred to, in my view, in a recent post.
Each noumenon is the phenomenon of another noumenon 'behind' it & so on from
elementals to lower devas to Dhyan Chohans.....

A further clue is offered by HPB elsewhere in the SD when she states that
each of the human principles has its 'source' in a Dhyani. Sometimes she
uses the phrase 'a portion of the essence', so we might say each human
principle is a portion of the essence of a Dhyani. For example, Buddhi in
'Man' is a portion of the essence of one of the Seven forms of Dhyani
Buddha; the higher mind in 'Man', (Buddhi-Manas) is a Kumara (a 'god', a
class of Dhyani referred to as Agniswattha); the astral double is an
'effusion' of those Dhyanis referred to as the Barhishads (Lunar Pitris).
The elementals of various grades and qualities are the life atoms that we
attract to make up our psycho-physical make up (kama-manas-physical). Hence
the human being is truly the Kosmos in miniature.

There is an interesting passage in the SD which links with this:

"The Dhyanis of the Seven Heavens (the seven planes of Being) are the
NOUMENOI of the actual and the future Elements, just as the Angels of the
Seven Powers of nature - the grosser effects of which are perceived by us in
what Science is pleased to call the "modes of motion" -- the imponderable
forces and what not -- are the still higher noumenoi of still higher
Hierarchies."
(SD II 273)

...Peter