H.P. Blavatsky explored the inner and outer aspects of an atom in Chapter XI.
(Chapter XI). ON THE ELEMENTS AND ATOMS: The title "Elements and Atoms" suggests that there is a division between the inner and outer aspects of an atom. As already shown in The Secret Doctrine 1:548, H.P. Blavatsky defined the elemental Monad as the inner aspect of the outer atom. Similarly, G. de Purucker in the Occult Glossary on page 13 pointed to the distinction between an atom's "material" side and its "energy" side. In Chapter XI in the third part of "Cosmogenesis," the term "Elements" referred to the elemental Monads within the outer shells of the atoms. The 1st-century BC Roman philosopher Lucretius dealt with this theme in his treatise On the Nature of the Universe. In 1:500-520, Lucretius expressed his belief in "matter" and in the "space in which things happen." The matter is the "Atom." The space is the "Element." There is a "void" in "things created." This void is surrounded by "solid matter." Lucretius elaborated in 1:1010-1015, "Body is bounded by void and void by body, thus in their interchange the universe is infinite." So, Lucretius saw the microscopic world in terms of a dualism. Matter is the outer shell of an atom. Space is the informing consciousness. H.P. Blavatsky called this combination a "SOUL" or a "jiva" as a "centre of POTENTIAL VITALITY, with latent intelligence in it." This "jiva" is her "Element," an "incipient divine man." Each class of evolving entities including the elemental, mineral, planet, and animal operates through the physical body of a human being to someday learn how to become a human being. In Isis Unveiled 1:401, she elaborated on the view of the 4th-century BC Greek philosopher Democritus that the human soul "results from the aggregation of atoms," where the "soul" is the "psyche" or "astral body." That is, the "Element" and the "Atom" are the divine secretions of the life-force of a "jiva" residing even further within the "void" of an atom's inner essence. This corresponds to the "Pranamaya kosa" in the Vedantic classification in H.P. Blavatsky's diagram in The Secret Doctrine 1:157. In terms of the cosmical principles, G. de Purucker described this union in the diagram in Fountain-Source on page 437 as the "unexpressed" Monads in Cosmic Jiva piloting through the fields of "action" in the Elemental domains of the Astral Light. In terms of the human principles in the diagram in Fountain-Source on page 435, he described this union as a compound of Prana, Linga-Sarira, and Sthula-Sarira. This combination of elementals comprises the astral mold (with its negative and positive pole) of a human being. H.P. Blavatsky wrote in The Secret Doctrine 1:577 that the "Planetary origin of the Monad (Soul) and of its faculties was taught by the Gnostics." She continued, "The Astral Rulers of the Spheres (the planets) create the monads (the Souls) from their own substance." Mankind embodies the largesse of a planet by way of its microcosmic inhabitants. But it must be remembered, as H.P. Blavatsky emphasized in Isis 1:401, that this astral "soul" is only a "second mortal soul" and not the primary human soul stretching from Manas to Prana. This becomes clear when one reviews G. de Purucker's explanation in Fountain-Source on page 434 where he broke up cosmic migrations into categories: 1) Pranatman corresponds to Earth Globe D in which the "jiva" (as the second mortal soul) migrates across the atomic fields 2) Bhutatman corresponds to a specific planetary chain in which the human Reimbodying Ego (as the primary human soul) progresses and exhibits itself on each of the twelve Earth globes 3) Jivatman corresponds to the cosmic attendant suns as Spiritual Monads that travel among and express themselves egoically through their respective planetary chains 4) Atman corresponds to an individualized speck of the Central Sun trekking through and embedding an aspect of Brahma (3rd Logos) into each Solar Sun in its universal solar system 5) Paramatman corresponds to the central point peregrinating to a new galaxy with a distinct immaculate white disk (1st Logos).
Sources:
H.P. Blavatsky, Isis Unveiled (Pasadena: Theosophical University Press, 1998).
H.P. Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine (Pasadena: Theosophical University Press, 2019).
Lucretius, On the Nature of the Universe, trans. Ronald Melville (Oxford: Oxford University press, 2008).
G. de Purucker, Fountain-Source of Occultism (Pasadena: Theosophical University Press, 1974).
G. de Purucker, Occult Glossary (Pasadena: Theosophical University Press, 1996).
(Photo by Terry Vlisidis on Unsplash)