Revised Edition edited by A.P. Sinnett London...

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When undertaking to prepare a new edition of this book I received permission from the authors to "throw it into the form in which you think it would be most useful at the present time." It was left to my discretion, "What to use and what to omit." I have not found it necessary to avail myself to any considerable extent of this latter permission. But as the contents of the book were originally arranged the reader was ill-prepared to appreciate the importance of the later research for want of intr

The deep interest and importance of the research which this book describes will best be appreciated if introduced by an account of the circumstances out of which it arose. The first edition, consisting mainly of articles reprinted from the Theosophist , dealt at once with the later phases of the research in a way which, though intelligible to the occult student, must have been rather bewildering to the ordinary reader. These later phases, however, endow the earlier results with a significance th

The article detailing the results of the research carried on in the year 1895 (see the November issue for that year of the magazine then called Lucifer ), began with some general remarks about the clairvoyant faculty, already discussed in the preceding chapter. The original record then goes on as follows:— The physical world is regarded as being composed of between sixty and seventy chemical elements, aggregated into an infinite variety of combinations. These combinations fall under the three ma

Some of our readers may be glad to have a drawing of the Platonic solids, since they play so large a part in the building up of elements. The regular solids are five, and five only; in each: (1) The lines are equal. (2) The angles are equal. (3) The surfaces are equal. It will be seen that the tetrahedron is the fundamental form, the three-sided pyramid on a triangular base, i.e. , a solid figure formed from four triangles. Two of these generate the cube and the octahedron; five of these generat

Mr. C. Jinarâjadâsa [1] writes: The asterisk put before metargon in the list of elements should be omitted, for metargon had been discovered by Sir William Ramsey and Mr. Travers at the same time as neon (see Proceedings of the Royal Society , vol. lxiii, p. 411), and therefore before it was observed clairvoyantly. It is not, however, given in the latest list of elements in the Report of November 13, 1907, of the International Atomic Weights Commission, so it would seem as though it were not yet

The first difficulty that faced us was the identification of the forms seen on focusing the sight on gases. [2] We could only proceed tentatively. Thus, a very common form in the air had a sort of dumb-bell shape (see Plate I ); we examined this, comparing our rough sketches, and counted its atoms; these, divided by 18—the number of ultimate atoms in hydrogen—gave us 23.22 as atomic weight, and this offered the presumption that it was sodium. We then took various substances—common salt, etc.—in

We now pass from the consideration of the outer forms of the chemical elements to a study of their internal structure, the arrangement within the element of more or less complicated groups—proto-elements—capable of separate, independent existence; these, once more, may be dissociated into yet simpler groups—hyper-meta-proto-elements—equally capable of separate, independent existence, and resolvable into single ultimate physical atoms, the irreducible substratum of the physical world (see Theosop

Occultum was observed by us in 1895, and, finding that it was so light, and so simple in its composition, we thought that it might be helium, of which we were unable, at the time, to obtain a sample. When, however, helium itself came under observation in 1907, it proved to be quite different from the object before observed, so we dubbed the unrecognised object Occultum, until orthodox science shall find it and label it in proper fashion. Occultum ( Plate VI , 1). We here meet the tetrahedron for

Silver ( Plate VI , 4 and Ag below). Silver presents us with only two new bodies, and even these are only new by slight additions to old models. The triangular shaped body at the apex of the funnel, containing 21 atoms, is intermediate between the similar bodies in copper and iron. As a proto-element it becomes three triangles, joined at their apices, in fact a tetrahedron in which no atoms are distributed on the fourth face. The faces separate on the meta level and give three seven-atomed figur

We must now consider the ways in which the members of the tetrahedral groups break up, and as we proceed with this study we shall find how continual are the repetitions, and how Nature, with a limited number of fundamental methods, creates by varied combinations her infinite variety of forms. Beryllium ( Plate III , 2, and VIII , 1). Beryllium offers us four similar funnels and a central globe, and the proto-elements consist of these five bodies, set free. The funnel, released from pressure, ass

III and III a .— The Cube Groups . We have here four groups to consider, all the members of which are triads, and have six funnels, opening on the six faces of a cube. III.—Boron, scandium and yttrium were examined; they are all triatomic, paramagnetic, and positive. The corresponding group consists of nitrogen, vanadium and niobium; they are triatomic, paramagnetic, and negative. We have not examined the remaining members of these groups. In these two groups nitrogen dominates, and in order to

Boron ( Plate III , 4, and Plate XI , 1). The disintegration of boron is very simple: the funnels are set free and assume the spherical form, showing a central "cigar" and four globes each containing two triplets. The central globe is also set free with its four quintets, and breaks at once in two. On the meta level the "cigar" breaks up as usual, and the triplets separate. On the hyper level, the "cigar" follows its usual course, and the triplets become duads and units. The globe forms two quin

IV.— The Octahedral Groups. These groups are at the turns of the spiral in Sir William Crookes' lemniscates (see p. 28 ). On the one side is carbon, with below it titanium and zirconium; on the other silicon, with germanium and tin. The characteristic form is an octahedron, rounded at the angles and a little depressed between the faces in consequence of the rounding; in fact, we did not, at first, recognize it as an octahedron, and we called it the "corded bale," the nearest likeness that struck

We have now to consider the breaking up of the octahedral groups, and more and more, as we proceed, do we find that the most complicated arrangements are reducible to simple elements which are already familiar. Carbon ( Plate III , 5, and XV , 1). Carbon is the typical octahedron, and a clear understanding of this will enable us to follow easily the constitution and disintegration of the various members of these groups. Its appearance as a chemical atom is shown on Plate III , and see XV , 1. On

VI.— The Star Groups . We have now reached the last of the groups as arranged on Sir William Crookes' lemniscates, that forming the "neutral" column; it is headed by helium, which is sui generis . The remainder are in the form of a flat star (see Plate IV , 4), with a centre formed of five intersecting and "cigar"-bearing tetrahedra, and six radiating arms. Ten of these have been observed, five pairs in which the second member differs but slightly from the first; they are: Neon, Meta-neon; Argon

Radium . Radium has the form of a tetrahedron, and it is in the tetrahedral groups (see article IV ) that we shall find its nearest congeners; calcium, strontium, chromium, molybdenum resemble it most closely in general internal arrangements, with additions from zinc and cadmium. Radium has a complex central sphere ( Plate XXII ), extraordinarily vivid and living; the whirling motion is so rapid that continued accurate observation is very difficult; the sphere is more closely compacted than the

THE ÆTHER OF SPACE. Much discussion has taken place, especially between physicists and chemists, over the nature of the substances with which all space must, according to scientific hypothesis, be filled. One side contends that it is infinitely thinner than the thinnest gas, absolutely frictionless and without weight; the other asserts that it is denser than the densest solid. In this substance the ultimate atoms of matter are thought to float, like motes in a sunbeam, and light, heat and electr

[1] See footnote in next Chapter. [2] The drawings of the elements were done by two Theosophical artists, Herr Hecker and Mrs. 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. Jinarâjadâsa, 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