(44.) Maurice Nicoll 1 - On Hydrogens (I) - p.181-187
This is number (44.) of our sequential postings from Volume 1 of Maurice Nicoll’s Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky.
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Birdlip, November 14, 1942
ON HYDROGENS
I
After a long interval we are going to speak again to-night about the cosmological side of the Work. This is so great a subject that I suppose it can never be exhausted by us. It is all about the fact that Man is in the Universe and the Universe in Man, so you cannot expect it to be easily explained. For this reason there exists in this Work a Psychological and a Cosmological side, which interconnect and which are
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gradually understood. Otherwise there could be no real Psychology. The Work says Man cannot be taken apart from the Universe, or Cosmos, in which he exists, nor can the Cosmos be taken apart from Man. The Great World in which Man appears is the Macrocosmos and Man in it should be a Microcosmos, or little Universe—that is, he has in him the possibilities of reflecting the Universe in himself and being in harmony with it.
We have already spoken of the small side-octave from the Sun in the Great Ray of Creation, in which Man finds his place and at this point we stopped, in our study of the cosmological side of the Work, and began to study the ideas in the parables of the Gospels from this standpoint. Man does not appear in the Great Ray itself. Man is an experiment of the Sun in self-evolution. As a part of Organic Life on Earth, he serves nature. He serves the evolution of the Earth and its Moon. But he is created by the Sun with the possibility of another fate, if he tries to awaken. That is why the Work and all similar teaching exists on Earth—to awaken Man, who is only in the service of nature as long as he is asleep, so that he can awaken and come under more intelligent influences and finally return to his source of origin. This is the double aspect of Man, and this is why Man in the Work is divided into Man asleep or mechanical Man, and Man awakening or partly awakened or fully awakened—that is, conscious Man.
Now in what follows I am going to speak very briefly and give a mere outline of all the many different ideas which are derived in this Work from the first great cosmological diagram, the Ray of Creation. This diagram starts from the Absolute and descends in stages to the smallest and most undeveloped parts of the Universe, in a scale of descending order. Our Ray of Creation descends to our Moon. To-night we are going to connect with this diagram the idea of different matters or energies at different levels of the Ray. Matter and energy in this system are spoken of together, as being different sides of the same thing. The first thing you must understand in this respect is that at the top of the Ray the very finest matter exists and at the bottom of the Ray the coarsest or grossest matters exist. This gives you the idea of different materialities belonging to each stage of creation. As the creative process, following the Law of Three Forces, and manifesting itself in successive stages according to the Law of Seven or the Law of the Octave—as the creative process descends, the materiality of each level of creation becomes denser. With the highest level, the Absolute itself, we must associate the finest matter and so the greatest energy. With the Moon at the bottom of the Ray we must associate the coarsest matter and so the least free energy. There are matters belonging to the level of the Absolute, there are matters belonging to the level of the Starry Galaxy, to the level of the Sun, to the level of the Earth, and to the level of the Moon. Once you grasp that the Universe is a Descending Scale of Creation, becoming further away from the Absolute and, as it were, colder and denser, you will realize something of what it means when the Work speaks of a point
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in the Universe. A point in the Universe occurs where a particular form of matter is found—or let us call it matter-energy. Visibly, we can understand that the materiality of the incandescent Sun is finer than the materiality of the chairs and tables on the Earth—or indeed the materiality of Earth as a substance—which could not exist in the Sun. If then we only grasp at present that the act of creation is a series of successive condensations we shall not be far wrong. Seen in this light the Universe, as a Scale of Descent proceeding from the Absolute, is a series of energies or matter-energies. Or, in brief, a series of different materialities. In this system these different points in the Universe or different matters are called Hydrogens. For the present you must accept this term without explanation. The Universe is a series of Hydrogens or matters, starting from the top and descending to the bottom. These "Hydrogens" or matter-energies increase in density as they go downwards. They become coarser, thicker, or heavier, so to speak.
Here is a diagram shewing how the Universe is turned into a series of Matter-Energies. First, four points are taken in the Ray of Creation—Absolute, Sun, Earth and Moon. They are connected by 3 octaves, and the result is called the 3 Octaves of Radiation. The first 3 notes Do, Si, La, form the first energy-matter or Hydrogen, and so on. All this will be explained in full detail at some other time. My object here is to give you an idea of what Hydrogen means so that I can go on to several other diagrams. As long as you gain the conception that these Hydrogens or Energies are formed at different levels of the Ray as it descends, it will be sufficient. Now the Hydrogens are scaled down, as you see in the last column. This is because in Man only certain Hydrogens are or can be present. Man has not all the matters or energies that compose the Universe in him. He has not, for example, the matter of the Absolute. The third column gives the Hydrogens found in Man, or rather, that Man can have in him. Study this diagram for a little. You will see that the Universe in order of descent has been turned now into a Universe of energies of different qualities and densities coming from different points in the Ray of Creation. The first four Hydrogens, 6, 12, 24 and 48 are Psychic. That is, they are the energies that are "psychological". They are the energies that the centres in Man work with. The fifth Hydrogen—96—is called "Animal Magnetism". The sixth—192—is called "air". Then comes 384 "water", 768 "Food," then 1536, which includes substances like wood, fibres, grass, then 3072, called minerals. All these Hydrogens occur in Man. And because he has these matters in him, he represents the cosmos (up to a point) in himself. Notice that at a certain point, these Hydrogens become "visible." The Psychic Hydrogens are "invisible."
Now let us apply these Hydrogens to Man, regarded as a 3-storey Factory. Three Foods enter Man—which in terms of Hydrogens are Hydrogens 48, 192 and 768.
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Man is fed by the Universe from three points in it. These Hydrogens become digested. Let us trace the Digestion of 768. Digestion is Transformation. The Body transforms lower Hydrogens into higher Hydrogens by the law of octaves. Speaking briefly, 768 is transformed into 384, etc. until Hydrogen 12 is reached.
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Now, since we are speaking briefly, we will leave out the air octave, and speak about the transformation of Impressions 48. This does not proceed by itself save in small quantities. Yet this is the most important octave of digestion in the Body.
This energy stops unless something is brought up to it to digest it. If the octave is started it forms extra Hydrogens in the Body.
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The First Conscious Shock must be given, however, to effect this. As thus:
When a man works on himself he starts the octave going and creates new energies in himself. This is when the Work starts in a man as regards the creation of new forces in him. I want you all merely to understand the general idea. All details can be left until later.
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