In the blog post Between the One and the Many I elaborated a cosmic scheme with the One at the centre (the Sun), the Twelve at the periphery (the Earth) and Three and Seven between. Here I would like to relate these four numbers (1, 3, 7, 12) to levels of psychedelic altitude, with the One as the highest and the Twelve at the lowest.
Although I refer to planet Earth as 12 (representing cyclical time in the yearly orbit around the Sun), this is in the context of the collective unconscious, the imaginal or heaven. Everything that happens in the psychedelic dimension happens in heaven. So the “12th heaven” is “Earth heaven” in the sense that it is designates a realm of personal and transpersonal images, ideas, fantasies, etc. similar to those that occur in ordinary dreams.
If you get higher, beyond the “12th heaven” is the “7th heaven”. This is where you experience one or more of the seven levels of the Ray of Creation (Emptiness, Energy, Matter, Life, Mind, Planet, Universe). For example, if you are on the level of Matter (Atum) you may experience dancing atoms and molecules or the elements air, water, earth and fire and other natural forces. The level of Life (Ka) is experienced as cellular “organic goo”, whereas the Mind (Ba) level is populated by organisms, plants and animals.
Beyond the “7th heaven” is the “3rd heaven” which is an abstract realm of primitive archetypes arranged into triads. The two primary ways these triads manifest is objectively as Tao, Yin, Yang (a dynamic polarity within a higher unity) or subjectively as Parashiva, Shiva, Shakti (consciousness and form within a higher consciousness). You either observe reality as the endless play of infinite triads or participate in reality as the infinite play of one triad. In a Christian context, the latter is experienced as the special relationship between Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
The “1st heaven” is absolute unity, the plenum void, One without a second. In other words, God as All in All. This is very difficult to recall in consciousness, and only possible because there is a trace remainder of self which manages to steal a glimpse of this unfathomable Source and Goal of everything before being swallowed up like a firefly in the Sun. This is level is sometimes referred to as “ego dissolution” and sometimes as “amnesia” because although you know you’ve been there, you don’t know where you’ve been.
I would like to say that this is the highest level, if only for the sake of tidiness. However, I suspect that it may be possible that on the other side of God, so to speak, something like on the far side of a Black Hole, there is another dimension altogether. Perhaps the “1st heaven” is a portal between this reality and a wholly other dimension, where the DMT entities live. Perhaps.
Be that as it may, I do think that this is a useful map with which to position various psychedelic ecosystems. Broadly speaking, I would say that the conventional therapeutic secular humanist folks spend most of their time in the “12th heaven”. This is where we can process and heal personal, interpersonal and even transpersonal psychological pathology and trauma. New Age Neo-Pagans spend most of their time in the “7th heaven”, especially in Atum, Ka, Ba and Gaia. Christian mystics (eg. St. Paul), as well as mystics from other traditions, also spend time in the “3rd heaven”.
bread of life 