The Arcane Teachings (Complete Collection). William Walker Atkinson
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becomes Activity; the Possibility becomes Actuality; the Potentiality becomes Reality; the Promise becomes
Fulfilment. Listen to the Aphorism:
APHORISM VI. "During the aeons of the Cosmic Night, The Law dwells Alone, in solitude; The Cosmos remains resolved into its condition of the Unmanifest—the Infinity of Nothingness. Then comes the dawn, when The Law superimposes the Infinity of Nothingness, and causes the Unmanifest to become Manifest; the Nothing to become Everything; Latency to become Activity; Potentiality to become Reality; Promise to become Fulfilment."
At the extreme swing of the pendulum of Rhythm—at the point of the Cycle in which End fades into Beginning—the climax of the Cosmic Night is reached in the form of Absolute Rest, extending over æons of time. Then after the æons of Absolute Rest come the first activities of the future Cosmic Day. During the Cosmic Night, as the Aphorism states: "The Law dwells Alone, in solitude; The Cosmos remains resolved into its condition of the Unmanifest—the Infinity of Nothingness." Then begin the first stirrings of the birth of the new Cosmic Day, which the Aphorism describes as follows: "Then comes the dawn, when The Law superimposes the Infinity of Nothingness, and causes the Unmanifest to become Manifest; the Nothing to become Everything; Latency to become Reality; Promise to become Fulfilment." Let us consider what is meant by the words of the Aphorism.
The first step of the new activities is indicated by the words: "The Law superimposes the Infinity of Nothingness." These words, at first consideration, would seem to indicate a decided action of The Law in the direction of "superimposing" Infinity. But such is not the Arcane Teaching. The Teachers hold that The Law exerts no different degree or kind of power at the period of dawn, than at the period of dusk; no more at the period of high-noon, than at the period of midnight. During the Cosmic Day and Cosmic Night, The Law is unchangeable and constant in its power and influence. The difference is caused by the Cyclic Swing, or Rhythmic Movement, in the Cosmos itself, Manifest or Unmanifest. The Law is over and above Rhythm or Cyclicity, or any of the Seven Laws, and is Changeless. The Cosmos, on the contrary is under the Seven Laws superimposed by The Law, and is Changeable—Constantly Changing. The difference in the degree of power received from The Law is due to the changing condition of the Cosmos, or Infinity.
In order to understand what has been said, let us imagine a mighty magnet, constant in its power, and invariable in its manifestations of magnetic force upon all within its magnetic field. Then let us imagine an Infinity of infinitessimal particles of steel-filings, separated from the magnet by a glass watch-cover. Let us suppose that owing to the operation of some unknown magnetic law, the receptivity of the steel particles changes in rhythmic periods, or in cyclic recurrence. In that case, it would follow that, although the power of the magnet were unchangeable and its manifestations invariable, still the action of the steel-particles would cause it to appear otherwise. For at times there would be a marked degree of power shown, and at other times a much less degree would be exhibited—but the difference would be in the nature of the steel-particles, and not in that of the magnet.
Or, suppose, that the Earth were to manifest varying degrees of receptivity to the Attraction of Gravitation of the Sun—then while it would seem to be a varying degree of power of the sun, the difference would really be caused by the changes in the Earth, the Sun remaining constant and invariable all the time. In these two examples, may be seen the nature of the action of The Law upon the Cosmos, or Infinity.
Some of the occult schools who have been influenced by the Arcane Teaching, hold that The Law is attracted by Infinity, or the Cosmos, just as the latter is by The Law. In other words, they hold that there is a mutual attraction and effect—an action and a reaction—a reciprocal action. But this is incorrect. The Law is never attracted or affected in any way by the Cosmos, or Infinity. It is Absolute and beyond mutual Relationship. Were the Cosmos and Infinity not to exist, The Law would not vary a particle in any way whatsoever. Its Absoluteness raises it above Relations. But while this is so, the fact of the constant outpouring of the Power of The Law causes the Cosmos to be affected by it, just as are the steel-filings by the Magnet. According to Rhythm, the degree of Power received by the Cosmos must vary—but The Law changes not. In fact, the Seven Laws, themselves, which produce these changes in the Cosmos, are a part of the action and power of The Law, as experienced by the Cosmos—they are superimposed by The Law.
