I recollect another remark which afterwards proved a ground for much wrong reasoning and many wrong conclusions. This was that the three centers of the lower story: the instinctive, the moving, and the sex centers, work, in relation to each other, in the order of three forces — and that the sex center, in normal cases, acts as NEUTRALIZING force in relation to the instinctive and moving centers acting as active and passive forces. Fragments: Three

“The teaching of the three forces is at the root of all ancient systems. The first force may be called active or positive; the second, passive or negative; the third, NEUTRALIZING. But these are merely names, for in reality all three forces are equally active and appear as active, passive, and NEUTRALIZING, only at their meeting points, that is to say, only in relation to one another at a given moment. The first two forces are more or less comprehensible to man and the third may sometimes be discovered either at the point of application of the forces, or in the ‘medium,’ or in the ‘result.’ But, speaking in general, the third force is not easily accessible to direct observation and understanding. The reason for this is to be found in the functional limitations of man’s ordinary psychological activity and in the fundamental categories of our perception of the phenomenal world, that is, in our sensation of space and time resulting from these limitations. People cannot perceive and observe the third force directly any more than they can spatially perceive the ‘fourth dimension.’ Fragments: Four

“Returning to the world in which we live we may now say that in the Absolute, as well as in everything else, three forces are active: the active, the passive, and the NEUTRALIZING. But since by its very nature everything in the Absolute constitutes one whole the three forces also constitute one whole. Moreover in forming one independent whole the three forces possess a full and independent will, full consciousness, full understanding of themselves and of everything they do. Fragments: Four

“The three forces of the Absolute, constituting one whole, separate and unite by their own will and by their own decision, and at the points of junction they create phenomena, or ‘worlds.’ These worlds, created by the will of the Absolute, depend entirely upon this will in everything that concerns their own existence. In each of these worlds the three forces again act. Since, however, each of these worlds is now not the whole, but only a part, then the three forces in them do not form a single whole. It is now a case of three wills, three consciousnesses, three unities. Each of the three forces contains within it the possibility of all three forces, but at the meeting point of the three forces each of them manifests only one principle — the active, the passive, or the NEUTRALIZING. The three forces together form a trinity which produces new phenomena. But this trinity is different, it is not that which was in the Absolute, where the three forces formed an indivisible whole and possessed one single will and one single consciousness. In the worlds of the second order the three forces are now divided and their meeting points are now of a different nature. In the Absolute the moment and the point of their meeting is determined by their single will. In the worlds of the second order, where there is no longer a single will but three wills, the points of issue are each determined by a separate will, independent of the others, and therefore the meeting point becomes accidental or mechanical. The will of the Absolute creates the worlds of the second order and governs them, but it does not govern their creative work, in which a mechanical element makes its appearance. Fragments: Four

“Returning to the law of three, one must learn to find the manifestations of this law in everything we do and in everything we study. The application of this law in any sphere at once reveals much that is new, much that we did not see before. Take chemistry, for instance. Ordinary science does not know of the law of three and it studies matter without taking into consideration its cosmic properties. But besides ordinary chemistry there exists another, a special chemistry, or alchemy if you like, which studies matter taking into consideration its cosmic properties. As has been said before, the cosmic properties of each substance are determined first by its place, and secondly by the force which is acting through it at the given moment. Even in the same place the nature of a given substance undergoes a great change dependent upon the force which is being manifested through it. Each substance can be the conductor of any one of the three forces and, in accordance with this, it can be active, passive, or NEUTRALIZING. And it can be neither the first, nor the second, nor the third, if no force is manifesting through it at the given moment or if it is taken without relation to the manifestation of forces. In this way every substance appears, as it were, in four different aspects or states. In this connection it must be noted that when we speak of matter we do not speak of chemical elements. The special chemistry of which I speak looks upon every substance having a separate function, even the most complex, as an element. In this way only is it possible to study the cosmic properties of matter, because all complex compounds have their own cosmic purpose and significance. From this point of view an atom of a given substance is the smallest amount of the given substance which retains all its chemical, physical, and cosmic properties. Consequently the size of the ‘atom’ of different substances is not the same. And in some cases an ‘atom’ may be a particle even visible to the naked eye. Fragments: Five

“When a substance is the conductor of the third or NEUTRALIZING force, it is called ‘nitrogen,’ and, like the nitrogen of chemistry, it is designated by the letter N. Fragments: Five

“The active, the passive, and the NEUTRALIZING forces are designated by the figures 1, 2, 3, and the substances by the letters C, 0, N, and H. These designations must be understood.” Fragments: Five

‘They can,” said G., “and to them must be added the sex center. These are the three centers of the lower story. The sex center is the NEUTRALIZING center in relation to the instinctive and the moving centers. The lower story can exist by itself, because the three centers in it are the conductors of the three forces. The thinking and the emotional centers are not indispensable for life.” Fragments: Six

“The first fundamental law of the universe is the law of three forces, or three principles, or, as it is often called, the law of three. According to this law every action, every phenomenon in all worlds without exception, is the result of a simultaneous action of three forces — the positive, the negative, and the NEUTRALIZING. Of this we have already spoken, and in future we will return to this law with every new line of study. Fragments: Seven

“The note la will be the conductor of the NEUTRALIZING force designated by the number 3, and the matter in which sounds the note la will be ‘nitrogen’ (N). Fragments: Nine

“In the order of the action of the forces they will stand in the succession 1, 2, 3, that is, corresponding to the matters ‘carbon,’ ‘oxygen,’ ‘nitrogen.’ But by density of matter they will stand in the order: ‘carbon,’ ‘nitrogen,’ ‘oxygen,’ that is, 1, 3, 2, because ‘nitrogen’ by retaining the number 3, that is to say, by being the conductor of the NEUTRALIZING force, stands by its density of matter between ‘carbon’ and ‘oxygen,’ and ‘oxygen’ appears as the densest of the three. Fragments: Nine

“It can,” said G. “At the same time if all the lower story is taken as one whole, then sex can be regarded as the NEUTRALIZING part of the moving center.” Fragments: Twelve

“Strengthening this decision and bringing it constantly and infallibly into all those events where formerly accidental NEUTRALIZING ‘shocks’ used to act and give accidental results, gives a permanent line of results in time and is the transformation of trinity into quaternity. The next stage, the transformation of quaternity into quinternity and the construction of the pentagram has not one but many different meanings even in relation to man. And of these is learned, first of all, one, which is the most beyond doubt, relating to the work of centers. Fragments: Fourteen

“As we see from this the following notes la, sol, fa serve as food for the machine. In the order of their succession, according to the law of three, la will be the active element, sol the NEUTRALIZING, and fa the passive. The active principle reacting with the passive (that is, becoming connected with it by the help of the NEUTRALIZING principle) gives a certain definite result. This is represented symbolically thus: Fragments: Fourteen