The Reign of Quantity and The Signs of the Times

24 Toward Dissolution

Having given some attention to the end of the cycle, it is now necessary as it were to turn back again, in order to examine more fully the causes that can, under the conditions of the present period, play an effective part in leading humanity and the world toward that end. Two contributing tendencies may be distinguished, and their description involves the use of terms suggesting an apparent antinomy: on one side is the tendency toward what has been called the ‘solidification’ of the world, and it is this that has been mainly considered so far, and on the other side is the tendency toward the dissolution of the world, and it remains to examine in detail the action of the latter, for it must not be forgotten that every such end necessarily takes one form and one only, that of a dissolution of the manifested as such. Let it be said at once that the second of the two tendencies now seems to be beginning to predominate; for, in the first place, materialism properly so called, corresponding as it clearly does to ‘solidification’ in its grossest form (the word ‘petrifaction’ could almost be used, by analogy with what minerals represent in this connection), has already lost much ground, at least in the domain of scientific and philosophical theory, if not yet in that of the common mentality; and this is so far true that, as pointed out earlier, the very notion of ‘matter’ as it existed in these theories has begun to fade away and to dissolve. In the second place, and correlatively to this change, the illusion of security that held sway at the time when materialism had attained its greatest influence, and that was then more or less inseparable from the prevailing idea of ‘ordinary life’, has in the main been dissipated by the events that have taken place and the speed of their succession, so much so that the dominant impression today is very different, for it has become an impression of instability extending to all domains. Since ‘solidity’ necessarily implies stability, this again shows clearly that the point of greatest effective ‘solidity’ within the possibilities of our world has not only been reached, but has also already been passed, and consequently that dissolution is the goal toward which the world will be traveling henceforth.

The acceleration of time itself, as it becomes ever more pronounced and causes changes to be ever more rapid, seems to lead of its own accord toward dissolution, but it cannot for that reason be said that the general direction of events has been modified, for the cyclical movement inevitably continues to follow the same descending course. Moreover, the physical theories just referred to, while they too change with growing rapidity like everything else, continue nonetheless to take on a more and more exclusively quantitative character, to such a point that their character has now become assimilated to that of purely mathematical theories, and this change, as previously indicated, takes them yet further away from the sensible reality that they claim to explain, and leads them into a domain that is necessarily situated on a lower plane than that of sensible reality, as was explained earlier when pure quantity was under consideration. In any case, the ‘solid’, even at its greatest conceivable density and impenetrability, by no means corresponds to pure quantity, having always at least a minimum of qualitative elements; it is moreover corporeal by definition, and is even in a sense the most corporeal thing possible; now ‘corporeality’ is by definition such that space, however ‘compressed’ it may be under the conditions appertaining to a ‘solid’, is necessarily inherent in its constitution, and space, let it be recalled again, can in no way be assimilated to pure quantity. Even if the point of view of modern science were to be adopted momentarily, so that on the one hand ‘corporeality’ could be reduced to extension in accordance with Descartes’ ideas, and on the other hand space could be regarded as nothing but a mere mode of quantity, the difficulty still remaining would be that everything would be still be in the domain of continuous quantity; a change to the domain of discontinuous quantity, that is, of number, which alone can be looked upon as representing pure quantity, must then obviously imply, by reason of the said discontinuity alone, that neither the ‘solid’, nor anything else that is corporeal, can subsequently be taken into account.

A point is therefore reached in the gradual reduction of everything to the quantitative at which this reduction no longer leads toward ‘solidification’, and at this point there arises a desire to assimilate continuous quantity to discontinuous quantity. Bodies can then no longer persist as such, but are dissolved into a sort of ‘atomic’ dust without cohesion; it would therefore be possible to speak of a real ‘pulverization’ of the world, and such is evidently one of the possible forms of cyclic dissolution.[110] Nevertheless, although dissolution can be envisaged in this way from a certain point of view, it also appears from another point of view, and in accordance with a mode of expression made use of earlier, as a ‘volatilization’. ‘Pulverization’, however complete it may be imagined to be, always leaves ‘residues’, even though they may be really impalpable; but as against this, the end of the cycle, if it is to be fully accomplished, implies that everything that is comprised in the cycle disappears completely insofar as it was manifested; these two different conceptions however each represent a part of the truth. Indeed, the positive results of cyclical manifestation are ‘crystallized’ in order that they may then be ‘transmuted’ into the germs of the possibilities of the future cycle, and this constitutes the end-point of ‘solidification’ under its ‘benefic’ aspect (implying essentially the ‘sublimation’ that coincides with the final ‘reversal’), whereas whatever cannot be used in this way, that is to say, broadly speaking, whatever constitutes the purely negative results of the particular manifestation, is ‘precipitated’ in the form of a caput mortuum in the alchemist’s sense of the word, into the most inferior ‘prolongations’ of our state of existence, or into that part of the subtle domain that can properly be qualified as ‘infra-corporeal’;[111] but in either case a passage has taken place into extra-corporeal modalities, respectively superior and inferior, in such a way that it can be said that corporeal manifestation itself, so far as the particular cycle is concerned, has really disappeared completely or has been ‘volatilized’. It can be seen that it is always necessary at all stages up to the very last to bear in mind the two terms corresponding to what are called in Hermetism ‘coagulation’ and ‘solution’, and to do so from two sides at once: thus on the ‘benefic’ side are ‘crystallization’ and ‘sublimation’, and on the ‘malefic’ side are ‘precipitation’ and the final return to the indistinction of ‘chaos’.[112]

