On Spiral Symbols

1 - Introduction

In my previous post on the etheric I had included some graphical illustrations to cheer up the lengthy text. Because I started with Steiner's description of how the human heart is formed by etheric streams, I had side-jumped in the Appendix to the intriguing form of Babbitts Atom which, purely by its high-level graphical form, inspires people - artists and phantasts alike. And because Babbit is a multi-level spiral structure, one often sees this named in the same breath as Leadbeater's ANU atom.

Now I removed these distractions from the previous post because they just polluted the subject that was being covered. Rather than delete them, I want to use them here as a staging introduction for a new post on the Occult Atom. Consider it a small amuse-bouche before the dish is served.

Before getting into the real Occult Atom by Rudolf Steiner, we start in this post with some forms that various sources have called an Occult Atom before. And remark how these presentations contain something of a conceptual metaphoric symbolism for what we could call a Cosmic Fractal, as they share characteristics such as: a mult-level hierarchical structure, an implicit spiralling nature, and structural properties based on the numbers three and seven.

2 - Let's start with some art

The picture below is by the croation artist Arijana Kajfes living in Sweden, the work is called atomheart and it based on the drawing of an atom by Edwin D. Babbitt in 1878.

'the simple electronics of the piece is just one small opening to the invisible world that affects us. The spiraling coils pick up the surrounding electromagnetic fields. Maybe the work can serve as a reminder of human sensitivity that is slowly fading away in the cumulative noise of information society.

Below we will look into Babbitt's atom and what is known as Leadbeater's ANU or ultimate atom. These are often discussed together, as they both talk about a universal atom with the same form as the human heart, made up of two bipolar flows or vortices.

3 -  Babbitt’s atom and spirillae

Edwin Dwight Babbitt (1828-1905) wrote his book 'The principles of light and color' in 1878. From that book the following drawing of the atom as a result from two spirals from influx and an efflux ethers running through ‘spirillae’.

 

3 – Leadbeater’s ANU

Some 30 years later, Charles Webster Leadbeater (1854-1934) wrote his book 'Occult chemistry' in 1908 together with Annie Besant; an on-line version of the book can be found here and here.

From that book the following drawing of the ‘ultimate atom’ or Anu in its two forms:

• the positive or male (force pours in from the ‘outside’, from fourth-dimensional space, the astral plane, and passing through the Anu, pours into the physical world).

In the second, negative or female, it pours in from the physical world, and out through the Anu into the ‘outside’ again, ie vanishes from the physical world. It will be seen that the Anu is a sphere, slightly flattened, and there is a depression at the point where the force flows in, causing a heart-like form.

4 – Commentary

Now these images were added because they are often linked to the subject of my previous post. However I separated them here for a good reason.
The ultimate atom, Anu, spirillae should not be considered as physical threedimensional images, but - if anything - rather images from a higher type of consciousness (see Imagination - Inspiration - Intuition).
Still we have to face the fact that Steiner never described anything near to Babbitts vision, and his description of the Occult Atom was quite a different story (see next post).

Now though the Babbitt image has something  remarkable and intrigueing, also because his original vision dates back before 1878, these types of visualisations also have something contradictory.

It appears as a possibility that Leadbeater [1] recycled the image 30 years later, mixing/combining it with the concept of the Gunas (see previous post), to come to some pseudo-physical explanatory framework. It's not easy to judge where lies the boundary between fact and fiction in theosophical writings (see eg Leadbeater's clairvoyant explanations about previous Atlantean incarnations of contemporary theosophists ..),
but it appears safe to say that there was some fair amount of charlatanry in the theosophical society [2] in the early 20th century).
With this I say nothing about Theosophy as a movement historically, as for example in the 16-18th century this term was used broadly, and people like Jacob Boehme and Robert Fludd are considered theosophists. If Steiner would not have found it a respectable term or movement, he would not have called his book Theosophy. However with Blavatsky a turning point was reached, and afterwards the teachings got polluted and side-tracked, and Steiner vehemently tried to clarify the process in extenso - on what appened, how and why.

Steiner commented on this, extensively on the broader point [2] as mentioned but also on point [1] specifically, eg 1920-08-28:

• 'As most of you know, a certain Leadbeater is active in the Theosophical Society. This Leadbeater has written all sorts of books, and a great number of people were particularly charmed when he wrote something like an occult chemistry; I even met scholars who were most delighted by this occult chemistry. What really happened? This Mr. Leadbeater has become acquainted with the materialistic chemistry of the present with its molecules and atoms. This materialistic chemistry of today with its molecules and atoms describes oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, fron oxide, sodium acetate, and so on, building them up from these molecules and atoms. Out of such atoms, Leadbeater builds up the spiritual worlds, the Spirits and the angels. He creates a spiritualism out of materialism I have seen people who went about nearly enchanted when, among many things, the so-called "permanent atom" once swam around like a drop of fat on the soup of the Theosophical Society — such drops of fat sometimes did swim about, didn't they? This permanent atom — a remarkable thing! '

And here again on 1923-01-27:

• You see, in regard to all things, Anthroposophy must really find a new way, and if we really wish to enter into Anthroposophy, it is necessary to change the way of thinking and of feeling in respect to most things. In Anthroposophy, it is not enough if anthroposophists consider on the one hand a more or less materialistic world conception, or a world conception based more or less on ancient traditional beliefs, and then pass on to Anthroposophy, because this appeals to them more than other teachings. But they are mistaken. We must not only go from one conception to the other — from the materialistic monistic conception to the anthroposophical one — and then say that the latter is the best. Instead we must realize that what enables us to understand the monistic materialistic conception does not enable us to understand the anthroposophical conception.
  
