In Search of the Miraculous

"Nothing can develop by staying on one level. Ascent or descent is the inevitable

cosmic condition of any action. We neither understand nor see what is going on

around and within us, either because we do not allow for the inevitability of descent

when there is no ascent, or because we take descent to be ascent. These are two of the

fundamental causes of our self-deception. We do not see the first one because we

continually think that things can remain for a long time at the same level; and we do

not see the second because ascents where we see them are in fact impossible, as

impossible as it is to increase consciousness by mechanical means.

"Having learned to distinguish ascending and descending octaves in life we must

learn to distinguish ascent and descent within the octaves themselves. Whatever

sphere of our life we take we can see that nothing can ever remain level and constant;

everywhere and in everything proceeds the swinging of the pendulum, everywhere

and in everything the waves rise and fall. Our energy in one or another direction

which suddenly increases and afterwards just as suddenly weakens; our moods which

'become better' or 'become worse' without any visible reason; our feelings, our desires,

our intentions, our decisions—all from time to time pass through periods of ascent or

descent, become stronger or weaker.

"And there are perhaps a hundred pendulums moving here and there in man. These

ascents and descents, these wave-like fluctuations of moods, thought, feelings,

energy, determination, are periods of the development of forces between 'intervals' in

the octaves as well as the 'intervals' themselves.

"Upon the law of octaves in its three principal manifestations depend many

phenomena both of a psychic nature as well as those immediately connected with our

life. Upon the law of octaves depends the imperfection and the incompleteness of our

knowledge in all spheres without exception, chiefly because we always begin in one

direction and afterwards without noticing it proceed in another.

"As has been said already, .the law of octaves in all its manifestations was known

to ancient knowledge.

"Even our division of time, that is, the days of the week into work days and

Sundays, is connected with the same properties and inner conditions of our activity

which depend upon the general law. The Biblical myth of the creation of the world in

six days and of the seventh day in which God rested from his labors is also an

expression of the law of octaves or an indication of it, though an incomplete one.

"Observations based on an understanding of the law of octaves show that

'vibrations' may develop in different ways. In interrupted octaves they merely begin

and fall, are drowned or swallowed up by other, stronger, vibrations which intersect

them or which go in an opposite direction. In octaves which deviate from the original

direction the vibrations change their nature and give results opposite to those which

might have been expected at the beginning.

"And it is only in octaves of a cosmic order, both descending and ascending, that

vibrations develop in a consecutive and orderly way, following the same direction in

which they started.

"Further observations show that a right and consistent development of octaves,

although rare, can be observed in all the occasions of life and in the activity of nature and even in human activity.

"The right development of these octaves is based on what looks an accident. It sometimes happens that octaves going parallel to the given octave, intersecting or

meeting it, in some way or another fill up its 'intervals' and make it possible for the vibrations of the given octave to develop in freedom and without checks. Observation

of such rightly developing octaves establishes the fact that if at the necessary moment,

that is, at the moment when the given octave passes through an 'interval,' there enters

into it an 'additional shock' which corresponds in force and character, it will develop

further without hindrance along the original direction, neither losing anything nor

changing its nature.

"In such cases there is an essential difference between ascending and descending

octaves.

"In an ascending octave the first 'interval' comes between mi and fa. If

corresponding additional energy enters at this point the octave will develop without

hindrance to si, but between si and do it needs a much stronger 'additional shock' for its right development than between mi and fa, because the vibrations of the octave at

this point are of a considerably higher pitch and to overcome a check in the

development of the octave a greater intensity is needed.