Changing the Way I Talk About Levels Of Reality

A simple reply to a student this morning made me realize I have been talking about the Levels of Reality all wrong.

From the start I have insisted that Agrippa goes wrong in the second sentence of Occult Philosophy. More subtle levels should not be thought of as “ruling” grosser levels. Nor should they be thought of as inherently better or more perfect. Certainly not morally better. They are simply levels of reality.

Yet all this time I have still been speaking of them as if Subtle is UP and gross is DOWN. When I say that a physical action effects the etheric and astral, I talk about it filtering Up. When I say that Information level effects Symbol space and Astral, I tend to talk about filtering Down.

Concepts of up and down are not perfect but given the limitations of language its a natural way to explain it, but it should be reversed.

These aren’t really Levels, they are LAYERS.

It should go like this:
PHYSICAL
ETHERIC
ASTRAL
SYMBOLIC
MENTAL
INFORMATIONAL
NON-DUAL

I have always insisted that he work of orienting from Gross to Subtle is not a matter of Ascension, its a matter of Uncovering, yet I haven’t been talking about it that way.

We aren’t going UPWARDS, we are going DEEPER.

The problem with the “deep” terminology is the interpretation of deep as “inner”, which it is not. Going “inner” has little value in either magic or meditation as I practice and teach.

Anyway from now on I will try to develop the habit of speaking of physical actions filtering DOWN to etheric or astral levels, and informational or mental magics as filtering UPWARDS towards the physical.

Still not perfect, but much better.