Review The Planes Options

The focus of this thread is to overlook each of what are called the plane of existence and analyze what can be considered their practical use in magic.

The focus of this thread is to overlook each of what are called the plane of existence and analyze what can be considered their practical use in magic.

Typically, it's nice to throw in a bit to get the conversation rolling, unless you just have a question.

I categorize planes according to seven layers (not entirely unlike the seven lower spheres of the sephiroth), starting with the gross and moving out into the most subtle, the edge of which, to my conception, leads into a place not unlike Daath.

From 'bottom' to top, the physical, energetic, emotional, mental, astral, spiritual, and causal.

They correspond to seven bodies, in the same order, a gradiation from gross to subtle, each of us having a body on each plane. The planes blend together, so that the physical is connection to the energetic, energetic to mental, etc., and each successive plane 'enveloping' the lower, so that the physical is within the energetic, the energetic within the emotional, etc.

The physical is the point of manifestation, is obvious use in magick being the 'field' on which one half of the magickal work is performed, anchoring the other six bodies to a single context which ultimately results in the relationships between apparently individual contexts - the only reason we do magick in the first place, because we perceive an existence in which there is 'other' to change, evoke, invoke, etc.

The energetic is the layer in which energy is moved from one place to another, and is the level on which the currents of energy therefore take place. Awareness and use of this level grants the magician the ability to move energy.

The emotional plane is the level at which energy receives resonance. Ultimately all energy is emotional in nature because of this setup. Awareness of this level allows the physical context to grasp the nature of the energy in the energetic level, seeing it from a 'top down' sort of way.

The mental plane fulcrum of manifestation, ultimately forming the patterns for energy out of the potential field of possibility located in the next highest plane, the astral. Awareness of this plane, one might term the unconscious or subconscious mind, allows the magician to analyze the patterns around him/her more effectively, being now more aware of the true nature of the origin of emotional resonance.

The Astral plane is the source of all possibility and information that will find organization in the mental plane. Awareness of this plane allows the magician to access greater bandwidths of information, or consciously expand his rapport with foreign concepts, i.e. astral journeying, vision quests, scanning the akasic records, etc. The is also the plane at which the resident subtle body is the least constricted by time and space, these being the realm of the organizing element in the mental plane, and therefore the body able to travel - whereas the mind can only move around within it's own organized 'area' of assimilated information. Most magick takes place by 'bouncing' up through the lower energetic, emotional, and mental levels, into the astral where the relavent possibilities are brought into alignment with those lower planes, creating the cascade effect of manifestation.

However, the next highest plane, the spiritual plane, is the plane on which transcendental magick takes place. Where the astral is good for manifestation, this plane is good for personal transformation, and is the level at which most invocation, evocation, and spiritual magick takes place - the realm of archetypes, those forces that the astral then personifies through an infinite array of symbolic concepts and possibilities for reality. This is the realm of angels, demons, spirits, etc, perhaps even the lower Godforms. Being aware of this plane and body allows the Magician to expand his 'astral' travels upwards into the higher strata of the astral, and to become a far more effective shaman, now able to deal directly with spiritual beings rather than calling them down through the medium of the astral, in which those beings put on the mask of a conceptual being, the reason we perceive a spirit in any conventionally conceivable form.

The highest level at which, as far as I am aware, magick takes place is the causal plane, which is the plane through which the origination of existence is first filtered down into a 'cause/effect' place, and in becoming aware of this plane and body, the magician masters will, typically through alignment of 'individual' will with 'divine' will. This is the realm of Gods, the causal forces of existence, the origins of all concept, consciousness, karma, etc. A mage who has fully realize the causal realm achieves 'true will' and can exercise virtually any change on his context, though he/she is, by nature of the realization, bound to express only within the confines of their true will or, ultimately, their causal purpose in the physical universe.

This is the way I conceived of the planes of existence relative to the magician shortly after getting involved in magick, and hasn't really changed much since then, seven always seemed to be a good number for it. Later on I studied the tree of life, and it seemed close enough to me to reinforce my conviction in it. As of now, i'm working on walking the gates of the necronomicon, and that's bound to evolve the schemata a little more as well.

peace