CHAPTER I V

THE PERMANENT ATOM.

1. THE ATTACHING OF THE ATOMS.

LET us consider the spiritual Triad, the tri-atomic Atma-Buddhi-Manas, the Jivatma, the seed of consciousness, within which the warmth of the stream of Logic life, which surrounds it, is causing faint thrillings of responsive life. These are internal thrillings, preparatory to external activities. After long prepara­tion, a tiny thread, like a minute rootlet, appears, proceeding from the tri-atomic molecule ensheathing consciousness, a golden-coloured thread of life sheathed in buddhic matter; countless such threads appear from the countless Jivatmas, waving vaguely at first in the seven great streams of life, and then becoming anchored - if the expression may be [85] permitted - by attachment to a single molecule or unit, on the fourth mental sub-plane. This anchoring - like the previous one to the three higher atoms, and like the later ones to the astral and physical atoms - is brought about by the action of the Shining Ones. Round this attached unit gather temporary aggrega­tions of elemental essence of the Second Kingdom, scattering and regathering, over and over again, ever with the attached unit as centre. This stable centre, serving for an endless succession of changing complex forms, is gradually awakened by the vibrations of these forms into faint responses, these again thrilling feebly upwards to the seed of consciousness, and producing therein vaguest internal movements. It cannot be said that each centre has always round it a form of its own; for one aggregation of elemental essence may have several, or very many, of these centres within it, or, again, may have only one, or none. Thus, with inconceivable slowness, these attached units become possessors of certain quali­ties; that is, acquire the power of [86] vibrating in certain ways, which are con­nected with thinking and will hereafter make thoughts possible. The Shining Ones of the Second Elemental Kingdom work upon them also, directing upon them the vibrations to which they gradually begin to respond, and surrounding them with the elemental essence thrown off from their own bodies.[38] Moreover, each of the seven typical groups is separated from the others by a delicate wall of monadic essence (atomic matter ensouled by the life of the Second Logos), the beginning of the wall of the future Group-Soul.

This whole process is repeated, when the Third Elemental Kingdom has been formed. The tiny thread of buddhic ensheathed life, with its attached mental unit, now pushes outwards to the desire-­plane, and attaches itself to a single astral atom, adding this to itself, as its stable centre on the desire-plane. Round this now gather temporary aggregations of elemental essence of the Third Kingdom, scattering and regathering as before. [87] Similar results follow, as the countless succession of forms ensheathes this stable centre, awaking it to similarly faint responses, which in their turn thrill feebly upwards to the seed of consciousness, producing therein, once more, vaguest internal movements. Thus, again, these attached atoms become slowly possessed of certain qualities; that is, acquire the power of vibrating in certain ways, which are connected with sensation, and will hereafter make sensations possible. Here also the Shining Ones of the Third Elemental Kingdom co-operate in the work, using their more highly developed powers of vibration to produce sympathetically in these undeveloped atoms the power of response, and, as before, giving them of their own substance. The separating wall of each of the seven groups acquires a second layer, formed of the monadic essence of the desire-plane, thus approaching a stage nearer to the wall of the future Group-Soul.

Once more is the process repeated, when the great wave has travelled onwards into the physical plane. The tiny thread of [88] buddhic-ensheathed life, with its attached mental and desire units, pushes outwards once more, and annexes a physical atom, adding this to itself as its stable centre on the physical plane. Round this gather ethereal molecules, but the heavier physical matter is more coherent than the subtler matter of the higher planes, and a much longer term of life may be observed. Then - as are formed the ethereal types of the proto-metals, and later proto-metals, metals, non-metallic elements, and minerals - the Shining Ones of the Ethereal Physical Kingdom submerge these attached atoms in their sheaths of ether into the one of the seven ethereal types to which they respectively belong, and they begin their long physical evolution. Before we can follow this further we must consider Group-Souls, which on the atomic sub­-plane receive their third enveloping layer. But it will be well to pause for a while on the nature and the function of these permanent atoms, the tri-units, or triads, which are as a reflexion on the lower planes of the spiritual Triads on the higher, and each of which is attached to [89] a spiritual Triad, its Jivatma. Each triad consists of a physical atom, an astral atom, and a mental unit, permanently attached by a thread of buddhic matter to a spiritual Triad. That thread has sometimes been called the Sutratma, the Thread-Self, because the permanent particles are threaded on it as “beads on a string”.[39]

We may again resort to a diagram, showing the relation.