The Aphorism says: "The Law superimposes the Infinity of Nothingness." What is meant by "superimposes"? The word "super" means "over, or above"; and "impose" means "to lay or place upon." "Superimpose" means "to place upon from above," or as used in the Aphorism: "To influence from above." In other words, the Infinity of Nothingness, or Unmanifest Cosmos, owing to the influence of Rhythm and Cyclicity, begins once more to experience the active radiation of the Power of The Law, which serves to vitalize and energize it, and thus begins the dawn of the new Cosmic Day—and the beginnings of the new Universal Life, or Cosmic Will.
In order to understand this awakening, or stirring into activity of the Cosmos, which dwells latent within the Womb of the Infinity of Nothingness, let us consider the Three Principles of the Cosmos, from which all forms, shapes, combinations and varieties of manifestation arise. These "Three Principles" are as follows: (1) The Cosmic Principle of Substance; (2) the Cosmic Principle of Motion; (3) the Cosmic Principle of Consciousness. These Three Principles are Unmanifest during the Cosmic Night, but awaken into nascency and activity with the first thrill of the dawn of the new Cosmic Day. In the end, and at the last, these Three must be considered as phases of One. But that One, in itself, is but the reflection, so to speak, of The Law, although not by any means to be considered as being "qualities" or "phases" of The Law. The Law has no "qualities" or "phases"—it is over and above these things, which are but the aspects of Infinity, or the Cosmos. The Three Principles are fundamental in all manifestations of the Cosmos, from lowest to highest—from the simplest to the most complex. Wherever is found any manifestation of the Cosmos, there is and must be found the presence of the Three Principles in some degree of development or activity. If you prefer, you may think of the Cosmos as consisting of merely these Three Principles, manifest or unmanifest. These Three Principles we can never know of themselves—we know them only through and by their manifestations. Let us consider them in detail, by the light of the Arcane Teaching.
I. The First Principle—Substance. Substance, as the term is used in the Arcane Teaching, means the underlying "body" of things—their material quality. Everything that is manifested in the Cosmos has its "body" or material quality. Substance includes all that we may think of as Matter, in its various degrees of solidity, or lack of solidity—from the hardest steel or granite, to the most rarefied gas or vapor known to science. It includes all that science dares to think of as material body, even in the highest flights of its reason or imagination—and then all that lies beyond those conceptions. The field of substance recognized by science, as compared with the real extent of the Principle of Substance, is as no more than a hair-line drawn across a yard-stick. There are forms of matter as much more solid and dense than steel or granite, as the latter are more solid and dense than hydrogen gas. And at the other end of the scale there are forms of substance that could not be described in words, so near akin to Nothing are they. Between these two extremes there lies a bewildering number of degrees. That which science calls electricity and other subtle forms of energy, are not "energy" at all, but merely energy or motion manifesting through subtle forms of substance, which act as its body. There are forms of substance many times finer and rarer than even these. There are bodies worn by beings on higher planes which are finer and rarer than electricity. Even the ordinary Astral Bodies of beings on our own plane and stage of development, are far rarer and finer than is electricity, or the finest rays of light or magnetism. These bodies are just as real as is the piece of the hardest steel through which they may pass as easily as the X Ray passes through stone. The Universal Ether, which science assumes to be the extreme limit, and infinity, of subtle tenuity and fineness, is solid and compact when compared with many of the higher forms of substance. So much for Manifest Substance.
Unmanifest Substance is held by the Arcanes to be identical with Pure Space. In the preceding Lesson, you have seen that Pure Space is considered as Nothing. This Nothing is merely the extreme limit of the fineness or rareness of Substance. Space is not a mere idea—it is substance carried to its extreme highest limit. The