  You see, theosophists believed that the understanding of the materialistic monistic conception enabled them also to understand the spiritual. For this reason we have the peculiar phenomenon that in the monistic materialistic world conception people argue as follows: — everything is matter; man consists only of matter — the material substance of the blood, of the nerves, etc.

Everything is matter. Theosophists — I mean the members of the Theosophical Society — say instead: — No, this is a materialistic view; there is the spirit. Now they begin to describe man according to the spirit: — the physical body which is dense, then the etheric body somewhat thinner, a kind of mist, a thin mist — these are in reality quite materialistic ideas! Now comes the astral body, again somewhat thinner, yet this is only a somewhat thin material substance, etc. This leads them up a ladder, yet they obtain merely a material substance that grows thinner and thinner. This too is a materialistic view. For the result is always “matter”, even though this grows thinner and thinner. This is materialism, but people call it “spirit”. Materialism at least is honest, and calls the matter “matter”, whereas, in the other case, spiritual names are given to what people conceive materialistically.

When we look at spiritual images, we must realize that we cannot contemplate these in the same way as we contemplate physical images; a new way of thinking must be found.

Things become very interesting at a special point in the history of the Theosophical Society. Materialism speaks of atoms. These atoms were imagined in many ways and strong materialists, who took into consideration the material quality of the body, formed all kinds of ideas about these atoms. One of these materialists built up a Theory of Atoms and imagined the atom in a kind of oscillating condition, as if some fine material substance were spinning round in spirals.

If you study Leadbeater's ideas on atoms, you will find a great resemblance with this theory.

An essay which appeared recently in an English periodical discussed the question of whether Leadbeater's atom was actually “seen”, or whether Leadbeater contented himself with reading the book on the Theory of Atoms and translating it into a “spiritual” language.

These things must be taken seriously. It matters very much that we should examine ourselves, in order to see if we still have materialistic tendencies and merely call them by all kinds of spiritual names. The essential point is to change our ways of thinking and of feeling — otherwise we cannot reach a really spiritual way of looking at things. This gives us an outlook, a perspective, that will help us to achieve the rise from sin as opposed to the fall into sin.

With this we can trust RS and leave it at this. The Babbitt image is nice but there is no telling whether it is not an unvalidated imagination image.

5 – Graphical images for the concept of a cosmic fractal

That being said, before we conclude, the concept of this image has some fun aspects or properties for one who would want to devise or depict a physical, materialistic symbolic image or metaphor for the Cosmic Fractal.

It includes three major spirals or whirls of energy, seven subsidiary spirals, with hierarchical layers with each spiral consisting of sub-whorls or spirillae which are spiralled around the original ones, one level up. And so on, for a total of seven levels.

To share the fun of this thought exercise I add a picture one can find on the internet, that evoques this idea of embedded layers of spirals .. albeit with rings instead of spirals, and upto five spiral levels. 

My personal view of the above 'image idea' is that it is a sort of 'modern times'-mandala, typical of our contemporary material-scientific worldview and techological culture. Maybe a superstring cartoon, with a wink to Edward Witten's M-theory (superstrings). Keep smiling.
 
My guess is that Steiner would have said that this 'image idea' is a true reflection of our deeply materialistic age. Indeed in my humble opinion it is so 'spacy' that it can only be considered seriously by people who have no experience with meditation, and could not even have been conceived by people who have experience meditating beyond Vacancy of Mind (='no thoughts').
Steiner actually comments on this in his lecture of 1922-12-17 (Lecture 6 of Man and the World of the Stars):

• Time plays the most essential role in all these world-pictures. A much less important part is played by Space.
  .. It is not until the age of Galileo, of Copernicus, of Giordano Bruno, that Space actually begins to play its great role in the picture of the universe.
  Even in the Ptolemaic system which admittedly is concerned with Space, Time is a more essential factor than it is in the world-picture familiar to us since the fifteenth century, in which Time actually plays a secondary part. The present distribution of the stars in cosmic space is taken as the start­ing-point and through calculation conclusions are reached as to what the world-picture was like in earlier times. But the conception of Space, the spatial world-picture, becomes of chief importance. And the result is that all human judgments are based on the principle of Space. Modern man has elabo­rated this element of Space in his external world-picture, elaborated it too in all his thinking. And today this thinking in terms of Space has reached its zenith.
  
