Occult Chemistry | Page 5

a, and is drawn only once, although it
is the same throughout. The numbers 18, 290 and 261 are the numbers
of the ultimate physical atoms found to exist in a chemical atom.
The dots indicate the lines along which force is observed to be playing,
and the arrowheads show the direction of the force. No attempt has
been made to show this below E 2 except in the case of the hydrogen.
The letters given are intended to help the reader to trace upwards any
special body; thus d in the oxygen chemical atom on the gas level may
be found again on E 4, E 3, and E 2. It must be remembered that the
bodies shown diagrammatically in no way indicate relative size; as a
body is raised from one substate to the one immediately above it, it is
enormously magnified for the purpose of investigation, and the ultimate
atom on E 1 is represented by the dot a on the gaseous level.
The first chemical atom selected for this examination was an atom of
hydrogen (H). On looking carefully at it, it was seen to consist of six
small bodies, contained in an egg-like form. It rotated with great
rapidity on its own axis, vibrating at the same time, and the internal
bodies performed similar gyrations. The whole atom spins and quivers,
and has to be steadied before exact observation is possible. The six

little bodies are arranged in two sets of three, forming two triangles that
are not interchangeable, but are related to each other as object and
image. (The lines in the diagram of it on the gaseous sub-plane are not
lines of force, but show the two triangles; on a plane surface the
interpenetration of the triangles cannot be clearly indicated.) Further,
the six bodies are not all alike; they each contain three smaller
bodies--each of these being an ultimate physical atom--but in two of
them the three atoms are arranged in a line, while in the remaining four
they are arranged in a triangle.
The wall of the limiting spheroid in which the bodies are enclosed
being composed of the matter of the third, or gaseous, kind, drops away
when the gaseous atom is raised to the next level, and the six bodies are
set free. They at once re-arrange themselves in two triangles, each
enclosed by a limiting sphere; the two marked b in the diagram unite
with one of those marked _b'_ to form a body which shows a positive
character, the remaining three forming a second body negative in type.
These form the hydrogen particles of the lowest plane of ether, marked
E 4--ether 4--on the diagram. On raising these further, they undergo
another disintegration, losing their limiting walls; the positive body of
E 4, on losing its wall, becomes two bodies, one consisting of the two
particles, marked b, distinguishable by the linear arrangement of the
contained ultimate atoms, enclosed in a wall, and the other being the
third body enclosed in E 4 and now set free. The negative body of E 4
similarly, on losing its wall, becomes two bodies, one consisting of the
two particles marked _b'_, and the second the remaining body, being
set free. These free bodies do not remain on E 3 but pass immediately
to E 2, leaving the positive and negative bodies, each containing two
particles, as the representatives of hydrogen on E 3. On taking these
bodies a step higher their wall disappears, and the internal bodies are
set free, those containing the atoms arranged lineally being positive,
and those with the triangular arrangement being negative. These two
forms represent hydrogen on E 2, but similar bodies of this state of
matter are found entering into other combinations, as may be seen by
referring to f on E 2 of nitrogen (N). On raising these bodies yet one
step further, the falling away of the walls sets the contained atoms free,
and we reach the ultimate physical atom, the matter of E 1. The

disintegration of this sets free particles of astral matter, so that we have
reached in this the limit of physical matter. The Theosophical reader
will notice with interest that we can thus observe seven distinct
substates of physical matter, and no more.
The ultimate atom, which is the same in all the observed cases, is an
exceedingly complex body, and only its main characteristics are given
in the diagram. It is composed entirely of spirals, the spiral being in its
turn composed of spirillæ, and these again of minuter spirillæ. A fairly
accurate drawing is given in Babbitt's "Principles of Light and Colour,"
p. 102. The illustrations there given of atomic combinations are entirely
wrong and misleading, but if the stove-pipe run through the centre of
the