Theos-Talk Archives (December 1993 Message tl00053)

The subject of globes and planes seems simply, on first glance, but
contains some profound, deeply esoteric truths. It involves the nature
of space and the mystery of the manifest universe, the great tree of
life.

It can be confusing, since *globe* and *plane* can be used
interchangably, in some discussions, since our only experience of a
plane is through the globe on it, and there has to be a place to
experience every type of consciousness.

The planes are a spectrum of consciousness. A single plane contains
a particular scale of consciousness, covering the whole possibility of
experience. In a plane, there is a range of subplanes that covers
the seven, ten, or twelve basic types of consciousness.

There is a fractal nature to the planes, where we see the entire whole
represented in any single part. A single plane embraces the entirity
of life. Break it apart into its subplanes, and each of them, as well,
contain the whole.

Moving in the opposite direction, we find that our physical plane is
one of seven, comprising the lowest cosmic plane. And it is one of
seven of a yet bigger scale. And there is no end to this, going bigger
and bigger, or going smaller and smaller, we never find a top most or
a bottom most level to things.

The planes are a spectrum of conconsciousness, they represent the
seven principles of consciousness, in both a universal sense, where we
can talk about, for instance, the universal nature of Manas, and in
a particular sense, where we talk about our seven principles, as we
have them, here on Globe D earth.

Like space itself, the planes are not places, not worlds, not a body
of any cosmic being. They do not occupy any particular position. They
are a *condition*, an experience, a mode of functioning, not a thing,
not a object, not a place where beings exist.

It is the globes, the forms, the bodies, that are the places where
beings start to appear. The globes are the staging areas for
manifestation, for existence. When we speak of having an experience on
a particular plane, it is us, on the globe on that plane, that has
the experience.

Looking at the globe chain, we see that each globe is at a particular
level, a particular point, on each of the four lower planes. When we
go to the other globes, we experience the four planes at the point or
level at which the corresponding globe or globes are at.

The experience of the planes, besides being focused to where the
globes actually are, at the present, is also qualifies by the direction
of the life energies of the globe. Globes on the downward arc have an
different experience of life and existence than the globes on the
upward arc.

And a full experience on any one of the globes is had by us as a
fully-embodied, seven principled being, although the seven principles
that we clothe ourselves in is different in each of the globes. We
have a different set of skandhas, a different set of egos and souls
built up to represent us, as Human Monads, where we visit those globes.

There is a part of our constitution that is more at home on one of
the globes than the rest, a part that has particularly evolved forth
from with based upon our experience thereon.

The quality of life and the workings of the laws of nature are based
upon the plane that the globe resides on. But when we say that a globe
resides on a plane, it may be a somewhat misleading figure of speech,
because planes are not *places*, they are *states*.

At this point in time, our evolution is here, on Globe D, and we do
not fully embody ourselves on other globes, should we pass through
them. We visit the other globes, possibly in meditation, in sleep,
in death, and in initiation. But the visits are generally one of a
feeling of the influence of the globes, and not an actual physical
presence on them. We partake of the consciousness of the globes, but
don't go there, and take on bodies on them, except in the process of
hastened evolution in treading the Path.

The natural sweep of our life energies takes us through the globes,
in sequence, from the first to the last, then to our source, and this
sweep of life is really the flow of life energies of our world, our
planet, its sutratman or thread soul, the sweep of its monadic essence.

Each globe along the way is a center or focus of consciousness of our
planet, the host of our manifest life, and nothing exists outside of
it for us, as Human Monads. As Spiritual Monads, which we will be
someday in the distant future, our consciousness takes in more, but
for now the scope and range of our existence is limited to not only
a single planet, but even more so, being limited to but a single globe.

Looking at a globe, it does not contain planes of consciousness. It
does not have its own higher planes, apart from the globe chain. A
world or globe does not contain consciousness or space, but rather is
*a being* at a particular level of development, experiencing a
particular state of consciousness. And the state of consciousness that
our Globe D is experiencing is the plane on which it resides.

The planes are not other places to go to, the globes or worlds are.
Everything exists on a globe or world of some scale, in the body of
some greater being. There is a great tree of life, reaching upwards
without end, wherein each existing being comes into manifestation in
and through an already-manifest greater being. Nothing exists outside,
apart from this tree of life. For us, there would be no existence
apart from our globe chain.

When we talk about an infinitude of planes, about an endless series
of bigger and greater planes above and beyond what we know in our
experience of life, we are talking about the fractal nature of
consciousness, about the reflection of the macrocosm in the microcosm,
about how there are other realms of experience on a wider scale that
ours.

A solar system, a universal solar system, and even greater
astronomical bodies represent larger scales of existence, larger than
we experience in our live on Globe D, our physical earth. One day, we
will have progressed where our scope of life is at that level, but
that is in the far distance future.

