Theos-Talk Archives (January 2006 Message tt00149)

January 10, 2006





Dear Friends:



Many ask about Occultism - the following in 4 parts is most valuable



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THE SYNTHESIS OF OCCULT SCIENCE



W Q J 



I



The impassable gulf between mind and matter discovered by modern science is
a logical result of the present methods of so-called scientific
investigation. These methods are analytical and hypothetical, and the
results arrived at are necessarily tentative and incomplete. Even the
so-called "Synthetic Philosophy" of Spencer is, at best, an effort to grasp
the entire method and modulus of nature within one of its processes only.
The aim is at synthesis, but it can hardly deserve the name of philosophy,
for it is purely speculative and hypothetical. It is as though the
physiologist undertook to study the function of respiration in man through
the single process of expiration, ignoring the fact that every expiratory
act must be supplemented by inspiration or respiration cease altogether. 



Taking, therefore, the facts of experience derived from the phenomena of
nature and viewing both cosmic and organic processes purely from their
objective side, the "missing links," "impassable gulfs," and "unthinkable
gaps" occur constantly. 



Not so in Occult Science. So far as the science of occultism is concerned,
it is both experimental and analytical, but it acknowledges no "missing
links," "impassable gulfs," or "unthinkable gaps," because it finds none.
Back of occult science there lies a complete and all-embracing Philosophy. 



This philosophy is not simply synthetical in its methods, for the simplest
as the wildest hypothesis can claim that much; but it is synthesis itself.
It regards Nature as one complete whole, and so the student of occultism may
stand at either point of observation. 



He may from the stand-point of Nature's wholeness and completeness follow
the process of segregation and differentiation to the minutest atom
conditioned in space and time; or, from the phenomenal display of the atom,
he may reach forward and upward till the atom becomes an integral part of
cosmos, involved in the universal harmony of creation. 



The modern scientist may do this incidentally or empirically, but the
occultist does it systematically and habitually, and hence philosophically.
The modern scientist is confessedly and boastfully agnostic. The occultist
is reverently and progressively gnostic. 



Modern science recognizes matter as "living" and "dead," "organic" and
"inorganic," and "Life" as merely a phenomenon of matter. 



Occult science recognizes, "foremost of all, the postulate that there is no
such thing in Nature as inorganic substances or bodies. Stones, minerals,
rocks, and even chemical 'atoms' are simply organic units in profound
lethargy. Their coma has an end, and their inertia becomes activity."
(Secret Doctrine, Vol. I, p. 626 fn.) 



Occultism recognizes ONE UNIVERSAL, ALL-PERVADING LIFE. Modern science
recognizes life as a special phenomenon of matter, a mere transient
manifestation due to temporary conditions. 



Even logic and analogy ought to have taught us better, for the simple reason
that so-called "inorganic" or "dead" matter constantly becomes organic and
living, while matter from the organic plane is continually being reduced to
the inorganic. How rational and justifiable, then, to suppose that the
capacity or "potency" of life is latent in all matter! 



The "elements," "atoms," and "molecules" of modern science, partly physical
and partly metaphysical, though altogether hypothetical, are, nevertheless,
seldom philosophical, for the simple reason that they are regarded solely as
phenomenal. 



The Law of Avogadro involved a generalization as to physical structure and
number, and the later experiments of Prof. Neumann deduced the same law
mathematically from the first principles of the mechanical theory of gases,
but it remained for Prof. Crookes to perceive the philosophical necessity of
a primordial substratum, protyle, and so, as pointed out in the Secret
Doctrine, to lay the foundations of "Metachemistry"; in other words, a
complete philosophy of physics and chemistry that shall take the place of
mere hypothesis and empiricism. 



If one or two generalizations deduced as logical or mathematical necessities
from the phenomena of physics and chemistry have been able to work such
revolutions in the old chemistry, what may we not expect from a complete
synthesis that shall grasp universals by a law that compasses the whole
domain of matter? 



