An invariable characteristic of Nature is to express life-death cycles of any idea, in nine lesser interweaving cycles enfolded in the one. When we think of man as an idea, we think of him as grown up to fullness of middle age. Until then, we think of generating man as infant, child and youth. Following his generating cycles come the degenerative ones in which he gradually repays all of his borrowings from his zero of rest and returns to that zero to again borrow power to re-express the idea of man. (Fig. 71)

This process of Nature, which expresses its cycles of idea in nine lesser cycles, is conspicuously present in the life-death cycles of the elements of matter. Carbon alone expresses the idea of matter. All the nine octaves of the elements are stages of unfoldment and refoldment of carbon. The first four and a half octaves lead to the maturity of carbon by the generative contraction of gravity. It is the hardest of all of the other stages of its elements are stages of unfoldment and refoldment of carbon. The first four and a half octaves lead to the maturity of carbon by the generative contraction of gravity. It is the hardest of all of the other stages of its transition, having the highest melting point. The last four and a half octaves lead from maturity through old age to disappearance at the end of the nine octave cycle by the radiative expansion of vacuity. (Fig. 70)

Genero-activity begins at the birth of carbon in the first octave with genero-active, inner explosive speed of light which is 186,400 miles per second. It ends with an equal radioactive, outer explosive speed. This speed is the limit at which motion can reproduce itself in curved wave fields before reaching zero where motion and curvature cease.

Carbon fulfills the plan of the Creator in His desire to create but one form: the cube-sphere. Carbon alone crystallizes in true cube, with all of the qualities of the true cube and sphere fully exemplified. All other elements which crystallize as cubes are octave extensions of carbon. All such extensions occupy the four-zero-four position of wave amplitude.

In carbon are all of the elements of its previous stages, just as in man are all of the actions and reactions of his previous stages. Hydrogen is a one octave younger prototype of carbon. It forms on the wave amplitude at four-zero-four just as carbon forms at four-zero-four one octave ahead. In hydrogen is a whole octave of elemental tones. Several of these have been recently discovered and wrongly named isotopes. Isotopes are split tones such as those which a violinist could produce between full tones.

An amazing thing happens at this point in the unfolding of carbon's life record. Hydrogen's melting point is 259 degrees below zero centigrade and in one octave the winding up process of nature acts like a whiplash at its halfway position where genero-activity and radioactivity meet as equals. This effect tightens the winding of carbon into such a dense substance that the melting point jumps to 3600 degrees above zero in that one octave.

Nature immediately counterbalances this accelerative action by dropping nitrogen, the next element beyond carbon, into a gas which melts at 210 degrees below zero centigrade. It does not recover from the gaseous condition during the rest of its octave.

The cosmic seed of the carbon octave is helium.

Silicon is one octave older than carbon. The melting point of silicon drops to less than one half of its younger stage: 1420 degrees.

The cosmic seed of the silicon octave is neon.

When carbon becomes still another octave older at the four-zero-four position of cobalt in the sixth octave, it divides its full tone into ten split isotope tones; five on either side. (Fig. 70) [Walter Russell, The Secret of Light, pages 263-266]

Carbon at this stage has lost much of its vitality and changes its character by thus dividing it into cobalt isotopes. Its melting point has dropped to 1480 degrees, which is slightly higher than the silicon stage of carbon. Because of sharing that position with ten others it has lost much of its true cube-sphere quality of balance which the four-zero-four position manifests.

The evidence of that is the metallic quality of cobalt which would be impossible in the true cube-sphere position of four-zero-four in the octave wave.

The four-zero-four position is one of balance between the pairs of metallic opposites such as iron and nickel, manganese and copper, chromium and zinc or sodium and chlorine. When any of these pairs lose their metallic quality, such as iron and oxygen in iron rust, or sodium and chlorine in sodium-chloride, they find both rest and balance in the stony quality of the salts; they crystallize in the cubic system if they are equal or near equal opposite pairs. Sodium-chloride is a good example. One can see its approximately true cubes in sodium-chloride (ordinary table salt) or in the distorted cube crystals of sodium-iodide.

The four-zero-four position in the octaves of the elements is the position of rest where any action must end its half cycle and begin its other half. It comes to a point of rest before returning to a point of rest, as all actions and reactions in nature do.

At one octave of still further aging, carbon becomes rhodium and again climbs to its amplitude position at four-zero-four by five efforts and descends by five more. Rhodium is more vital than cobalt, for its melting point is 1950 degrees. (Fig. 70)

The cosmic seed of the rhodium octave is krypton. Great vitality is often evidenced in Nature's creations after they have fully matured. The radioactive death principle is as vital in disintegrating the body as the genero-active principle is in integrating it. That vitality is enhanced by the opposition of the genero-active resistance set up against it. Such strong, vital metals as silver, nickel, copper, tantalum, tungsten, osmium, platinum and gold belong to the aging half cycles of carbon.

Tantalum is a radioactive metal which becomes so dense because of opposition between the two electric conditioners that its melting point reaches 3400 degrees centigrade, or within two hundred degrees of carbon. Osmium follows with a melting point of 2700 degrees and platinum at 1755 degrees. In this octave, the violent drop from carbon's melting point to nitrogen's melting point at minus 210 is balanced by this corresponding genero-active reaction.

In the next octave of carbon's aging, the radioactive death principle becomes more evident in lutecium. After reaching its three position in the positive half of its octave, it arrives at its balance position of four-zero-four only after making thirteen efforts, as evidenced by thirteen isotopes including unknowns. These are balanced by thirteen in the negative half cycle. Among these thirteen is the vital tungsten, a negative metal of great commercial value. By bombarding this metal with a sufficiently high current to cause it to disintegrate, it will discharge its seed of inert cosmic gases just as an oak tree will discharge its cosmic seed in acorns.
The cosmic seed of the lutecium octave is xenon.

The cosmic seed of carbon's last octave of disappearance arises from the inert gas niton. Octaves unfold from their past recorded seed and they must have a seed into which their present record can refold. That principle is absolute in Nature.

Radium and actinium evidence the going-to-seed process of all completed cycles of growing things in a strong measure. One can see this process taking place in radium without resorting to the electrocution process referred to as applied to tungsten.

?A small telescopic instrument, the spinthariscope, contains a needle upon which a microscopic portion of radium has been placed in front of a fluorescent screen. By looking through its lenses in the dark, one can see the shedding of the cosmic seed of the slowly dying carbon in its radium stage as the rays of those cosmic seeds bombard the screen. The effect is beautiful, like looking into the heavens on a starry night with all of its stars twinkling into appearance and disappearance as fireflies twinkle in the meadow on a dark night.

Carbon never comes within perception at tomium, but with all of its stars twinkling into appearance as fireflies twinkle in the meadow on a dark night.

Carbon never comes within perception at tomium, but its efforts to reach tomium are evidenced in the uranium group of isotopes, of which there are fifteen before tomium is reached. Out of this group several have been found and made use of, especially those from which the atom bomb has been produced. (Fig. 70)

Radioactivity has so nearly reached its maximum at this point that the speed of the cosmic seed shed by these isotopes has been measured at 180,000 miles per second, which is approximately the speed of light nearing its ending point at tomion where the octave again begins at alphanon. [Walter Russell, The Secret of Light, pages 267-270]