[90]

2. THE WEB OF LIFE.

It has been said that the connexion with the spiritual Triad is through buddhic matter, and this is indicated in the diagram by the dotted line which connects the atoms coming down from the line in the buddhic plane, and not from the manasic atom. It is of buddhic matter that is spun the marvellous web of life which supports and vivifies all our bodies. If the bodies be looked at with buddhic vision, they all disappear, and in their places is seen a shimmering golden web of inconceivable fineness and delicate beauty, a tracery of all their parts, in a network with minute meshes. This is formed of buddhic matter, and within these meshes the coarser atoms are built together. Closer inspection shows that the whole network is formed of a single thread, which is a prolongation of the Sutratma. During the antenatal life of the babe, this thread grows out from the permanent physical atom and branches out in every direction, this growth continuing until the physical body is full grown; during physical life the prana, the life­-[91]breath, plays ever along it, following all its branches and meshes; at death it is withdrawn, leaving the particles of the body to scatter; it may be watched, slowly disentangling itself from the dense physical matter, the life-breath accompanying it, and drawing itself together in the heart round the permanent atom; as it with­draws, the deserted limbs grow cold - its absence makes the “death-chill”; the golden-violet flame of the life-breath is seen shining around it in the heart, and the flame, and the golden life-web, and the permanent atom rise along the secondary Sushumna-nadi[40] to the head, into the third ventricle of the brain; the eyes glaze, as the life-web draws itself away, and the whole of it is collected round the per­manent atom in the third ventricle; then the whole rises slowly to the point of junction of the parietal and occipital sutures, and leaves the physical body­ - [92] dead. It thus surrounds the permanent atom like a golden shell - recalling the closely woven cocoon of the silk-worm - to remain enshrouding it till the building of a new physical body again demands its unfolding. The same procedure is followed with the astral and mental particles, so that, when these bodies have disintegrated, the lower triad may be seen as a brilliantly scintillating nucleus within the causal body, an appearance which had been noted, long ere closer observation revealed its signifi­cance.

3. THE CHOOSING OF THE PERMANENT ATOMS.

Let us return to the original appropria­tion by the Monad of the permanent atoms of the three higher planes, and seek to understand something of their use, of the object of their appropriation; the same principles apply to the permanent atoms of each plane.

In the first place, it will be remembered that the matter of each plane shows out seven main types, varying according to the dominance of one or other of the [93] three great attributes of matter: inertia, mobility, and rhythm. Hence the perma­nent atoms may be chosen out of any one of these types, but it appears that, by a single Monad, they are all chosen out of the same type. It appears, further, that while the actual attachment of the perma­nent atoms to the life-thread on the three higher planes is the work of the Hierarchies before spoken of, the choice which directs the appropriation is made by the Monad himself. He himself belongs to one or other of the seven groups of Life already spoken of; at the head of each of these groups stands a Planetary Logos, who “colours” the whole, and the Monads are grouped by these colourings, each “being coloured by his ‘Father­-Star’”.[41] This is the first great deter­mining characteristic of each of us, our fundamental “colour”, or “key-note”, or “temperament”. The Monad may choose to use his new pilgrimage for the strength­ening and increasing of this special characteristic; if so, the Hierarchies will attach to his life-thread atoms belonging [94] to the group in matter corresponding to his life-group. This choice would result in the secondary “colour”, or “key­note”, or “temperament”, emphasising and strengthening the first, and, in the later evolution, the powers and the weak­nesses of that doubled temperament would show themselves with great force. Or, the Monad may choose to use his new pilgrimage for the unfolding of another aspect of his nature; then the Hierarchies will attach to his life-thread atoms belong­ing to the material group corresponding to another life-group, that in which the aspect he wills to develop is predominant. This choice would result in the secondary “colour”, or “key-note”, or “tempera­ment”, modifying the first, with corre­sponding results in the later evolution. This latter choice is obviously by far the more frequent, and it tends to a greater complexity of character, especially in the final stages of human evolution, when the influence of the Monad makes itself felt more strongly.

As said above, it appears that all the permanent atoms are taken from the same [95] material group, so that those of the lower triad correspond with those of the higher; but on the lower planes the influence of these atoms in determining the type of materials used in the bodies of which they are the generating centres - the question to which we must now turn our attention - is very much limited and interfered with by other causes. On the higher planes the bodies are relatively permanent, when once found, and reproduce definitely the keynote of their permanent atoms, how­ever enriched that note may be by overtones, ever increasing in subtlety of harmony. But on the lower planes, while the keynote of the permanent atoms will be the same, various other causes come in to determine the choice of materials for the bodies, as will be better seen presently.

