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Preface
5 Planes of Existence
Introduction
Five Planes of Manifestation
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EARTH; GROUND; WORLD
A symbol of the lower nature of the
soul,-lower-mental, astral, and physical planes, which constitute
the arena of life for the ego.
"And God called the dry land Earth: and the gathering together of
the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good."-GENESIS. i.
10.
And matter being further differentiated, "dry land Earth" stands for
the lower nature,-the natural man,— and the "gathering together of
the waters signifies the forming of the astral "Sea" of the desires.
And all is made perfect in the course of involution.
These knowledges are the 'waters gathered together into one place'
and are called seas'; but the external man is called 'dry land,' and
presently 'earth.'" - Swedenborg, Arc. Cel. to Gen. i. 10.
“Thoth spoke after he saw the enemies lying upon the earth: Joyful
is your heart ye gods of heaven! Joyful is your heart, ye gods of
earth !!'" - Legend of the Winged Sun-disk.
The Higher-mind, now awakened in the soul, sees the enemies desires,
prone upon the "earth" or lower planes. Thereat the ego sings, Glad
is the Christ who hath triumphed over the desire nature and its
illusions ! ' Glad are the higher qualities of the lower mind, which
are now raised victoriously!'"
"I have moved against the earth; I have caused my inherited fate to
rest." - BLACKDEN, Book of the Dead, Ch. CX.
The Self has come forth in the lower nature to contend against it.
The Self has offered itself as a sacrifice; for it has voluntarily
imposed limitation upon itself, for the sake of the many.
"Christ's redemption of the world was a true man; all the truer man
because it was God in man; it was the Father in the Son who showed
what earth, used in the fear of God, might be. In him there could be
no doubt of what sort had been the giving of the earth to the
children of men of which David had sung so long ago. It could not
for one moment seem to have been a gift to man's self-indulgence and
selfishness. It certainly had not been a giving of the earth away
from God. It had been given to the divine in man, to that in man
which had in it the nature of divinity, and which was capable, by
obedience, of becoming infinitely near to God. That this is the real
nature of God's gift of earth to man was the assertion of the
incarnation and of all the life of Jesus." - PHILLIPS BROOKS, Serm.,
The Earth of the Redemption.
“He who dwelling in the earth is distinct from the earth, whom the
earth knows not, whose body the earth is, who rules the earth from
within, he is thy soul, the inner guide, the immortal.' - Brihad.
Upanishad, III. 7, 3.
The Self incarnate in the lower nature (earth) is distinct from the
lower nature, whom the lower nature knows not, whose vehicle the
lower nature is, who rules the lower nature from within; he is thy
individual soul or Self, the inner guide to perfection, the immortal
ego.
“(JOB ix. 24.) For what is denoted by the designation of the earth,'
saving the flesh? who by the title of the wicked,' save the devil ?
- ST. GREGORY, Morals on the Book of Job, Vol. I. p. 526.
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