In search of the miraculous

'Knowledge begins with the teaching of the cosmoses. 'You know the expressions 'macrocosm' and 'microcosm.' This means 'large cosmos' and 'small cosmos,' 'large world' and 'small world.' The universe is regarded as a 'large cosmos' and man as a 'small cosmos,' analogous to the large one. This establishes, as it were, the idea of the unity and the similarity of the world and man.

'The teaching of the two cosmoses is known from the Cabala and other more ancient systems. But this teaching is incomplete and nothing can be derived from it, nothing can be built on it. Nothing can be derived from it because this teaching is merely a fragment split off from another, much fuller, ancient esoteric teaching about cosmoses or worlds, included one within another and created in the image and the likeness of the greatest of them, including in itself all the others. 'As above, so below,' is an expression which refers to cosmoses.

'But it is essential to know that the full teaching on cosmoses speaks not of two, but of seven cosmoses, included one within another.

'Seven cosmoses, taken together in their relation to one another, alone represent a complete picture of the universe. The idea of two analogous cosmoses, accidentally preserved from a great and complete teaching, is so incomplete that it can give no idea whatever of the analogy between man and the world. 'The teaching on cosmoses examines seven cosmoses:

'The first cosmos is the Protocosmos—the first cosmos. 'The second cosmos is the Ayocosmos, the holy cosmos, or the Megalocosmos, the 'great cosmos.' 'The third cosmos is the Macrocosmos—the 'large cosmos.' 'The fourth cosmos is the Deuterocosmos—the 'second cosmos.' 'The fifth cosmos is the Mesocosmos—the 'middle cosmos.' 'The sixth cosmos is the Tritocosmos—the 'third cosmos.' 'The seventh cosmos is the Microcosmos—the 'small cosmos.' 'The Protocosmos is the Absolute in the ray of creation, or world 1. The Ayocosmos is world 3 ('all worlds' in the ray of creation). The Macro-cosmos is our starry world or the Milky Way (world 6 in the ray of creation). The Deuterocosmos is the sun, the solar system (world 12). The Mesocosmos is 'all planets' (world 24), or the earth as the representative of the planetary world. The Tritocosmos is man. The Microcosmos is the 'atom.'

'As I have already explained before,' said G., 'what is called 'atom' is the smallest amount of any substance in which the substance retains all

its properties, physical, chemical, psychical, and cosmic. From this point of view there can, for instance, be an 'atom of water.'

'You see that in the general order of the seven cosmoses the Microcosm and the Macrocosm stand so far apart from each other that it is impossible to see or establish any direct analogy between them.

'Each cosmos is a living being which lives, breathes, thinks, feels, is born, and dies.

'All cosmoses result from the action of the same forces and the same laws. Laws are the same everywhere. But they manifest themselves in a different, or at least, in not quite the same way on different planes of the universe, that is, on different levels. Consequently cosmoses are not quite analogous one to another. If the law of octaves did not exist, the analogy between them would have been complete, but owing to the law of octaves there is no complete analogy between them, just as there is no complete analogy between the different notes of the octave. It is only three cosmoses, taken together, that are similar and analogous to any other three.

'The conditions of the action of laws on each plane, that is, in each cosmos, are determined by the two adjoining cosmoses, the one above and the one below. Three cosmoses standing next to one another give a complete picture of the manifestation of the laws of the universe. One cosmos cannot give a complete picture. Thus in order to know one cosmos, it is necessary to know the two adjoining cosmoses, the one above and the one below the first, that is, one larger and one smaller. Taken together, these two cosmoses determine the one that lies between them. Thus the Mesocosmos and the Microcosmos, taken together, determine the Tritocosmos. The Deuterocosmos and the Tritocosmos determine the Mesocosmos, and so on.

'The relation of one cosmos to another is different from the relation of one world to another in the astronomical ray of creation. In the ray of creation worlds are taken in the actual relation in which they exist in the universe for us, from our point of view: the moon, the earth, the planets, the sun, the Milky Way, and so on. Therefore the quantitative interrelation of the worlds one to another in the ray of creation is not permanent. In one case or on one level it is greater, for instance, the relation of 'all suns' to our sun; in another case, on another level, it is less, for instance, the relation of the earth to the moon. But the interrelation of the cosmoses is permanent and always the same. That is to say, one cosmos is related to another as zero to infinity. This means that the relation of the Microcosmos to the Tritocosmos is the same as that of zero to infinity; the relation of the Tritocosmos to the Mesocosmos is that of zero to infinity;

the relation of the Mesocosmos to the Deuterocosmos is that of zero to infinity; and so on.

'In order to understand the meaning of the division into cosmoses and the relation of cosmoses to each other, it is necessary to understand what the relation of zero to infinity means. If we understand what this means, the principle of the division of the universe into cosmoses, the necessity of such a division, and the impossibility of drawing for ourselves a more or less lucid picture of the world without this division will immediately become clear to us.

'The idea of cosmoses helps us to understand our place in the world; and it solves many problems, as for instance, those connected with space, with time, and so on. And above all this idea serves to establish exactly the principle of relativity. The latter is especially important for it is quite impossible to have an exact conception of the world without having established the principle of relativity.

'The idea of cosmoses enables us to put the study of relativity on a firm basis. At the first glance there is much that seems paradoxical in the system of cosmoses. In reality, however, this apparent paradox is simply relativity.

'The idea of the possibility of broadening man's consciousness and increasing his capacities for knowledge stands in direct relation to the teaching on cosmoses. In his ordinary state a man is conscious of himself in one cosmos, and all the other cosmoses he looks at from the point of view of one cosmos. The broadening of his consciousness and the intensifying of his psychic functions lead him into the sphere of activity and life of two other cosmoses simultaneously, the one above and the one below, that is, one larger and one smaller. The broadening of consciousness does not proceed in one direction only, that is, in the direction of the higher cosmoses; in going above, at the same time it goes below.

'This last idea will, perhaps, explain to you some expressions you may have met with in occult literature; for instance, the saying that 'the way up is at the same time the way down.' As a rule this expression is quite wrongly interpreted.

'In reality this means that if, for instance, a man begins to feel the life of the planets, or if his consciousness passes to the level of the planetary world, he begins at the same time to feel the life of atoms, or his consciousness passes to their level. In this way the broadening of consciousness proceeds simultaneously in two directions, towards the greater and towards the lesser. Both the great and the small require for their cognition a like change in man. In looking for parallels and analogies between the cosmoses we may take each cosmos in three relations:

'1. in its relation to itself,

'2. in its relation to a higher or a larger cosmos, and

'3. in its relation to a lower, or a smaller cosmos,

'The manifestation of the laws of one cosmos in another cosmos constitutes what we call a miracle. There can be no other kind of miracle. A miracle is not a breaking of laws, nor is it a phenomenon outside laws.

It is a phenomenon which takes place according to the laws of another cosmos. These laws are incomprehensible and unknown to us, and are therefore miraculous.

'In order to understand the laws of relativity, it is very useful to examine the life and phenomena of one cosmos as though looking at them from another cosmos, that is, to examine them from the point of view of the laws of another cosmos. All the phenomena of the life of a given cosmos, examined from another cosmos, assume a completely different aspect and have a completely different meaning. Many new phenomena appear and many other phenomena disappear. This in general completely changes the picture of the world and of things.

'As has been said before, the idea of cosmoses alone can provide a firm basis for the establishment of the