4. THE USE OF THE PERMANENT ATOMS.

To put this use into a phrase: The use of the permanent atoms is to preserve within themselves, as vibratory powers, the results of all the experiences through [96] which they have passed. It will perhaps be best to take the physical atom as an illustration, since this is susceptible of easier explanation than those on higher planes.

A physical impact of any kind will cause vibrations corresponding to its own in the physical body it contacts; these may be local or general, according to the nature and force of the impact. But whether local or general, they will reach the permanent physical atom, transmitted by the web of life in all cases, and in violent impacts by mere concussion also. This vibration, forced on the atom from outside, becomes a vibratory power in the atom - a tendency therein to repeat the vibration. Through the whole life of the body, innumerable impacts strike it; not one but leaves its mark on the permanent atom; rot one but leaves it with a new possibility of vibration. All the results of physical experiences remain stored up in this permanent atom, as powers of vibrating. At the end of a physical life, this permanent atom has thus stored up innumerable vibratory powers; that is, has [97] learned to respond in countless ways to the external world, to reproduce in itself the vibrations imposed upon it by surrounding objects. The physical body disintegrates at death; its particles scatter, all carrying with them the result of the experiences through which they have passed - as indeed all particles of our bodies are ever doing day by day, in their ceaseless dyings out of one body and ceaseless birthings into another. But the physical permanent atom remains; it is the only atom that has passed through all the experiences of the ever-changing conglomerations we call our body, and it has acquired all the results of all those experiences. Wrapped in its golden cocoon, it sleeps through the long years during which the Jivatma that owns it is living through other experiences in other worlds. By these it remains unaffected, being incapable of responding to them, and it sleeps through its long night in undisturbed repose.[42]

When the time for reincarnation comes, [98] and the presence of the permanent atom renders possible the fertilisation of the ovum from which the new body is to grow,[43] its keynote sounds out, and is one of the forces which guide the ethereal builder, the elemental charged with the building of the physical body, to choose the materials suitable for his work, for he can use none that cannot be to some extent attuned to the permanent atom. But it is only one of the forces; the karma of past lives, mental, emotional, and in relation to others, demands materials capable of the most varied expressions; out of that karma, the Lords of Karma have chosen such as is congruous, i.e., such as can be expressed through a body of a particular material group; this congruous mass of karma determines the material group, over-riding the permanent atom, and out of that group are chosen by the elemental such materials as can vibrate in [99] harmony with the permanent atom, or in discords not disruptive in their violence. Hence, as said, the permanent atom is only one of the forces in determining the third “colour”, or “keynote”, or “tem­perament”, which characterises each of us. According to this temperament will be the time of the birth of the body; it must be born into the world at a time when the physical planetary influences are suitable to its third temperament, and it thus is born “under its” astrological “Star”. Needless to say, it is not the Star that imposes the temperament, but the tempera­ment that fixes the epoch of birth under that Star. But herein lies the explanation of the correspondences between Stars­ - Star-Angels, that is to say - and characters, and the usefulness for educational purposes of a skilfully and carefully drawn horoscope, as a guide to the personal temperament of a child.

That such complicated results, capable of impressing their peculiarities on surrounding matter, can exist in such minute space as an atom may, indeed, appear inconceivable - yet so it is. And it is [100] worthy notice that ordinary science countenances a similar idea, since the infinitesimal biophors in the germinal cell of Weismann are supposed to thus carry on to the offspring the characteristics of his line of progenitors. While the one brings to the body its physical peculiarities from its ancestors, the other supplies those which have been acquired by the evolving man during his own evolution. H. P. Blavatsky has put this very clearly:

“The German embryologist-philosopher - stepping over the heads of the Greek Hippocrates and Aristotle, right back into the teachings of the old Aryans - shows one infinitesimal cell, out of millions of others at work in the formation of an organism, alone and unaided determining, by means of constant segmentation and multiplication, the correct image of the future man, or animal, in its physical, mental, and psychic characteristics.

Complete the physical plasm, mentioned above, the ‘germinal cell’ of man with all its material potentialities, with the ‘spiritual plasm’ so to say, or the fluid that contains the five lower principles of [101] the six-principled Dhyani - and you have the secret, if you are spiritual enough to understand it.”[44]

A little study of physical heredity in the light of Weismann’s teachings will be sufficient to convince the student of the possibilities of such a body as the per­manent atom. A man reproduces the features of a long-past ancestor, shows out a physical peculiarity that characterised a forbear several centuries ago. We can trace the Stuart nose through a long series of portraits, and innumerable cases of such resemblances can be found. Why then should there be anything extraordinary in the idea that an atom should gather within itself not biophors, as in the germinal cell, but tendencies to repeat innumerable vibrations already practised. No spatial difficulty arises, any more than in the case of a string, from which numerous notes can be drawn by bowing it at different points, each note containing numerous overtones. We must not think of the minute space of an atom as crowded with innumerable vibrating bodies, but of a [102] limited number of bodies, each capable of setting up innumerable vibrations.

