19.2 Explorations

We adopt a numbering system, starting with 1, 2 and 3 for the first three realms of spiritual, mental and physical, as in Table 19.1. Then 1.1, 1.2, 1.3 for the sub-degrees of 1. And 2.1, 2.2, 2.3 for the sub-degrees of 2, and so on. This gives the ninefold set, the ennead, of Table 19.2 for the 9 sub-degrees. In this second table I write first ‘A of B’ where A is the part from Table 19.1, and B is the sub-part of that part. This ‘A of B’ is therefore to be read as B being a further specification of A. In the final column, however, I change ‘of’ to ‘from’, since effects are more clearly like the final result than the instigator of something. For the same reasons, I have sometimes exchanged the words ‘action’ and ‘effect’. The meanings of all these in common language will be given in the next Part.

These are written in a square since there are obvious similarities along the rows. They could also be written linearly as 1.1, 1.2, 1.3 > 2.1, 2.2, 2.3 > 3.1, 3.2, 3.3: from the beginning of creation to its end.

Each of these nine sub-degrees describes substances of its own kind which act in distinct spaces. Within those spaces there can be contact between two objects of the same kind. These nine substances exist simultaneously and interpenetrate without collision. Note that ‘interpenetrate without collision’ is only a metaphor for the relation of the nine spaces.

Remember our discussion of Section 17.3, where we saw that when we talk, for example of 2.1 (thoughts of loves) as a substance of its own kind, we realize that only loves can be substances. Thoughts by themselves cannot be. Thoughts are merely the correspondences of different forms of the different substances of the mind. Those substances are forms of love or forms of dispositions derived from love. We should actually rewrite the above ennead table as in Table 19.3.

We cannot yet totally understand what all these different substances and ‘formings’ are doing. After Part IV many of this chapter’s obscurities will be clarified and puzzles solved.

In the physical degree, the physical powers have passed through many stages of derived productions and have become almost the final or ultimate effect. In the physical stage, what started out as loves are no longer living or conscious but are ‘dead’ (not-living) and unconscious. Instead of ‘love’, we should therefore talk about ‘source’ or ‘governing principle’. Instead of ‘thought’, we should talk about ‘cause’ because cause is the middle between the love and the effect. Instead of ‘action’, we should talk of ‘effect’ or ‘events’. The physical sub-degrees and sub-sub-degrees can therefore be redescribed as in Table 19.4.