The Cosmos

Originally there is only the unmanifest Absolute Reality; the Godhead, the Source; the  Supreme, infinite Consciousness-Being.   From within this ineffable Absolute there unfolds the infinite manifestation, the omni-cosmos.  the term "omni-cosmos" is used to indicate that this reality not only includes the physical cosmos, but everything (omni) as well, including a great many not even associated with physical reality.  The Omnicosmos includes the totality of finite beings.  Unlike the Absolute Reality, phenomena here are determined by the play of unities, polarities, and dualities.  Everything is in constant process.

The Omni-cosmos encompasses all possible existing universes, including cosmoses pertaining to other dimensions (spiritual, parallel, inner, etc).  Each universe has its intrinsic characteristics, its own laws and phenomenon and forces and experiences.   The parameters that define distinct universes and distinct states of consciousness within those universes are

• Reality or Illusion - the Perception or misperception of Reality
• Consciousness to non-consciousness - from Self as Pure Consciousness or "I" or Subject to not-self or "object"
• Inward to Outward Orientation - the degree of Soul or individual Existence
• Spirit to Matter - Emanation - the specific Plane or hypostasis of reality (prakriti)
• Infinite to Finite - the expansion or limitation of Pure Consciousness (Self)
• Mandalic position - Form - the typal qualities or charactristics of that particular universe
• Developmental stage of involution or evolution - the dynamic stage of development
• Spatiotemporal relation - indicating probabilistic, parallel, alternate, and any other combinations

The Omnicosmos comes about through the emanation of Everything into Nothing.  There are two directions emanation takes - from Inward to Outward, and from Spirit to Matter.

Principles of Emanation

The Manifestation of Reality as Horizons of Self-Involution of Infinite Consciousness

Spirit to Matter involves emanation from the supernal Godhead (the Dynamic Absolute) through a series of stages, which can be called worlds, planes, ontocosms, etc.  Initially, the Godhead takes the form of the Divine reality, the Noetic Universe, in which the Everything predominates.  From  this in turn there emanates a further manifestation, the Noeric Universe, the Spiritual or Angelic reality, which although elevated is still limited in relation to the Divine Universe.  This in turn gives rise to a further manifestation, the Psychic universe, which is more under the sway of the Nothing.  Finally the Noeric and Psychic provde the blueprints for the Hylic or Physical universe, which includes the mundane physical reality and many other realities as well.

I have suggested that the Cosmos can be divided into eight Ontocosms or primary worlds - four higher or "enlightened" noeric states and four lower or "samsaric" - and that, moreover, each of these can in turn be divided, giving an 8 x 8 grid. Adopting the I Ching system of hexagrams gives the following arrangement

Plane	Physical subplane	Astral subplane	Spiritual Soul subplane	Spiritual Mind subplane	Spiritual Archetypes subplane	Divine Light subplane	secondary Noeric subplane	Noeric Divine subplane
Active Noeric Divine
Secondary Noeric Divine
Divine Light
Spiritual Archetypes
Spiritual Mind
Spiritual Soul
Astral
Physical

Note - for simplicity's sake I have only coloured the "central axis" of subplanes. But in fact every plane and subplane, every ontocosm and subcosm, has a colour. Also, the colours given here should not be assumed to be the absolute or right colour.

Note also the four shades of grey, from lighter to darker, in the top right, bottom right, top left, and bottom left quadrants. This is because if we divide the eight planes into eight subvisions, these would also be arranged as noeric noeric (top right), noeric samsaric (bottom right), samsaric noeric (top left), and samsaric samsaric (bottom left). As well as representing a dynamic of reality, this also gives us the quaternity, which in turn unfolds into the tetrakys and hence from four the number ten, which implies the ten sefirot of Kabbalah (another link to Kabbalah is in the twenty-two transitional stages which indicate the twenty-two paths

Each of these quadrants contain 16 hexagrams. If each of these is multiplied by four the result is 64. So taking the most familiar quadrant, the lower left or samsaric consciousness, this would then consist of 64 hexagrams - in this case four ontocosms each divided into four planes each again divided into four subplanes - which gives us the full complement of sixty-four hexagrams, as well as the 64 3-codon strings of DNA. It can be seen that this diagram as a whole is a fractal representation (Kabbalah, Theosophy, and the cosmic classification of Max Theon are other examples of fractal cosmologies) and one can keep iterating and coming up with new insights and levels of meaning.

Other themes

| Speculating on the nature of reality | A Fractal Map of Reality | The Uroboros - symbol of totality | The Singularity above and below | The Quaternity | The Tetrakys

Combining the various parameters gives various perspectives on states of consciousness and planes of existence:

The Nature of Reality