The writer was Büchner, who little suspected that he was repeating an axiom of the Occultists. It is quite true also, as Burmeister remarks, that:
The historical investigation of the development of the earth has proved that nowand then rest upon the same base; that the past has been developed in the same manner as the present rolls on; and that the forces which were in action ever remained the same.[1101]
The Forces—their Noumena rather—are the same, of course; therefore, the phenomenal Forces must be the same also. But how can any one feel so sure that the attributes of Matter have not altered under the hand of Protean Evolution? How can any Materialist assert with such confidence, as is done by Rossmassler, that:
This eternal conformity in the essence of phenomena renders it certain that fire and water possessed at all times the same powers and ever will possess them.
Who are they “that darken counsel with words without knowledge,” and where were the Huxleys and Büchners when the foundations of the Earth were laid by the Great Law? This same homogeneity of Matter and immutability of natural laws, which are so much insisted upon by Materialism, are a fundamental principle of the Occult Philosophy; but this unity rests upon the inseparability of Spirit from Matter, and, if the two were once divorced, the whole Kosmos would fall back into Chaos and Non-being. Therefore, it is absolutely false, and but an additional demonstration of the great conceit of our age, to assert, as men of Science do, that all the great geological changes and terrible convulsions of the past have been produced by ordinary and known physical Forces. For these Forces were but the tools and final means for the accomplishment of certain purposes, acting periodically, and apparently mechanically, through an inward impulse mixed up [pg 702] with, but beyond their material nature. There is a purpose in every important act of Nature, whose acts are all cyclic and periodical. But spiritual Forces having been usually confused with the purely physical, the former are denied by, and therefore, because left unexamined, have to remain unknown to Science.[1102] Says Hegel:
The history of the World begins with its general aim, the realization of the Idea of Spirit—only in an implicit form (an sich), that is, as Nature; a hidden, most profoundly hidden unconscious instinct, and the whole process of History ... is directed to rendering this unconscious impulse a conscious one. Thus appearing in the form of merely natural existence, natural will—that which has been called the subjective side—physical craving, instinct, passion, private interest, as also opinion and subjective conception—spontaneously present themselves at the very commencement. This vast congeries of volitions, interests and activities constitute the instruments and means of the World-Spirit for attaining its object; bringing it to consciousness and realizing it. And this aim is none other than finding itself—coming to itself—and contemplating itself in concrete actuality. But that those manifestations of vitality on the part of individuals and peoples, in which they seek and satisfy their own purposes, are at the same time the means and instruments of a higher and broader purpose of which they know nothing—which they realize unconsciously—might be made a matter of question; rather has been questioned ... on this point I announced my view at the very outset, and asserted our hypothesis ... and our belief that Reason governs the World and has consequently governed its history. In relation to this independently universal and substantial existence—all else is subordinate, subservient to it, and the means for its development.[1103]
No Metaphysician or Theosophist could demur to these truths, which are all embodied in Esoteric Teachings. There is a predestination in the geological life of our globe, as in the history, past and future, of races and nations. This is closely connected with what we call Karma, and what Western Pantheists called Nemesis and Cycles. The law of evolution is now carrying us along the ascending arc of our cycle, when the effects will be once more re-merged into, and re-become the now neutralized causes, and all things affected by the former will have regained their original harmony. This will be the cycle of our special Round, a moment in the duration of the Great Cycle, or Mahâyuga.
The fine philosophical remarks of Hegel are found to have their [pg 703] application in the teachings of Occult Science, which shows Nature ever acting with a given purpose, whose results are always dual. This was stated in our first Occult volumes, in the following words:
As our Planet revolves once every year around the Sun, and at the same time turns once in every twenty-four hours upon its own axis, thus traversing minor circles within a larger one, so is the work of the smaller cyclic periods accomplished and recommenced within the Great Saros. The revolution of the physical world, according to the ancient doctrine, is attended by a like revolution in the world of intellect—the spiritual evolution of the world proceeding in cycles, like the physical one. Thus we see in history a regular alternation of ebb and flow in the tide of human progress. The great kingdoms and empires of the world, after reaching the culmination of their greatness, descend again, in accordance with the same law by which they ascended; till, having reached the lowest point, humanity reässerts itself and mounts up once more, the height of its attainment being, by this law of ascending progression by cycles, somewhat higher than the point from which it had before descended.[1104]
But these cycles—wheels within wheels, so comprehensively and ingeniously symbolized by the various Manus and Rishis in India, and by the Kabiri in the West[1105]—do not affect all mankind at one and the same time. Hence, as we see, the difficulty of comprehending, and of discriminating between them, with regard to their physical and spiritual effects, without having thoroughly mastered their relations with, and action upon, the respective positions of nations and races, in their destiny and evolution. This system cannot be comprehended if the spiritual action of these periods—preördained, so to say, by Karmic law—is separated from their physical course. The calculations of the best Astrologers would fail, or at any rate remain imperfect, unless this dual action is thoroughly taken into consideration and mastered upon these lines. And this mastery can be achieved only through Initiation.