Within our natures, we have no particular self for a plane, because
planes are not places, they are conditions of consciousness. We have,
rather, an ego or self, the karmic seeds for potential existence, for
each of the globes of our earth.

When we think about the infinitude of planes, we are considering the
infinite possible variations of consciousness, which are possible,
while in embodied existence on any of the globes. But to fully
experience consciousness, complete consciousness, we have to be fully
clothed in all our seven principles, we need all the ingredients that
go into making up conscious existence.

Our personal consciousness, as we know it here on earth, our current
personality, is what we've made ourselves into being. It is us, until
we infill it with with the higher, until we bring self-conscious
awareness of our higher principles into play.

The physical existence that we experience here on the earth is not
limited, a handicap, something unplesant that we need to get through
as quickly as possible in order to exist on some other plane, in order
to escape to our true home.

The physical existence that we experience here on the earth is our
learning experience, our self-evolved place of life and growth, our
true home. Until we awaken and transform ourselves, *here*, we are not
ready nor capable of existence elsewhere.

Here on the earth, there is not a limit to our consciousness. The
limit is not our physical bodies. It is ourselves that set the limits,
by the scope or reach that we allow ourselves. All the higher faculties
are available to us, as we currently stand, in embodied existence.

We do not have to try to go to someother plane in order to find a
higher consciousness. The reverse is rather true, we cannot function on
a higher plane until and unless we've already acquired that
consciousness, here on this plane.

When we unfold the higher faculties in ourselves, we have a
*consciousness* on the other planes, an experience of the nature of
consciousness that corresponds to those planes, even as we continue
to exist on Globe D, with its own consciousness focused on the physical.

At a much later period of human evolution, at a time in the distant
future measured in the millions of years, we as humanity will move on
to Globe E, and experience embodied existence on a globe wherein the
apparent laws of nature function differently, function according to a
different quality of consciousness.

The difference of experience that we will have at that time is in
regards to our outer personalities. Above and beyond the personal,
though, is the impersonal, in which we can experience forms of
consciousness that transcend those that our outer circumstances seem
to limit us to.

Even a Mahatma, in his fifth to seventh initiation, short of Buddhahood,
is a man in a body of flesh in this world. He is not a nonphysical
cosmic being. He may have learned to paralyze the body for a time and
to function elsewhere, and for a time experience other worlds, but
his life is here, as a man, as a member of the Human Kingdom. He is
still many steps short of final graduation, some steps which are not
possible to take in the Fourth Round.

When we hear of an adept reading from the astral light, or uncovering
information in the Asashic Records, we are not talking about higher
planes, nor other globes, but rather the aura, the atmosphere, the
less material aspect of our Globe D earth.

Our globe is not merely a ball of rock and gas, circling the sun in
space. It is a whole spectrum of being, from the unmanifest, through
all the seven principles, down to the physical, which we see as our
world. The material side of it also spans a whole spectrum from the
unmanifest down through solid matter. The material side is rooted in
Asasha, reaching down into the astral light, then finnally, in its
most concrete form, becomes the world as we know it.

This spectrum of physical existence, including the astral light, is
not a "astral plane", and it is not populated with whole classes of
fully-manifested beings. It is a formative womb in which the outer
world is created. It contains images and impressions of things to
be and of things that have been. It can be perceived and manipulated,
but it is not a separate plane or world, apart from our Globe D earth,
which can be independently existed on.

It may be possible for an adept to temporarily project his
consciousness into the astral light, and perceive it, but this
projection of consciousness is not a full, embodied existence, it is
partial and temporary visit.

The astral light is populated by elementals, which carry out the will
of nature in the outer world. The elementals are the three classes of
beings seeking further material existence, and the direction of their
consciousness is downward. They contemplate the physical world and
dwell on and direct the activities of the laws of nature. They build
the clouds, they shape the mountains, they bring conscious direction to
the natural phenomena of life.

The Dyhani Chohans also dwell one step removed from the physical, but
much information has not been given out about how and where they
function.

It may seem confusing at times to pull together all the mystery
teachings that we have been given, especially considering their
fragmentary nature. The rounds and races, the globe chains, the
planes of nature, the hierarchical nature of and the grand tree
of life--all these are but bits and pieces of the grand truth.

A study and contemplation of the Teachings is not easy, because we are
required to penetrate into a realm of thought that our regular,
customary brain-mind is is unfamiliar with, we are required to go into
uncharted terrorities of learning and knowledge.

We must awaken a higher form of perception, one that penetrates
directly, a form of knowing that is different from what we currently
possessess, a form of buddhic insight. And no one can do it for us. No
one can take us to the knowledge that awaits us. We must do it
ourselves, we must make the effort on our own. We must go where we
have never been before and come back wiser, richer, better than
before, bearing gifts for others.  For no grand Truth is truly
received until it has been passed on to others. Nothing is gained for
oneself alone.

                            Eldon Tucker (eldon@netcom.com)