3D

It was not so very long ago that 3D became an accep­ted short­hand, and yet for cen­tur­ies paint­ers have used the mys­tic­al prac­tice of depict­ing space on a flat plane, three dimen­sions in two. It is true mys­ti­cism, mak­ing a high­er num­ber of dimen­sions rep­res­ent­able on a lower plane – a mas­ter­stroke. If we are able to inter­pret 3D space on a 2D plane, would this be pos­sible with other dimen­sions too? Can 2D be rep­res­en­ted in one dimen­sion? Can the uni­verse be con­densed into a single point? Or are we able to inter­pret 5D in 4D, in the com­plex­ity of space and time? These too are enorm­ously excit­ing ques­tions, but let us stay with 3D.

One pos­sible answer lies in the order of the solar sys­tem, and it is so obvi­ous that we hardly notice it. 3D mat­ters because we live on the third plan­et. If we sur­vey the solar sys­tem, at its centre stands the Sun, as the zeroth dimen­sion, or the zeroth heav­enly body. Nearest the Sun lie the rocky plan­ets, first Mer­cury, then in turn Venus, Earth and Mars. After them come the gas plan­ets, of which Jupiter lies nearest the Sun, then Sat­urn, and so on. So the plan­ets show a sym­bol­ic sys­tem and the course man has to run, as fol­lows:

The Sun is the guar­an­tee of the whole sys­tem, life is a given, exist­ence is. A zero point, yet not the zero of noth­ing but the ori­gin of every pos­sib­il­ity, and there­fore at once alpha point and omega point, the clos­ing of ful­fil­ment (omega) and the unfold­ing of begin­nings in which all is pos­sible (alpha).

Exist­ence has mean­ing when con­scious­ness is mani­fest as well, and for this intel­li­gence is needed, which Mer­cury rep­res­ents: reas­on, wit, inform­a­tion, being well informed, com­mu­nic­a­tion, curi­os­ity… No won­der that ration­al exist­ence is seek­ing some­thing, ful­fil­ment or, more pro­sa­ic­ally, hap­pi­ness. Man usu­ally looks for it through the emo­tions, in love and in com­pan­ion­ship, and so after the plan­et of reas­on comes the heav­enly body of the emo­tions, Venus: the Even­ing and Morn­ing Star, love, emo­tions, and yes, here everything is the reverse of every­where else in the solar sys­tem, for on Venus the Sun rises not in the east but in the west, thanks to Venus turn­ing on its axis in the oppos­ite dir­ec­tion. That explains a great deal…

So exist­ence, con­scious­ness, reas­on and the emo­tions all stand togeth­er, and their sum is the next level, that is, in earthly exist­ence man tries to make sense of his own exist­ence, strives to gain more know­ledge and samples the emo­tions. Earthly exist­ence is the world of exper­i­ence, and the pre­ced­ing spheres are the pre­con­di­tions of its work­ing. If we leave the Moon out of account, what remains is raw, nat­ur­al, mater­i­al life, but add to earthly exist­ence the Moon's mys­tery, its change­ab­il­ity, its nature as the bear­er of secrets and spir­itu­al­ity, and the spir­itu­al quest begins. This opens the pos­sib­il­ity of going fur­ther, of the leap between dimen­sions, but the next plan­et is Mars: all force, all fire, con­flict, struggle… Yes, tran­scend­ing earthly exist­ence is a struggle. For this we must gath­er all our strength. If we mis­un­der­stand the mean­ing of Mars, we wage war on oth­ers and become not strong but viol­ent. Yet the say­ing is true: he who con­quers oth­ers is strong, he who con­quers him­self is mighty. That is to say, the Mar­tian struggle and effort is the war we wage with ourselves, and its tri­umph is self-con­quest. Then the soul is already break­ing free of coarse mat­ter, of the mater­i­al­ity of the rocky plan­ets, and reaches the next great prin­ciple, Jupiter, which is none other than the teach­er, the Guru prin­ciple. Learn­ing has to be fought for, reas­on, feel­ing, exper­i­ence – so much is needed for it. In India the plan­et Jupiter is called Bri­haspati, and he is the mas­ter of the demi­gods. Who­ever comes into his pres­ence is no longer a man at all but a man bey­ond man, a hero at the least, or rather a being of the order of demi­gods. The celes­ti­al teach­er instructs him in divine know­ledge, in spir­itu­al philo­sophy. This is no longer inform­a­tion but trans­form­a­tion, the pre­par­a­tion for the final trans­fig­ur­a­tion.

From here it is only a step to Sat­urn, who is gen­er­ally held to be ill-omened, and he is the strict teach­er, the great one who calls to account. Sat­urn as Chro­nos devours his own off­spring and does not let just any­one through into etern­al exist­ence. To con­quer tran­si­ence one must con­quer time itself…