Body - Elements Soul/Psyche - Planets Spirit - Zodiac
Spiritual Soul, Astral Sub-lunary
Heaven Earth Hell
"In ancient astrology the peoples of the Far East and also those of Babylon recognized immediately a number of natural divisions in the system which they themselves had created. Probably no better statement of this natural division is to be found than in the writings of Paracelsus. The great Swiss physician says that as above, truly so below-as in the universe, so in man. And in this particular instance he says that man derives his body from the elements, his soul or psyche from the planets, and his spirit from the zodiac. Thus dividing this strange world of concentric interpenetrating discs and planes into a spiritual zone, a part that is called soul or astral , and then an elementary or sub-lunary division. These three parts were termed heaven, earth, and hell in the ancient theologies. The moment you recognize this you realize that the physical world, the physical earth, with its atmospheric or elemental vestments, becomes analogous to the hell, or underworld. The Greeks, when they studied this system, divided the universe into three parts. They naturally gave to the highest part the rulership of their great deity, Kronos, the son of Ouranos, king of heaven. They gave to the middle or central part of their great universal system the rulership of Rhea, or Core, or Ceres, the great mother, and to the lower, or sub-lunar area they bestowed the government of Zeus. And Zeus, as lord first of the air which was the outer vestment of the earth, finally became a deity on several planes. As Zeus-Poseidon he became the lord of the etheric element of water; as Zeus-Hades he became the subruler of the material physical element of earth, and as Zeus-Vulcan he became the keeper and lord of the element of fire. This deity Zeus, who was the material world, had his authority variously distributed through the parts of this system. When we recognize this system and realize the meaning of such terms used by the ancients as sublunary as meaning below the orbit of the moon, the word "disaster" meaning dis-aster or the power of an evil star, and the division of three great concentric chambers one within the other-we have a key to most of the theological systems of antiquity, all of which were built upon this great system. Pythagoras, by stretching a single cord from the wall of the Empyrean, or the outer heaven, to the surface of the earth, created what he called the monachord or the great musical instrument of the world. Here, by using the planetary mathematical orbits as frets or stops, he was able to divide his string and create his concept of universal harmony. This key gives us the explanation of the Apocalypse of St. John. We know how he ascended through the little door in heaven, which was the gate of the Empyrean. We understand Ishtar descending through the seven worlds, which were the orbits of the planets, to rescue Tammuz from the underworld-the material universe. We know why Plato said the body is the sepulchre of the soul. We also know why illusion is considered to be an element analogous to water, Maya, Mary, Marla-Isa. We know that this was the symbol of the immersion of the soul in the waters of generation, called by the Greeks the crater of Cancer or the cup of forgetfulness-the waters of Lethe. All of these elements exist in this distribution of the universe. There is also Jacob's ladder, a ladder of seven rungs, with its lower part upon the earth, and its upper end projecting through into the Empyrean. As we go into the study of the Chaldean magic we realize that the Empyrean enclosed what might be termed a cavernous underworld-a grotto, carved out according to the Egyptians by the deity Ptah, the potter of Memphis. It was Ptah who was given the work of cutting out the great subterranean judgment hall of Osiris in the fields of Amentic, all of which refers to the material universe, the physical world. The three rooms of the Mysteries correlate to the spheres of the stars, the planets, and the elements. When we get hold of this system we begin to realize how vital the astrotheology of the ancients really was. In the great vision of Hermes, the shepherd of men, we find again the descent of consciousness through the seven gates. We know in the Egyptian rituals of the dead how the deceased passed through the seven doors. We know from the ancient Cabala and the Zohar that in the creation of Adam, the spirit of Adam fell through the seven planes, each one of which bestowed a quality or an attribute upon his nature. According to the same system, the ancients, particularly the Chaldeans, reverenced the zodiac as the wall between all creation and the creating principle. They recognized the lord of the solar system as abiding at the circumference and not the center. They believed that the great solar deity consisted of a field of magnetic energy, which focused from the circumference to the center, produced a dramatic focal point, called the Sun. They represented this by placing on the arm of the sun god a shield which captured the light of truth and the light of God. But the sun god was never the source of the light; he was only the one who reflected it from the polished surface of his shield. Apollo was not the god of the sun, but the reflector of the power of the sun, because the ancients were convinced that all life dwells in the circumference and not the center of its magnetic fields, and pours its energies from the circumference toward the center in the process of involution. All of the divine abundance flows downward from the circumference to center, and that human evolution is man's ascendance from center to circumference, or the return of life, from a particular to a universal condition. Therefore the fall of man, according to the Chaldeans, is the descent of entities and beings through the orbits of the planets. The redemption or resurrection of man is the ascent of the human consciousness through the seven mysteries, or sacraments of the spirit, to its original home and abode. The whole story of the Christian concept of this is contained in the sermons of Jesus to Mary of Magdala in the great Gnostic gospel, the Pistis Sophia. Mohammed, according to the faith of Islam, in the great night journey to heaven, passed through precisely the same ritualism as St. John in the story of the Apocalypse. Riding on a mysterious creature called Alborak, the human-headed peacock-horse, Mohammed is brought to the great rock Moriah on the site of Solomon's temple in Jerusalem. This stone was the original threshing floor of the Jebusites. There a ladder with golden rungs fell from the sky, and Mohammed ascended through the seven gates. At each gate was one of the patriarchs, and each of these patriarchs gave him the right to proceed. In one version of this legend Jesus was placed at the gate of the seventh heaven, and Mohammed requested the Nazarene to intercede for him before the throne of God. This is in the Apocryphal writings of Islam, but the substance of it is also contained in the doctrines of the sect. The mysticism of the night journey of Mohammed is preserved in the secret traditions of the Sufis and the dervishes. This is responsible for the great cycle of dervish mysticism and the teachings of Jataluddin, who attempted to cause the human being, by acts of body, soul, and mind, to adjust his own motions to the cosmic field-producing attunement with the universal rhythm. This is the essence of the strange and almost incredible gyrations of the whirling dervish. All these concepts spring from one source. They are based upon a cosmic map-the pattern of things as they were believed to be by the astronomers of Babylon. We can go on indefinitely following through the religious literature of all parts of the world, and wherever there have been civilized peoples we have exactly the same theme."
— PRS Journal, Vol. 47, No. 3, Fall 1987, by Manly P. Hall