PLANES OF WILLPOWER

Accordingly to our past lesson, the personality is deemed to include the soul (as

this is understood in our modern terminology) as well as the body, or,

stated alternatively; the personality embraces expression as well as the

form. The soul, then, being the reflection of the three-fold nature of the

Spirit necessarily has also three attributes (modes of expression), and these

are the familiar thoughts, feelings and actions of the human personal

consciousness. Hence, the soul requires, for the full expression of its triple

nature, three bodies or vehicles:-

1..MENTAL BODY - vehicle for thought.

2..EMOTIONAL BODY - vehicle for sensation and emotion.

3..PHYSICAL BODY - vehicle for action.

Finally, the Ancient Wisdom proclaims that the "centre" of Being is the

Spiritual Intelligence, which is the Higher or real Self of man, and the

doctrine teaches that if man would find that Self, he must learn how to

retreat inwards beyond the soul consciousness.

An important part of the curriculum of the Ancient Mysteries was instruction

in Cosmology, or the science of the Universe, and the intention of this

instruction was to disclose to Candidates the physical and the metaphysical

constitution of the world, together with the place and destiny of man in it.

By this means Candidates learned of the continual flux of matter, of the

transiency of bodily forms, and of the abiding permanence of the One Lift

or Spirit which has descended and embodied itself in matter. There was

also demonstrated to them the dual cosmic method of Involution and

Evolution, by which the universally diffused Life-force involves and

circumscribes itself within material limitations and physical conditions, and

thence evolves and arises out of them, enriched by the experience. They

were further given instruction concerning the different levels and

graduations of the Universe, some of them material and some ethereal, the

planes and sub-planes, upon which the great scheme is being carried out;

which levels and planes, all progressively linked together, constitute one

vast ladder of many rounds, staves, or rungs, a veritable "Ladder of Life".

Candidates thus came to understand that the Universe consists of

embodied consciousness, and that these embodied consciousness exist

in a practically infinite gradation of varying degrees of perfection - a

real "Ladder of Life" or "Stair of Life", stretching endlessly in either direction,

for our imagination can conceive no limits except a hierarchical one; and

such hierarchical limitation is but spacial, and not actual, qualitative and

formal. They were shown that the "Ladder of Life" is marked at certain

intervals by landing places, so to speak, which the Mysteries called "planes

of being" (different spheres of consciousness, to express the idea in

alternative terms). Candidates in the old systems were given instruction in

these matters before being admitted to. Initiation, and the knowledge

gained served to explain to them their own nature and constitution, and

their place in the World-system. Today, Freemasonry, perpetuating the

ancient teaching, exhibits to the Brethren a simple ladder, a symbol which

when properly interpreted is calculated to open widely the eyes of their

imagination. It is true that the ladder portrayed on the T.B. of the First

Degree is given a moral significance in the Instruction lecture, but, as

students of Hebrew mysticism are well aware, "Jacob's Ladder" is also a

symbol of the Universe with its succession of step-like planes reaching from
the heights to the depths. Indeed, we learn from the V. of the S.L., that the

Fathers House has many mansions, many levels and resting places for His

creatures in their different conditions and degrees of progress; and it is

these levels, these planes and sub-planes, that are denoted by the rungs

and staves of the symbolic ladder. Of these planes there are, for us in our

present state of evolutionary unfoldment, three principal ones: -

1 .. PHYSICAL PLANE

2 .. PLANE OF DESIRE AND EMOTION

3 .. MENTAL PLANE.

These three levels of the world are reproduced in man; the first (physical

plane) corresponds with his material physique, his sense-body; the second

(plane of desire and emotion) with his desire and emotional nature; and the

third (mental plane), with his mentality, which forms the link between his

physical nature and his spiritual being. The Universe and man himself are

therefore constructed ladder-wiser and the ladder with its three principal

staves may be seen everywhere in Nature. It appears in the septenary scale

of musical sound with its three dominants; in the prismatic scale of light

with its three primary colours; in the septenary physiological changes in our

bodily organism, and in the similar periodicities known to physics and every

branch of science. The Ancient Wisdom teaches that the one universal

substance composing the differentiated parts the Universe "descends" from

a state of the utmost etheriality, by successive steps of increasing

densification, until gross materialisation is reached, and thence, "ascends"

through a similarly ordered gradation of planes to its original place, but

enriched by the experience gained by its activities during the process. In

like manner, we ourselves, have each descended into this world (the nadir

of materiality), and we have each to ascend from it by the same steps of

"Jacob's Ladder", "which reaches to the heavens" (the zenith - "an etheral

mansion veiled from mortal eyes by the stary firmament"). In some Masonic

diagrams and Tracing Boards there is exhibited upon the ladder a small

cross, in a tilted unstable position, as if ascending it; that cross represents

all who are engaged in mounting the ladder to the heights, and who, ln the

words of the poem:-

"Rise by stepping-stones

From their dead selves to higher things".