  Think how difficult it is for a man of the present day to follow an exposition purely of Time. He is happy if Space is brought in at least to the extent of drawing something on the blackboard. But if the feeling of Space is conveyed by means of photographs, then the modern man is verily in his element ! "Illustration"—and by this he means expression in terms of Space—is what man of today strives to achieve in every exposition.Time, inasmuch as it is in perpetual flow, has become something that causes him discomfort. He still attaches value to it in music ; but even there the tendency towards the spatial is quite evident.

• We need only consider something that has become a definite feature of modern life and this mania of modern man to cleave to the spatial is at once apparent. In the cinema he is utterly indifferent to the element of Time in the picture. He is content with the merest fraction of the Time element and is entirely given up to the element of Space.
  This orientation of the soul to the spatial is very charac­teristic of the present time and whoever observes modern culture and civilization with open eyes will find it everywhere.

• On the other hand, in anthroposophical Spiritual Science we are striving, as you know, to get away from the spatial. To be sure, we meet the desire for it in that we too try to give tangible form to the spiritual, and that is justifiable in order to strengthen the faculty of ideation. Only we must always be conscious that this is purely a means of illustration and that what is essential is to strive, at least to strive, to transcend the spatial.

• Space 'devotees' among us often cause difficulties by mak­ing diagrams of the consecutive epochs of Time, writing "First Epoch with Sub-Epochs," and so on. Then follow a great many captions and what is sequential in Time is dragged into a spatial picture.
  Our aim, however, is to transcend the spatial. We are striving to penetrate into the temporal and also into the super-temporal, into the element that leads beyond what is physically perceptible. The physically perceptible exists in its crudest form in the world of Space and there thought is led in a certain direction.   

6 – By the way and on the side

Now we're on the subject, there are other symbolic presentations that evoque something of a Cosmic Fractal nature, even if they don't have anything to do with an Occult Atom.
The example below is by Patrick Mulcahy, an Australian astrologer who studies the Sepher Yetzirah, and who calls this Jacob'sWheel: (PS: as ever, right click image and open in new tab to enlarge)

Note the implicit spiral nature (returning to itself after one cycle) and the structurally embedded threefoldness and seven-phasedness. Patrick Mulcahy regards this a cycle generator.

Now imagine not the green-blue-yellow spiraling form, but instead imagine that the seven spokes each consist of three spheres (with their own dynamic). Such view may convey graphically a threefoldedness (the three triads in the spirial hierarchies that make up our reality) in a seven-phased system. 

7 – The symbol of the Spiral

In fact, we may say that Steiner offered us kind of a graphical symbolic image also.

Below is as how we drew it in his Notebook: 'Man and the world are a spiral movement'

In the lecture of  1921-10-09 he describes it as follows :

• Regarding the human being we can group past, present, and future together symbolically by saying:

- the past (see drawing, blue) comes in this direction, circling into our present spirituality;

- out of our spirituality rays forth our soul element (bright) in thinking, feeling, and willing:

  - the thinking separates, as it were, the physical body from the etheric body;
    the feeling separates the etheric body from the astral body;
    the willing separates the astral body from the I.

- It may be said that everything is developing in a seed-like way for the future in order to form new realms (red).

• We thus can put into our diagram here the various hierarchies who take an interest in us as forming part of this spiral, and we have in the picture this human vortex which as it swirls together in the center, forms the present experiences of the human being in the soul element.

Steiner also describes the spiral as a symbol in other lectures such as 1907-09-16 (seals of the apocalypse of St John)

8 – Conclusion

To conclude this section, so I don't have to say it, let me make my point by quoting someone (RS) who can say it much better and who has, I believe, some authority in these matters:

1923-08-31:

• When in any sphere men are given nothing but pictures, they are hemmed in by them. Persons who practise a wrong kind of occultism do this with a student they are not sure of, and by this means they lead him into what is called “occult imprisonment”.
  He is then encircled by confusing pictures from which there is no escape — a veritable prison of pictures. That is how much occult harm has been practised, and is still practised to-day.
  There are even spiritual beings who drive certain people into this occult captivity; but for the soul the phenomenon is just the same. These spiritual beings are let loose in nature when nature is not understood spiritually, but viewed as though atomic processes were part of nature. The spirit in nature is thus denied. Those spirits who are always striving to work against man — the Ahrimanic spirits — then become active in nature, encompassing man with pictures of every kind, so that in this case, too, human beings are occultly imprisoned.
  A great part of what today is called the scientific outlook — not the facts of science, for they can be relied on — consists of nothing else than pictures of the general occult captivity threatening to overtake mankind. The danger lies in the surrounding of people everywhere with atomistic and molecular pictures. It is impossible, when surrounded by such pictures, to look at those of the free spirit and the stars; for the atomistic picture of the world is like a wall around man's soul — the spiritual wall of a prison house.

With this we want to close and move to what Steiner described as the Occult Atom, as a building block in our explorations on the Cosmic Fractal.