Truly, however, even the spatial diffi­culty is illusory, for there are no limits to the minute any more than to the great. Modern science now sees in the atom a system of revolving worlds, each world in its own orbit, the whole resembling a solar system. The master of illusion, Space, like his brother master, Time, cannot here daunt us. There is no limit of the possi­bilities of sub-division in thought, and hence none in the thought-expression we call matter.

The normal number of spirillae at work in the permanent atoms in this Round is four; as in the ordinary unattached atoms of matter in general at this stage of evolution. But let us take the permanent atom in the body of a very highly evolved man, a man far in advance of his fellows. In such a case we may find the permanent atom showing five spirillae at work, and may seek to learn the bearing of this fact on the general materials of his body. In ante-natal life, the presence of this five-spirillae-permanent-atom would have [103] caused the building elemental to select among his materials any similar atoms that were available. For the most part, he would be reduced to the use of any he could find, which had been in tempo­rary connexion with any body the centre of which was a five-spirillae-permanent­-atom. Its presence would have tended to arouse in them a corresponding activity, especially - perhaps only - if they had formed part of the brain or nerves of the highly developed tenant of the body. The fifth spirilla would have become more or less active in them, and although it would have dropped back into inactivity after leaving such a body, its temporary activity would have predisposed it to respond more readily in the future to the current of monadic life. Such atoms, then, would be secured by the elemental for his work, as far as possible. He would also, should opportunity serve, appropriate from the paternal or maternal bodies, if they were of a high order, any such atoms as he could secure, and build them into his charge. After birth, and throughout life, such a body would attract to itself any [104] similar atoms which came within its mag­netic field. Such a body, in the company of highly evolved persons, would profit to an exceptional degree by the pro­pinquity, appropriating any five-spirillae­-atoms which were present in the shower of particles flung off from their bodies, and thus gaining physically, as well as mentally and morally, from their company.

The permanent astral atom bears exactly the same relation to the astral body as that borne by the physical permanent atom to the physical body. At the end of the life in kamaloka – purgatory - the golden life­-web withdraws from the astral body, leaving it to disintegrate, as its physical comrade had previously done, and enwraps the astral permanent atom for its long sleep. A similar relation is borne to the mental body by the permanent mental particle during physical, astral, and mental life; during the early stages of human evolution little improvement is made in the mental permanent unit by the brief devachanic lives, not only on account of their brevity, but because the feeble thought-forms produced by the [105] undeveloped intelligence affect very slightly the permanent unit. But when thought-­power is more highly evolved, the devachanic life is a time of great improve­ment, and innumerable vibratory energies are stored up, and show their value when the time arrives for the building of a new mental body for the next cycle of reincar­nation. At the close of the mental life in devachan, the golden web withdraws from the mental body, leaving it also to dis­integrate, while it enwraps the mental particle; and the lower triad of permanent atoms alone remains as the representative of the three lower bodies. These are stored up, as before said, as a radiant nucleus-like particle within the causal body. They are thus all that remains to the Ego of his bodies in the lower worlds, when that cycle of experience is completed, as they were his means of communication with the lower planes during the life of those bodies.

When comes the period for re-birth, a thrill of life from the Ego arouses the mental unit; the life-web begins to unfold again, and, the vibrating unit acts as a [106] magnet, drawing towards itself materials with vibratory powers resembling, or accordant with, its own. The Shining Ones of the Second Elemental Kingdom bring such materials within its reach; in the earlier stages of evolution they shape the matter into a loose cloud around the permanent unit, but as evolution goes on the Ego exercises over the shaping an ever-increasing influence. When the mental body is partially formed, the life­-thrill awakens the astral atom, and the same procedure is followed. Finally the life-touch reaches the physical atom, and it acts in the way already described on pp. 98-100.

A questioner sometimes asks: How can these permanent atoms be stored up within the causal body, without losing their physical, astral, and mental natures, since the causal body exists on a higher plane, where the physical, as physical, cannot be? Such a querent is forgetting, for a moment, that all the planes are inter­penetrating, and that it is no more difficult for the causal body to encircle the triad of the lower planes, than for it to encircle the [107] hundreds of millions of atoms that form the mental, astral, and physical bodies belonging to it during a period of earth-­life. The triad forms a minute particle within the causal body; each constituent part of it belongs to its own plane, but, as the planes have meeting points everywhere, no difficulty arises in the necessary juxtaposition. We are all on all planes at all times.

