|The Noetic Universe||Highest Noetic Plane (Divine-Archangelic)|
|Higher Noetic Plane (Arch-Archangelic / Archai)|
|Higher Middle Noetic Plane (Archangelic)|
|Middle Noetic Plane (Angelic)|
|Mental Plane (Abstract Mind)|
The Divine Universe can be subdivided not only "vertically", in terms of Divine planes of existence, but also "horizontally", in terms of octaves of increasing absoluteness on each plane; each octave reflecting a plane.
The same applies on the Angelic levels. An illustration of this is to be found in the Sant Mat teachings of Huzur Swamiji Maharaj (1818-1878), who developed a cosmology based on the inner sounds - Shabda or Nada or Celestial Melody - heard during certain states of yoga, and very important in Tantra and other such traditions. There are five such sounds, corresponding to five heavenly regions from the Sahasdal Kamal or heaven corresponding to the Crown Chakra, i.e. the Higher-Mental Plane, to the Sat Lok (Satya-loka) or Region of Truth, i.e. the Godhead or Absolute.
"Each region has its own distinctive Sound and its own characteristic secret....It is via the Dhun (Sound) of each region that the soul can, by degrees, ascend from one region to another, up to the highest stage...."
So there would seem to be a distinction between a Divine (but still not the highest reality) region, several higher but not as high regions, and finally a lower or more manifest "Higher Causal" region. (Since we are on the angelic level, there would not seem to be manifest octaves ("horizontally") below the Higher Causal).
The "Supercausal" Angelic octave constitutes the Godhead(s) of the Angelic Ontocosm; the Universal Divine Consciousness or Gorakhnathian Murti of this particular plane (or series of planes), and presumably the Radha Soami Godhead of Sat Lok, which is still described as a personal being, and hence cannot be the Absolute Reality.
The higher "Higher Causal" octave would represent the first appearance of maya or limitation and seperateness (the Divine reality being in principle beyond this), expressed most clearly in the Vidyeshwara and Vijnanakala principles of Kashmir Shaivism; although these can also be understood as degrees ofindividuation of self, and hence on a different "axis.
Perhaps the celestial hierarchies of Blavatsky would also go here.
And finally the lower "Higher Causal" octave constitutes the manifest Angelic reality with its diverse hierarchies and phenomena: the Angelic archetypes of Suhrawardi and Sufism in general, and the Radha Soami Sahasdal Kamal with its various hierarchies of "avatars...,prophets, auliyas (Adepts). and yogis" who "come from this region and return to it [after leaving their bodies]." [The Sar Bachan p.33]
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