The Creative Process in the Individual | Page 5

iron and an
atom of oxygen results only from the difference in the number of
etheric particles of which each is composed and the rate of their motion
within the sphere of the atom, thus curiously coming back to the dictum
of Pythagoras that the universe has its origin in Number and Motion.
We may therefore say that our entire solar system together with every
sort of material substance which it contains is made up of nothing but
this one primary substance in various degrees of condensation.
Now the next step is to realize that this ether is everywhere. This is
shown by the undulatory theory of light. Light is not a substance but is
the effect produced on the eye by the impinging of the ripples of the
ether upon the retina. These waves are excessively minute, ranging in
length from 1-39,000th of an inch at the red end of the spectrum to
1-57,000th at the violet end. Next remember that these waves are not
composed of advancing particles of the medium but pass onwards by
the push which each particle in the line of motion gives to the particle
next to it, and then you will see that if there were a break of one
fifty-thousandth part of an inch in the connecting ether between our eye
and any source of light we could not receive light from that source, for
there would be nothing to continue the wave-motion across the gap.
Consequently as soon as we see light from any source however distant,
we know that there must be a continuous body of ether between us and
it. Now astronomy shows us that we receive light from heavenly bodies
so distant that, though it travels with the incredible speed of 186,000
miles per second, it takes more than two thousand years to reach us
from some of them; and as such stars are in all quarters of the heavens
we can only come to the conclusion that the primary substance or ether
must be universally present.
This means that the raw material for the formation of solar systems is
universally distributed throughout space; yet though we find that

millions of suns stud the heavens, we also find vast interstellar spaces
which show no sign of cosmic activity. Then something has been at
work to start cosmic activity in certain areas while passing over others
in which the raw material is equally available. What is this something?
At first we might be inclined to attribute the development of cosmic
energy to the etheric particles themselves, but a little consideration will
show us that this is mathematically impossible in a medium which is
equally distributed throughout space, for all its particles are in
equilibrium and so no one particle possesses per se a greater power of
originating motion than any other. Consequently the initial movement
must be started by something which, though it works on and through
the particles of the primary substance, is not those particles themselves.
It is this "Something" which we mean when we speak of "Spirit."
Then since Spirit starts the condensation of the primary substance into
concrete aggregation, and also does this in certain areas to the
exclusion of others, we cannot avoid attributing to Spirit the power of
Selection and of taking an Initiative on its own account.
Here, then, we find the initial Polarity of Universal Spirit and Universal
Substance, each being the complementary of the other, and out of this
relation all subsequent evolution proceeds. Being complementary
means that each supplies what is wanting in the other, and that the two
together thus make complete wholeness. Now this is just the case here.
Spirit supplies Selection and Motion. Substance supplies something
from which selection can be made and to which Motion can be
imparted; so that it is a sine qua non for the Expression of Spirit.
Then comes the question, How did the Universal Substance get there?
It cannot have made itself, for its only quality is inertia, therefore it
must have come from some source having power to project it by some
mode of action not of a material nature. Now the only mode of action
not of a material nature is Thought, and therefore to Thought we must
look for the origin of Substance. This places us at a point antecedent to
the existence even of primary substance, and consequently the initial
action must be that of the Originating Mind upon Itself, in other words,
Self-contemplation.

At this primordial stage neither Time nor Space can be recognized, for
both imply measurement of successive intervals, and in the primary
movement of Mind upon itself the only consciousness must be that of
Present Absolute Being, because no external points exist from which to
measure extension either in time or space. Hence we