Annie Besant

“ The five bodies within the ellipse, three monads and two sextets, show two which we have had before: d, which behaves like the quintet and quartet in silicon, after their junction, and b, which we have had in iron. The two bodies c are a variant of the square-based pyramid, one atom at the apex, and two at each of the other angles. The globe, e, is a new form, the four tetrahedra of the proto level making a single twelve-atomed one on the meta. The body a splits up into triplets on the hyper; b and d follow their iron and silicon models; c yields four duads and a unit ”

“ But if we wish to have a right view of the realities underlying manifestation in this universe, we must to a considerable extent reverse the ordinary conception as to what this matter essentially is. Instead of thinking of its ultimate constituents as solid specks floating in a void, we must realise that it is the apparent void itself which is solid, and that the specks are but bubbles on it. ”

“ If the unit of force which whirls those millions of dots into the complicated shape of a physical atom be pressed back by an effort of will over the threshold of the astral plane, the atom disappears instantly, for the dots are released. But the same unit of force, working now upon a higher level, expresses itself not through one astral atom, but through a group of 49. If the process of pressing back the unit of force is repeated, so that it energises upon the mental plane, we find the group there enlarged to the number of 2401 of those higher atoms. ”

“ Turning to the force side of the atom and its combinations, we observe that force pours in the heart-shaped depression at the top of the atom, 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 atom 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. ”

“ Types of Hyper-Meta-Proto-Elemental Matter.
Here are some characteristic combinations of the Hyper state; the atom is conventional, with the depression emphasised; the lines, always entering at the depression and coming out at the apex, show the resultants of lines of force; where no line appears entering the depression, the force wells up from fourth-dimensional space; where no line appears leaving the apex, the force disappears into fourth-dimensional space; where the point of entry and departure is outside the atoms, it is indicated by a dot. ”

“ The corresponding negative group, of nitrogen, vanadium and niobium, is rendered particularly interesting by the fact that it is headed by nitrogen, which—like the air, of which it forms so large a part—pervades so many of the bodies we are studying. What is there in nitrogen which renders it so inert as to conveniently dilute the fiery oxygen and make it breathable, while it is so extraordinarily active in some of its compounds that it enters into the most powerful explosives? ”

“ 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 generate the dodecahedron and the icosahedron. ”

“ The atom 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 Planetary Logos has 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 Logoi.
[13] The action of electricity opens up ground of large extent, and cannot be dealt with here. Does it act on the atoms themselves, or on molecules, or sometimes on one and sometimes on the other? ”

“ It may well be that what we have called platinum B is not a variety of platinum, but a new element, the addition of two atoms in a bar being exactly that which separates the other elements within each of the sub-groups. It will be noticed that the four lower sections of the bars are identical in all the members of this sub-group, each ovoid containing thirty atoms. The upper ring of ovoids in iridium and platinum A are also identical, but for the substitution, in platinum A, of a quartet for a triplet in the second and third ovoids ”

“ The wise student will try to visualize the figure from the diagram. Thus the two triangles of hydrogen are not in one plane; the circles are spheres, and the atoms within them, while preserving to each other their relative positions, are in swift movement in three-dimensional space. Where five atoms are seen, as in bromine and iodine, they are generally arranged with the central atom above the four, and their motion indicates lines which erect four plane triangles—meeting at their apices—on a square base, forming a square-based four-sided pyramid. Each dot represents a single ultimate atom. ”

“ 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 figures, and each of these breaks up into two triplets and a unit. ”

“ A deeper answer is that consciousness can recognize only consciousness, that since we are of the nature of the Logos we can sense only those things which are also of His nature. These bubbles are His essence, His life, and, therefore, we, who also are part of Him, can see the matter which is built of his substance, for all forms are but manifestations of Him. The koilon is to us non-manifestation, because we have not unfolded powers which enable us to cognise it, and it may be the manifestation of a loftier order of Logoi, utterly beyond our ken. ”

“ 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 main heads of solids, liquids and gases, the recognised substates of physical matter, with the theoretical ether scarcely admitted as material. Ether, to the scientist, is not a substate or even a state of matter, but is a something apart by itself. ”

“ The tetrahedron is not confined to the external form of the above atoms; it seems to be one of the favourite forms of nature, and repeatedly appears in the internal arrangements. There is one tetrahedron within the unknown element occultum; two appear in helium (3 on Plate III) ; yttrium has also two within its cube, as has germanium; five, intersecting, are found in neon, meta-neon, argon, metargon, krypton, meta-krypton, xenon, meta-xenon, kalon, meta-kalon, tin, titanium and zirconium. Gold contains no less than twenty tetrahedra. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The snake appears to be a solid rounded body, but on raising the atom to E 4 the snake splits lengthwise into two waved bodies, and it is seen that the appearance of solidity is due to the fact that these spin round a common axis in opposite directions, and so present a continuous surface, as a ring of fire can be made by whirling a lighted stick. The brilliant bodies seen in the atom are on the crests of the waves in the positive snake, and in the hollows in the negative one; the snake itself consists of small bead-like bodies, eleven of which interpose between the larger brilliant spots. ”

“ The dots, or beads, seem to be the constituents of all matter of which we, at present, know anything; astral, mental and buddhic atoms are built of them, so we may fairly regard them as fundamental units, the basis of matter.
These units are all alike, spherical and absolutely simple in construction. Though they are the basis of all matter, they are not themselves matter; they are not blocks but bubbles. ”

“ Let it not be supposed that, in thus unfolding a little more of the wonders of Divine Truth by pushing our investigations to the very farthest point at present possible to us, we in any way alter or modify all that has been written in theosophical books of the shape and constitution of the physical atom, and of the wonderful and orderly arrangements by which it is grouped into the various chemical molecules ”

“ The world owes a debt to scientific men of the ordinary type that cannot be over-estimated, but though they have hitherto preferred to progress gradually, from point to point, disliking leaps in the dark, the leap now made is only in the dark for those who will not realise that the progress to be accomplished by means of instrumental research must sooner or later be supplemented by subtler methods. Physical science has reached the conception that the atoms of the bodies hitherto called the chemical elements are each composed of minor atoms. ”

“ The chemical atom is regarded as the ultimate particle of any element, and is supposed to be indivisible and unable to exist in a free state. Mr. Crookes' researches have led the more advanced chemists to regard the atoms as compound, as a more or less complex aggregation of protyle.
To astral vision ether is a visible thing, and is seen permeating all substances and encircling every particle. A "solid" body is a body composed of a vast number of particles suspended in ether, each vibrating backwards and forwards in a particular field at a high rate of velocity ”