Principle 2: Planes Of Correspondence
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The Second Hermetic Principle says that there is a harmony, agreement, and correspondence between the several planes of Manifestation, Life and Being.
The Universe may be divided into 3 great classes of phenomena, as the Three Great Planes with artificial and arbitrary divisions:
- The Great Physical Plane
- The Great Mental Plane
- The Great Spiritual Plane
These are but ascending degrees of the great scale of Life.
- The lowest point is undifferentiated Matter
- The highest point is Spirit
The different Planes shade into each other. No hard and fast division may be made between:
- the higher phenomena of the Physical and the lower of the Mental or
- the higher of the Mental and the lower of the Physical.
The Three Great Planes are three great groups of degrees of Life Manifestation.
“Is a Plane a place having dimensions? Or is it merely a condition or state?”
We answer: “It is not a place, nor ordinary dimension of space. It is more than a state or condition. It is a state or condition. But a state or condition is a degree of dimension, in a scale subject to measurement.”
This is somewhat paradoxical.
A “dimension” is “a measure in a straight line, relating to measure,” etc.
The ordinary dimensions of space are length, width, and height.
But there is another dimension of “created things” or “measure in a straight line,” known to occultists and scientists.
- Scientists have not as yet applied the term “dimension” to it.
The Fourth Dimension
This new dimension is the “Fourth Dimension”. It is the standard used in determining the degrees or “planes.”
This Fourth Dimension may be called “The Dimension of Vibration”.
It is a fact well known to modern science, as well as to the Hermetists who have embodied the truth in their
The “Third Hermetic Principle [of Vibration]” is that “everything is in motion; everything vibrates; nothing is at rest.”
Everything vibrates at:
- different rates of motion
- different directions
- different ways
The rate of vibrations constitute the degrees of measurement on the Scale of Vibrations—in other words the degrees of the Fourth Dimension.
These degrees form what occultists call “Planes”.
The higher the degree of rate of vibration, the higher the plane, and the higher the manifestation of Life occupying that plane.
A plane is not “a place” nor yet “a state or condition”.
Yet it possesses qualities common to both.
The Three Great Planes are not actual divisions of the phenomena of the Universe.
They are merely arbitrary terms used to aid in the study of the various degrees and Forms of universal activity and life.
The atom of matter, the unit of force, the mind of man, and the being of the archangel are all but degrees in one scale.
They are all fundamentally the same. The difference is in their degree and rate of vibration.
The Hermetists sub-divide each of the Three Great Planes into Seven Minor Planes.
Each of these latter are also sub-divided into seven sub-planes, all divisions being more or less arbitrary, shading into each other, and adopted merely for convenience of scientific study and thought.
The Great Physical Plane, and its Seven Minor Planes, is that division of the phenomena of the Universe which includes all that relates to physics, or material things, forces, and manifestations.
It includes all forms of that which we call Matter, and all forms of that which we call Energy or Force.
The Hermetic Philosophy does not recognize Matter as a thing in itself, or as having a separate existence even in the Mind of THE ALL.
The Teachings are that Matter is but a form of Energy—.that is, Energy at a low rate of vibrations of a certain kind.
Accordingly, the Hermetists classify Matter under the head of Energy, and give to it three of the Seven Minor Planes of the Great Physical Plane.
These 7 Minor Physical Planes are:
- The Plane of Matter (A)
This comprises the forms of Matter in its form of solids, liquids, and gases.
- The Plane of Matter (B)
This comprises higher and more subtle forms of Matter of which modern science is now recognizing.
An example is the phenomena of Radiant Matter, in its phases of radium, etc., belonging to the lower sub-division of this Minor Plane.
- The Plane of Matter (C)
This comprises forms of the most subtle and tenuous Matter, the existence of which is not suspected by ordinary scientists.
- The Plane of Ethereal Substance
This comprises “The Ether” of science*. It is a substance of extreme tenuity and elasticity, pervading all Universal Space, and acting as a medium for the transmission of waves of energy, such as light, heat, electricity, etc.
Superphysics Note
This Ethereal Substance forms a connecting link between Matter (so-called) and Energy, and partakes of the nature of each.
The Hermetic Teachings, however, instruct that this plane has seven sub-divisions (as have all of the Minor Planes), and that in fact there are seven ethers, instead of but one.
- The Plane of Energy (A)
Above the Plane of Ethereal Substance comes the Plane of Energy (A), which comprises the ordinary forms of Energy known to science.
Its seven sub-planes are:
- Heat
- Light
- Magnetism
- Electricity
- Attraction (including Gravitation, Cohesion, Chemical Affinity, etc.)
- Several other forms of energy indicated by scientific experiments but not as yet named or classified.
- The Plane of Energy (B)
This comprises 7 subplanes of higher forms of energy not as yet discovered by science, but which have been called “Nature’s Finer Forces” and which are called into operation in manifestations of certain forms of mental phenomena, and by which such phenomena becomes possible.
- The Plane of Energy (C)
This comprises 7 sub-planes of energy so highly organized that it bears many of the characteristics of “life”.
But it is not recognized by the minds of ordinary men. It is available for the use of beings of the Spiritual Plane alone and is considered as “the divine power”*.
Superphysics Note
The beings employing these are as “gods” compared even to the highest known humans.