And yet this complete synthesis has been in the possession of the true
occultist for ages. Glimpses of this philosophy have been sufficient to give
to minds like Kepler, Descartes, Leibnitz, Kant, Schopenhauer, and, lastly,
to Prof. Crookes, ideas that claimed and held the interested attention of
the scientific world. While, at certain points, such writers supplement and
corroborate each other, neither anywhere nor altogether do they reveal the
complete synthesis, for none of them possessed it, and yet it has all along
existed. 



"Let the reader remember these 'Monads' of Leibnitz, every one of which is a
living mirror of the universe, every monad reflecting every other, and
compare this view and definition with certain Sanskrit stanzas (Slokas)
translated by Sir William Jones, in which it is said that the creative
source of the Divine Mind,...'Hidden in a veil of thick darkness, formed
mirrors of the atoms of the world, and cast reflection from its own face on
every atom'." - S.D., Vol. I, p. 623. 



It may be humiliating to "Modern Exact Science" and repugnant to the whole
of Christendom to have to admit that the Pagans whom they have despised, and
the "Heathen Scriptures" they long ridiculed or ignored, nevertheless
possess a fund of wisdom never dreamed of under Western skies. They have the
lesson, however, to learn, that Science by no means originated in, nor is it
confined to, the West, nor are superstition and ignorance confined to the
East. 



It can easily be shown that every real discovery and every important
advancement in modern science have already been anticipated centuries ago by
ancient science and philosophy. It is true that these ancient doctrines have
been embodied in unknown languages and symbols, and recorded in books
inaccessible to western minds till a very recent date. Far beyond all this
inaccessibility, however, as a cause preventing these old truths from
reaching modern times, has been the prejudice, the scorn and contempt of
ancient learning manifested by the leaders of modern thought. 



Nor is the lesson yet learned that bigotry and scorn are never the mark of
wisdom or the harbingers of learning; for still, with comparatively few
exceptions, any claim or discussion of these ancient doctrines is met with
contempt and scorn. The record has, however, been at least outlined and
presented to the world. As the authors of the Secret Doctrine have remarked,
these doctrines may not be largely accepted by the present generation, but
during the twentieth century they will become known and appreciated. 



The scope and bearing of philosophy itself are hardly yet appreciated by
modern thought, because of its materialistic tendency. A complete science of
metaphysics and a complete philosophy of science are not yet even conceived
of as possible; hence the ancient wisdom by its very vastness has escaped
recognition in modern times. 



That the authors of ancient wisdom have spoken from at least two whole
planes of conscious experience beyond that of our ever-day
"sense-perception" is to us inconceivable, and yet such is the fact; and why
should the modern advocate of evolution be shocked and staggered by such a
disclosure? It but justifies his hypothesis and extends its theatre. Is it
because the present custodians of this ancient learning do not scramble for
recognition on the stock exchange, and enter into competition in the marts
of the world? 



If the practical outcome of such competition needed illustration, Mr. Keely
might serve as an example. The discoveries of the age are already whole
centuries in advance of its ethical culture, and the knowledge that should
place still further power in the hands of a few individuals whose ethical
code is below, rather than above, that of the ignorant, toiling, suffering
masses, could only minister to anarchy and increase oppression. 



On these higher planes of consciousness the law of progress is absolute;
knowledge and power go hand in hand with beneficence to man, not alone to
the individual possessors of wisdom, but to the whole human race. 



The custodians of the higher knowledge are equally by both motive and
development almoners of the divine. These are the very conditions of the
higher consciousness referred to. 



The synthesis of occult science becomes, therefore, the higher synthesis of
the faculties of man. What matter, therefore, if the ignorant shall scout
its very existence, or treat it with ridicule and contempt? Those who know
of its existence and who have learned something of its scope and nature can,
in their turn, afford to smile, but with pity and sorrow at the willing
bondage to ignorance and misery that scorns enlightenment and closes its
eyes to the plainest truths of experience. 



Leaving, for the present, the field of physics and Cosmogenesis, it may be
profitable to consider some of the applications of these doctrines to the
functions and life of man. 



The intellect derived from philosophy
is similar to a charioteer; for it
is present with our desires, and
always conducts them to the beautiful

` - DEMOPHILUS 



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Best wishes,



Dallas





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