Indeed, each of us carries his own cross (cruciform body) as he ascends;

the material vesture whose tendencies are ever at cross-purposes with the

desire of his spirit and militate against the ascent. Nevertheless, thus

weighted, each must climb, and climb alone; yet reaching out (as the

secret tradition teaches and the arms of the tilted cross signify) one hand

to invisible helpers above, and the other to assist the ascent of feebler

brethren below, for as the sides and the separate rungs of the ladder

constitute a unity, so all life and all lives are fundamentally one, and none

lives to himself alone. Masonic students who recognise that every

reference in Speculative Freemasonry is figurative and carries a symbolic

significance behind the literal sense of the words, will dismiss from their

minds any suggestion that the allusion to the familiar biblical episode in the

Fourth Section of the First Lecture (see Genesis, Chapter 28), was intended

by the compilers of our system to indicate a subject capable only of a

moral interpretation. We may be well assured that the Founders of our

Order had a much deeper purpose in view than that of merely reminding

us of the Pauline triad of theological virtues (Faith, Hope and Charity),

excellent as these may be. Admittedly, the moral interpretation is both

warranted and salutary, but none the less it is far from being exhaustive,

while it also conceals rather than reveals the meaning of the Scriptural

reference and what the symbol of the Ladder is meant to convey to

discerning minds. Now, if we would correctly interpret the Scriptural

account of "Jacob's Ladder" as given in the Instruction-lecture, we must of

necessity have recourse to an ancient Hebrew mystical doctrine with which

Freemasonry is closely allied - the KABBALAH. The Kabbalah accords a

prominent place to what are called the seven kings of EDOM, and the

student will find that these kings are represented in the Book of Genesis as

seven ancient royalties preceding the establishment of the Kingdom of

Israel; but the Kabbalah further explains that they are descriptive images of

seven worlds created prior to that inhabited by man, worlds which are

incapable of permanent endurance as the Divine Image is not assumed in

them. The humanity which assumes the Divine Image (i.e. man perfected)

is termed Israel, and the seven kings or kingdoms of Edom are shown to

be seven stations or planetary worlds through which the soul must pass in

order to attain perfection. Such a state of perfection is attained only when

by the full restoration and exaltation of the soul to oneness with the Spirit,

the masculine and feminine principles are in perfect balance with each

other. These principles (masculine and feminine) are called the King and

Queen, and are respectively the Archetypal Idea (Adam Kadmon), who

subsists prior to creation, and this Idea realised in creation. And, as

declared in the Kabbalistic "Book of Occultations":

"Until the balance is established, and while yet the King and Queen look

not face to face upon each other, the seven worlds of Edom have no

continuance. But when the Queen appears upon her throne, then all the

seven kingdoms of Edom shall be resumed in Israel and re-born under

other names, For all that is not, all that is, and that shall be; are borne on

the balance of the King and Queen looking face to face upon each other."

A careful perusal of this passage from the "Book of Occultations" discloses

that the condition signified is precisely that also described by St. Paul in his

Epistle to the Corinthians, when he says "But when that which is perfect is

come, then that which is in part shall be done away; for now we see

through a glass darkly, but then face to face.". (1, Corinthians, 13, 10 - 12).

It is, then, apparent that the kings of Edom (i.e. Adam or earth), are an

occult figure of the seven progressive dominions, spheres, planets or

stages, through which the soul passes on the way to the heavenly royalty

within and beyond the earthly plane, to where man perfected becomes "a

Prince and Ruler in Israel". Hence, the evanescence of the seven kingdoms

of Edom; they represent rudimentary and embryonic stages in the "making"

(perfecting) of man. Hence also the Apocalyptic declaration: "And the

seventh angel sounded, and there were great voices in heaven, saying, the

kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his

Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever", (Revelation, 11, 15). Further,

it is important, to enable the student to comprehend the meaning of the

cryptic reference to Esau in the Instruction-lecture, to keep in mind that the

V. of the S.L., informs us that, "Essau is Edom, and the father of the kings

thereof" (Genesis, chapter 36). Now, Esau is the brother of Jacob, and as

it is the dynasty of Jacob which succeeds that of Edom, it follows that Esau
is a figure of corporeal nature, while Jacob is a figure of spiritual life. Here

