Introduction
Ancient Greek sages claimed that there are three parts or
centres or dimensions to everything. Which are the inferior, the middle and the
superior.
If we recall a few Gnostic teachings we can see these three aspects
featuring quite frequently. For example; each planet Master Samael says has an
infra-dimension (hell), a physical dimension and a heaven or superior dimension.
Each atom is a triad of matter (lower), energy (middle) and consciousness
(upper), and every living creature has an inferior part (body), a middle part
(psychology) and a superior part (spirit or Real Being).
The latter example is also expressed as: the physical body,
the soul/essence/psychology and the spirit, or body, mind and soul/spirit.
There is also the physical, the psychological and esoteric
reality, which respectively correspond to lower, middle and upper.
Interesting Excerpt
The following excerpt from Manly P. Hall’s book “The Secret
Teachings of All Ages” explains this teaching or truth of everything having
three parts, layers, dimensions or aspects very clearly and interestingly,
quoting some vey ancient and interesting examples.
Exceprt
“According to another
concept of the ancient wisdom, all bodies--whether spiritual or material—have three
centers, called by the Greeks the upper center, the middle center, and the
lower center. An apparent ambiguity will here be noted. To diagram or symbolize
adequately abstract mental verities is impossible, for the diagrammatic
representation of one aspect of metaphysical relationships may be an actual contradiction
of some other aspect. While that which is above is generally considered
superior in dignity and power, in reality that which is in the center is superior
and anterior to both that which is said to be above and that which is said to
be below. Therefore, it must be said that the first--which is considered as
being above--is actually in the center, while both of the others (which are
said to be either above or below) are actually beneath. This point can be
further simplified if the reader will consider above as indicating degree of
proximity to source and below as indicating degree of distance from source,
source being posited in the actual center and relative distance being the
various points along the radii from the center toward the circumference. In
matters pertaining to philosophy and theology, up may be considered as toward
the center and down as toward the circumference. Center is spirit; circumference
is matter. Therefore, up is toward spirit along an ascending scale of
spirituality; down is toward matter along an ascending scale of materiality.
The latter concept is partly expressed by the apex of a cone which, when viewed
from above, is seen as a point in the exact center of the circumference formed
by the base of the cone.
These three universal
centers--the one above, the one below, and the link uniting them-represent
three suns or three aspects of one sun--centers of effulgence. These also have
their analogues in the three grand centers of the human body, which, like the
physical universe, is a Demiurgic fabrication. "The first of these
[suns]," says Thomas Taylor, "is analogous to light when viewed
subsisting in its fountain the sun; the second to the light immediately preceding
from the sun; and the third to the splendour communicated to other natures by
this light."
Since the superior (or
spiritual) center is in the midst of the other two, its analogue in the
physical body is the heart--the most spiritual and mysterious organ in the
human body. The second center (or the link between the superior and inferior
worlds) is elevated to the position of greatest physical dignity—the brain. The
third (or lower) center is relegated to the position of least physical dignity
but greatest physical importance--the generative system. Thus the heart is
symbolically the source of life; the brain the link by which, through rational
intelligence, life and form are united; and the generative system—or infernal
creator--the source of that power by which physical organisms are produced. The
ideals and aspirations of the individual depend largely upon which of these
three centers of power predominates in scope and activity of expression. In the
materialist the lower center is the strongest, in the intellectualist the
higher center; but in the initiate the middle center--by bathing the two
extremes in a flood of spiritual effulgence--controls wholesomely both the mind
and the body.
As light bears witness
of life-which is its source-so the mind bears witness of the spirit, and
activity in a still lower plane bears witness of intelligence. Thus the mind
bears witness of the heart, while the generative system, in turn, bears witness
of the mind. Accordingly, the spiritual nature is most commonly symbolized by a
heart; the intellectual power by an opened eye, symbolizing the pineal gland or
Cyclopean eye, which is the two-faced Janus of the pagan Mysteries; and the
generative system by a flower, a staff, a cup, or a hand.
While all the
Mysteries recognized the heart as the center of spiritual consciousness, they
often purposely ignored this concept and used the heart in its exoteric sense
as the symbol of the emotional nature, In this arrangement the generative
center represented the physical body, the heart the emotional body, and the
brain the mental body. The brain represented the superior sphere, but after the
initiates had passed through the lower degrees they were instructed that the
brain was the proxy of the spiritual flame dwelling in the innermost recesses
of the heart. The student of esotericism discovers ere long that the ancients
often resorted to various blinds to conceal the true interpretations of their
Mysteries. The substitution of the brain for the heart was one of these blinds.
The three degrees of
the ancient Mysteries were, with few exceptions, given in chambers which represented
the three great centers of the human and Universal bodies. If possible, the
temple itself was constructed in the form of the human body. The candidate
entered between the feet and received the highest degree in the point
corresponding to the brain. Thus the first degree was the material mystery and
its symbol was the generative system; it raised the candidate through the
various degrees of concrete thought. The second degree was given in the chamber
corresponding to the heart, but represented the middle power which was the
mental link. Here the candidate was initiated into the mysteries of abstract thought
and lifted as high as the mind was capable of penetrating. He then passed into
the third chamber, which, analogous to the brain, occupied the highest position
in the temple but, analogous to the heart, was of the greatest dignity. In the
brain chamber the heart mystery was given. Here the initiate for the first time
truly comprehended the meaning of those immortal words: "As a man thinketh
in his heart, so is he." As there are seven hearts in the brain so there
are seven brains in the heart, but this is a matter of superphysics of which
little can be said at the present time.”
End (841).
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