At this point, the following question must be put: in order that dissolution may be fully realized, is it sufficient that the movement by which the ‘reign of quantity’ asserts itself with ever-growing intensity should be more or less left to itself, and be allowed to pursue its own course right up to its final goal? The truth is that such a possibility, which has indeed already been suggested in what has been said about the contemporary conceptions of the physicists and the implications they carry as it were unconsciously (for it is obvious that modern ‘scientists’ have no idea where they are going), belongs rather to a theoretical outlook on the situation, a ‘unilateral’ outlook affording only a very partial view of what must really happen. Actually, in order to undo the ‘knots’ resulting from the ‘solidification’ that has been going on up till now (and the word ‘knots’ is used intentionally, as it suggests the effects of a certain kind of ‘coagulation’ particularly connected with the realm of magic) the intervention of something more directly effective for the purpose in view is required, and this something must no longer belong to the domain, the very restricted domain, to which the ‘reign of quantity’ itself properly belongs. It is easy to perceive, from the occasional indications already given, that the action of influences of the subtle order is involved; such action really began long ago to operate in the modern world, although at first it did so in no very apparent manner, and it has actually always co-existed with materialism from the very moment at which the latter was first constituted in a clearly defined form, as was indicated earlier when dealing with magnetism and spiritualism, and the borrowings they have made from the scientific ‘mythology’ of the period in which they came to birth. As has also been pointed out before, though it be true that the hold of materialism is slackening, there is no occasion to rejoice at the fact, for cyclical manifestation is not yet complete, and the ‘fissures’ then alluded to, the nature of which will shortly receive further consideration, can only be produced from below; in other words, that which ‘interferes’ with the sensible world through those ‘fissures’ can be nothing but an inferior ‘cosmic psychism’ in its most destructive and disorganizing forms, and it is moreover clear that influences of this kind are the only ones that are really suited for action having dissolution as its objective. It is not difficult to see that thenceforth everything that tends to favor and to extend these ‘interferences’ merely corresponds, whether consciously or otherwise, to a fresh phase of the deviation of which materialism in reality represented a less ‘advanced’ stage, even though the outward appearances of things may not seem to support this view, appearances often being highly deceptive.

While on this subject it seems desirable to point out that ill-informed ‘traditionalists’[113] thoughtlessly rejoice at seeing modern science in its various branches escaping to some extent from the narrow limits within which its conceptions have been enclosed up till now, and taking an attitude less grossly materialistic than that maintained in the last century; they are even ready to suppose that in some way or another profane science will in the end be reunited with traditional science (of which their knowledge is minimal in extent and singularly inaccurate, being chiefly based on modern deformations and ‘counterfeits’), but this, for reasons of principle that have often been insisted on, is quite impossible. These same ‘traditionalists’ also rejoice, perhaps even more unreservedly, at seeing certain manifestations of subtle influences coming more and more into the open, but it does not occur to them to wonder what in the end may prove to be the true ‘quality’ of these influences (perhaps they do not even suspect that there is any occasion to ask such a question); and they base great hopes on what today is called ‘metapsychics’ as the key to the cure of the ills of the modern world, which they are usually content to attribute exclusively to materialism as such, this again being a rather unfortunate delusion. What they do not see (and in this they are much more influenced than they think by the modern spirit with all the insufficiencies inherent in it) is that they are really faced with a fresh stage in the development, perfectly logical but of a logic truly ‘diabolical’, of the ‘plan’ according to which the progressive deviation of the modern world is brought about. In this ‘plan’ materialism has of course played its part, and undeniably a highly important part, but the mere negation that it represents has now become inadequate. It has given efficient service in denying to man access to possibilities of a superior order, but it has not the power to unchain the inferior forces that alone can bring to finality the work of disorder and dissolution.

The materialistic attitude, because of its inherent limitations, involves risks that are similarly limited; its ‘thickness’, figuratively speaking, protects anyone who persists in holding to it from all subtle influences without distinction, and confers on him a sort of immunity more or less like that of a mollusc living firmly enclosed in its shell, the materialist deriving from this immunity the impression of security previously referred to. The shell may be taken to represent the aggregate of conventionally recognized scientific conceptions and of the corresponding mental habits, together with the ‘hardening’ of the ‘psycho-physiological’ constitution of the individual which they produce,[114] and if an opening is made in this shell from below, as described earlier, the destructive subtle influences will at once make their way in, and they will do so all the more easily because, thanks to the negative work accomplished in the preceding phase, no element of a superior order will be able to intervene in such a way as to counteract them. It could also be said that the period of materialism constitutes no more than a sort of preparation, predominantly theoretical, whereas the period of inferior psychism introduces a ‘pseudo-realization’ leading in exactly the opposite direction to that of true spiritual realization, but a fuller explanation of this last point must await a later chapter. The paltry security of ‘ordinary life’, which was the inseparable accompaniment of materialism, is indeed from now onward seriously threatened, and it will no doubt soon be seen more and more clearly, and by more and more people, as having been a mere delusion; but what advantage can this perception bring, if its sole result is an immediate fall into another delusion, worse and more dangerous from every point of view, because it involves consequences much more extensive and more profound? This other delusion is that of an ‘inverted spirituality’, and the various ‘neo-spiritualist’ movements that have arisen and reached a certain development in our times, not excepting those which already show a more definitely ‘subversive’ character, still represent no more than a weak and tentative prelude to it.