is the link with our symbol of "Jacob's Ladder", for we can discern that the

seven staves of the ladder are also the seven temporary kingdoms of Esau,

whose dominion Jacob is destined, by surmounting the ladder, to supplant

and supersede; doing this, and attaining the summit (the place of the Lord),

Jacob becomes ISRAEL, or "Prince with God". Attention is particularly

directed to Genesis, 28, verse 12: "And he dreamed, and behold a ladder

set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the

angels of God ascending and descending on it." Interpreting this passage,

the Kabbalah explains that the angels on the Ladder denote souls

descending into incarnation, to the lowest degree of the Universe (matter

at its nethermost point), and ascending again into Heaven. At the foot of

the Ladder at hight Jacob (the pilgrim soul) lies asleep, having for pillow a

stone, and as the material world is the place of the greatest darkness and

division from God, the place of the vision is called Luz.(or Luza), signifying

"separation". Nevertheless, the soul knows that the nethermost point is also

the turning-point of the pilgrimage, and that hence forth the journey is

upwards and "eastwards". This is the stage in which the soul perceives that

even in the lowest abyss of matter there is no real separation from the

Divine presence and life; and that in the very Valley of the Shadow of

Death, the "Rod and Staff" (i.e. the Trees of Life and of Knowledge -

symbolised in the Craft by the Square, a variant of the Cross) comfort it -

see Psalm 23, verse 4, "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the

shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy

staff comfort me". Hence, the exclamation of Jacob on awaking, "Surely

the Lord is in this place; and I know it not," (Genesis 28, 16), and the

consequent re-naming of the place, BETH-EL (i.e. House of God) - verse

18. The Kabbalistic version of Jacob's dream is the Hebrew expression of

the Secret Doctrine upon which, from the beginning, all the great religions

of East and West have been built, namely the doctrine of the "Gilgal

Neschamoth", or the transmigration and progression of souls.

In many of the Ancient Mystery systems a Ladder, having seven steps or

gates, was used in order to demonstrate the seven stages of the soul's

progress through the world of materiality. The Greek Mysteries, for

instance, represented existence by the river Styx, the "daughter" of Oceanus

(water of eternity), and by some called "mother" of Persephone (the soul),

as the vehicle whereby she is borne down into the under-world and carried

from mansion to mansion of the dark abodes. Seven circuits are made by

the Styx, each of which includes and forms a world or station. During these

rounds of planetary evolution, Styx becomes the mother of four Children,

who denote respectively the four divisions of man's nature the emotional,

the volitional, the intellectual, and the-psychic. These children have for

father the giant Pallas (elemental force), for her victory over whom the

goddess Athene was called Pallas (i.e. Pallas Athone). The word Styx

means literally "hateful", and signifies the imperfect nature of existence as

compared with pure being; this "River of Existence" is also variously called

the "Astral Fluid", the "Serpent", and "Lucifer". The seven stages of

existence constitute what is known as a planetary chain, the term

"planetary" denoting "wandering" (i.e. pilgrimage), and they are classified as

follow:-

1.. ETHEREAL.

2.. ELEMENTAL
3.. GASEOUS.

4.. MINERAL.

5.. VEGETABLE.

6.. ANIMAL

7.. HUMAN

It must be borne in mind that those stages are not localities, but conditions,

and that in the soul's passage none is left behind, all are taken up into

man, one being put on (as it were) after another, and the whole being

comprised in the perfected individual. Each of the seven stages has a part

in the evolution of the consciousness, which, it should be noted is single

until the lowest stage (the mineral) is reached; the mineral stage is the

"nethermost" point and lies at the foot of the "Ladder of Life". Here occurs

the "deep sleep" of Adam (as also of Jacob), the consciousness single and

not involving self-consciousness, having in this the grossest mode of matter

attained its minimum. From this point there commences the process of

re-duplication, or reflection of the consciousness, by means of which the

soul gradually passes into the consciousness of Self and of God. The

consciousness being single until the fourth or lowest stage of existence is

reached (the world of mineral nature), the commencement of reduplication

takes place in the fifth station (the world of vegetable nature), and it is at

this stage that the soul becomes gathered up and formulated into a distant

individuality. In the sixth station the capacity for "sin" originates through the

awakening of a sympathetic consciousness; at this stage, "sin" first

becomes possible, because so long as the individual has only the simple

consciousness of rudimentary nature, he knows no will but the Divine Will

expressed in natural law, and there is for him no better or worse - all is
"good". Stated in alternative terms: Adam while yet alone, cannot be

tempted, cannot sin, for mere mind cannot sin; only the soul can win. It is

by the advent or manifestation of "EVE" (the soul, "the woman") that there

comes the "knowledge of good and evil"; and it is to her, not Adam, that

the tempter, when at length he makes his appearance, addresses his

beguilements. The "sin" of Eve is not in the eating of "the fruit of the tree"

herself, but in the giving of it to Adam (see Genesis 3, 12), since this

constitutes a retrogression on the path of evolution, in that it refers the

polaric point (i.e. the One Life which is centred in the soul), backward and

downward to the lower reason; for "sin" consists in a voluntary retrogression

from the higher to the lower. The "serpent" which tempts to "sin" is the

astral or magnetia self, which, recognising matter only, mistakes the illusory

for the substantial. Yielding to the "tempter", the soul falls under the power

of the lower nature ("Adam") see Genesis 4, 16 - "and thy desire shall be to

thy husband, and he shall rule over thee"; like Lot's wife she (Eve; - the

soul) has looked back, and forthwith becomes a "Pillar of salt" the Alchemic

synonym for matter. In this subjection of the "woman" to the "man", and the

dire results engendered of it, consists the "Fall", and the fact that it entails

these results demonstrates that such subjection is not according to the

Divine order, but is an inversion of that order.