Helena Blavatsky - The Seven Planes of Existence, “The Secret Doctrine, the Synthesis of Science, Religion and Philosophy”, 1888. The Sevenfold Nature of Man is the reflection of the Sevenfold Nature of the Universe. “As Above, So Below; on Earth as it is in Heaven.” Man is the Microcosm of the Great Macrocosm and the seven different “Principles” or components of his Being are literally derived from the Universal Seven Principles. These Seven Planes correspond to the Seven States of Consciousness in Man. It remains with him to attune the Three Higher States in himself to the Three Higher Planes in Kosmos. But before he can attempt to attune, he must awaken the Three “Seats” to Life and Activity. In the diagram, the upper three Planes are described as “The Three Higher Planes of the Septenary Kosmos,” “The Divine and Formless World of Spirit.” One of the fundamental teachings of Theosophy is that all Manifestation is of a Septenary Nature. Everything follows the Sevenfold pattern. Every group, division, or representation of Seven is always comprised of a Higher Three and a Lower Four. In the case of human beings in Physical Incarnation, our Seven Principles are divisible into the Spiritual Triad (also called the Upper Imperishable Triad) of Atma-Buddhi-Manas and the Lower Quaternary of Kama-Prana-Linga Sharira-Sthula Sharira. Also, each of those Seven Principles is itself Sevenfold, being comprised of Seven Sub-Principles. This is equally true for the Seven Planes and for all else. 7 x 7 = 49 and the Forty-Nine Fires, as they are called in the Vishnu Purana and other Eastern scriptures, is one of the deepest subjects of “The Secret Doctrine.” The Three Higher Planes are the Arupa or Formless Planes, the Unmanifested, and that the Four Lower Planes are the Rupa or Planes of Form, the Manifested. The Three Higher Planes belong to the Archetypal Universe. The Four Lower Planes are labelled in this diagram with the names by which they are referred to in the teachings of the Kabbalah, namely the Archetypal Plane, the Intellectual-Creative Plane, the Substantial-Formative Plane, and our objectively visible and tangible Physical-Material Plane.