5. MONADIC ACTION ON THE PERMANENT ATOMS.

We may here enquire: Is there any­thing that can be properly termed monadic action - the action of the Monad on the anupadaka plane - on the permanent atom. Of direct action there is none, nor can there be until the germinal spiritual Triad has reached a high stage of evolu­tion; indirect action, that is action on the spiritual Triad, which in turn acts on the lower, there is continually. But for all practical purposes we may consider it as the action of the spiritual Triad, which, as we have seen, is the Monad veiled [108] in matter denser than that of his native plane.

The spiritual Triad is drawing most of his energy, and all the directive capacity of that energy, from the Second Logos, bathed as he is in that stream of Life. What may be called his own special activity does not concern itself with all the shaping and building activity of the Second Life-Wave, but is directed to the evolution of the atom itself, in association with the Third Logos. This energy from the spiritual Triad confines itself to the atomic sub-planes, and, until the fourth Round, appears to spend itself chiefly on the permanent atoms. It is directed first to the shaping and then to the vivifying of the spirillae which form the wall of the atom. The vortex, which is the atom, is the life of the Third Logos; but the wall of the spirillae is gradually formed on the external surface of this vortex during the descent of the Second Logos, not vivified by Him, but faintly traced out over the surface of this revolving vortex of life. They remain - so far as the Second Logos is concerned - merely as these [109] filmy unused channels, but presently, as the life of the Monad flows down, it plays into the first of these channels, vivifying that channel and turning it into a working part of the atom. This goes on through the successive Rounds, and by the time we reach the fourth Round we have four distinct streams of life from each Monad, circulating through four sets of spirillae in his own permanent atoms. Now as the Monad works in the per­manent atom, and it is put forward as the nucleus of a body, he begins to work similarly in the atoms that are drawn round that permanent atom, and vivifies in turn their spirillae; but that is tem­porary vivification, and not continuous as in the case of the permanent atom. He thus brings into activity these faint shadowy films, formed by the Second Life-Wave, and, when the life of the body is broken up, the atoms thus stimu­lated return to the great mass of atomic matter, improved and worked upon by the life which, during their connexion with the permanent atom, has been vivi­fying them. The channels, being thus [110] developed, are more capable of easily receiving another such life-stream, as they enter another body, and therein come into relation with a permanent atom belonging to some other Monad. Thus this work continually goes on, on the physical and astral planes, and in the particle of mental matter on the mental plane, improving the materials with which the Monads are permanently or temporarily connected, and this evolution of atoms is constantly going on under the influence of the Monads. The permanent atoms evolve more rapidly, because of their continuity of connexion with the Monad, while the others profit by their repeated temporary association with the permanent atoms.

During the first Round of the terrene Chain, the first set of spirillae of the physical plane atoms becomes thus vivified by the life of the Monad flowing through the spiritual Triad. This is the set of spirillae used by the pranic, or life­-breath, currents affecting the dense part of the physical body. Similarly in the second Round the second set of spirillae becomes active, and herein play [111] the pranic currents connected with the etheric double. During these two Rounds nothing can be found, in connexion with any form, that can be called sensations of pleasure and pain. During the third Round, the third set of spirillae becomes vivified, and here first appears what is called sensibility; for, through these spirillae, kamic or desire energy can affect the physical body, the kamic prana can play in them, and thus bring the physical into direct communication with the astral. During the fourth Round, the fourth set of spirillae becomes vivified, and the kama-manasic prana plays in them, and makes them fit to be used for the building of a brain which is to act as the instrument for thought.

When a person passes out of the normal, and takes up the abnormal human evolution involved in preparing for and entering the Path which lies beyond normal evolution, he has then, in connexion with his permanent atoms, a task of exceeding difficulty. He must vivify more sets of spirillae than are vivified in the humanity of his time. [112] Four sets are already at his service, as a fourth Round man. He begins to vivify a fifth, and thus to bring into manifestation the fifth Round atom while still working in a fourth Round body. It is to this that allusion is made in some early theosophical books, in which “Fifth Rounders” and “Sixth Rounders” are spoken of as appearing in our present humanity. Those thus designated have evolved the fifth and sixth set of spirillae in their permanent atoms, thus obtaining a better instrument for the use of their highly developed consciousness. The change is brought about by certain yoga practices in the use of which great caution is required, lest injury should be inflicted on the brain in which this work is being carried on, and further progress along that particular line stopped during the present incarnation. [113]