Planes

There are planes of Life so transcendentally grand and exalted, that Man’s wildest imagination cannot conceive of them.

The word “plane” has been appropriated by occult writers, from necessity, and given a meaning apparently at variance with the accepted usages. In ordinary language a “plane” is a “perfectly level, flat, and smooth surface.” In geometry and stronomy it is sometimes used in an abstract or ideal sense, to indicate “an ideal surface supposed to cut or pass through a solid body or in various directions; as the plane of an ecliptic, the plane of a planet’s orbit, etc.” It is also used in a figurative

sense, implying “a level, or field” as “on the plane of reason; on the plane of common sense, etc.” Generally speaking, its

figurative use implies a layer, strata, or level, and it is used in occult phraseology in the figurative sense of a level, or strata of

Cosmic activity or manifestation.

But the student is cautioned against confusing the term “plane” with any conception of “place.” A plane is not a place.

A particular place may include several planes, and sub‑planes; for the planes interpenetrate each other. A plane has no

dimensions in space, and rather more resembles a state or condition. It cannot be measured in the three dimensions, and

yet it is capable of measurement by degrees in the Scale of Vibrations. These states or degrees of vibration interpenetrate

each other, without interference, in which peculiarity they have correspondences or analogies in physical phenomena. For

instance, a dozen or more currents of electricity may pass along the same wire, at the same time without interfering with each

other, and may then register each on its special instrument, providing that the rate of tension or vibration be different in each case. Or, again, light vibrations, heat vibrations, vibrations of electricity and magnetism of several degrees, vibrations of

the X‑Rays, sound vibrations, etc., may manifest and remain present in the space of a room, at the same time. The various planes of manifestation blend into each other, and each of the three planes has seven sub‑planes, which in turn are sub‑divided into seven minor planes, and so on, until seven times seven acts of sub‑division have been made.