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Very Provisional Table of Planes of Existence

Plane	Proclus (Late Neoplatonism)	Sufism (varies)	Lurianic Kabbalah (varies)	Theon (tentative - pending closer research)	Theosophy and Alice Bailey (generic)	Sri Aurobindo
Noetic Absolute	Henads	Lahut	Keter of Atzilut / Adam Kadmon	Etherisms	Higher Logoic Hierarchies	Supermind
Higher Noetic / Divine	Being	Jabarut	Hokmah of Atzilut (Abba)	Free Intelligence	Adi/ Divine/ Logoic	Overmind
Higher Noetic / Divine-Intuitive	Life		Beriah of Atzilut (Imma)	Spirit	Anupadaka/Monadic	Intuition
Middle Noetic / Illumined Mind	Nous		Tifaret of Atzilut (Ze'er Anpin)	Light	Atmic	Illumined Mind
Middle Noetic / Higher Mind (Spiritual Intuitive)			Malkut of Atzilut (Nukvah)	Essence	Buddhic	Higher Mind
Lower Noetic / Pure Mind / Ideational	Rational Soul	Malakut	Beriah	Mind	Higher Manas/Mental (Abstract Mind) Lower Manas/Mental (Concrete Mind)	Mental
Astral / Psychic / Orexic	Irrational Soul		Yetzirah	Soul	Kama/Astral	Vital
		Mithal	Asiyah	Nervo
Physical	Nutritive / Vegetative Soul			Physical	Linga Sthula / Etheric	Subtle Physical
	Body	Mulk	Malkut of Asiyah		Dense Physical	Physical (Terrestrial evolution)

This particular map of reality provides a good starting point for formulating an integral classification of all possible states of consciousness, although it needs to be integrated with the other three parameters and the representation of hypostases of the Absolute for this to be so. More often this "veretical" scale is confused with the endocline of inner-outer series (e.g. Advaita and pop gurus), or with the autocline or levels of self (Theosophical and theosophgixcal based (Alice Bailey etc) diagrams). Just as - with teh Age of Enlightenemnt and birth of Western science - mythopoeisis and esotericism had to be distinguished from natural philosophy to get a true scientific understanding (and for that matter a true occult understadning, although this latter has lagged uptil now), so the various intertwined parameters of consciousness and reality have to be teased apart, in order to formulate a universal map of reality.

The Autocline or Levels of Selfhood

Levels of Selfhood or the subjective-objective axis constitutes a distinct ontological parameter, defined by subjectivity. It is in some ways the most metaphysical of the hierarchies we are considering, and difficult to understand for the Western Mind, although it is commonly presented in both Psychology on teh one hand, and various Theosophical and post-theosophical New Age teachings on the other. The difficulty is because it is very often usually confused or combined with either the "inner-outer" psychological series (psychology), or the physical-noetic "vertical" series (occultism and theosophy). This confusion arises between these factors because the conventional current western religious and philosophical position involves a choice between Materialism (including variants such as Judeo-Christian resurrectionism - as they are unable to conceive of a soul apart from the body) and some sort of Cartesian, spiritualist, or natural-supernatural religious dualism. But these materialistic, holistic, or dualistic interpretations ignore all the manifold aspects and dimensions that human consciousness includes.

The much more sophisticated understanding of ancient India is based not on the dichotomy of soul/mind/spoirit and body/matter, but of Pure Consciousness or Witness and the Objects of Consciousness. This latter includes both mind and matter; in other words, thoughts are just as much non-self as the physical body. This simple yet profound observation can be confirmed or proved by any decent meditation practice. Thoughts are distinctly experienced as something different from the core-awareness, the "I" or "knower" or "witness" or Self (or "non-Self" - i.e., non-Ego - if you are a Buddhist, for the experience also proves to you that there is no persisting ego or outer personality self).

A further approach can be had with a trinity of Self, Non-Self, and the Overlap between the two (e.g. Steven Guth's suggestion that the Ego or Conscious Mind is an overlap between the Transcendent Higher Self and the Double) This is also the position of Eastern philosophies like Samkhya and Advaita Vedanta, which refer to the buddhi (Samkhya) or "witness" (Advaita) as the reflection of Pure Consciousness or Self (purusha, atman) upon non-conscious nature (prakriti).

From this beginning, we can assume further transitional levels of self. The following sequence of hypostases follows in part Sri Aurobindo in distinguishing between a prakritic being, an inner being, and a transcendent higher self; Assagioli (left), as well as Freudian psychology. A very simple Self-Not Self dichotomy is found in Ken Wilber's Four Quadrant map, in which the left half of the diagram pertains to "interiors" or subjectivity, the right half to "exteriors" or objectivity (consisting of objects / "it" (Upper) and systems / "its" (Lower) quadrants (right). The same arrangement is also found in Teilhard de Chardin's evolutionary philosophy; in both cases it is a modification of the original Cartesian (Mind-Body) dualism (Wilber 's "Upper Left" ("I") quadrant also brings in the "inner-outer" endocline, without being able to distiguish the two ontoc parameters). Curiously for someone so familar with psychology, there is no reference in Wilber's philsoophy to an "intermediate" reality between subjective and objective, such as Freud's "Id" or Steven Guth's reference to the "double". The diagram on the left, and the following list, shows the sequence sugggested here:

• Paramatman / Buddha Mind - This is the Self that is infinite, eternal, all inclusive, one with the Supreme. In fact it is the Supreme Reality of all mystic teachings, according to which the essence of the Soul or individual being is the same as the Godhead of the Cosmos (monistic Vedanta, Eckhardt, chap.1 of Huxley's Perennial Philosophy). Of course, the nature of the Supreme varies according to the conceptual system one uses to approach and relate to it. Advaita Vedanta affirms the "Self" and Buddhism denies it, but both are describing two aspects or rather perspectives and ways of approaching the same thing. everything, the universe and beyond - that mode of the Absolute which is the universe (and the universe as the Absolute)
• Transcendent Higher Self - This is the "Celestial" Higher Self, the "Man of Light", Heavenly Twin, the Angelic Spirit, the Guide of Light, etc in Hermetic, Sufi, Gnostic, and other such traditions, Ar-Ruh al-Qudsi/Supreme Spirit, Christ in Christian mysticism and esoteric Christianity, the Transcendent "Central being" (Jivatam) guiding incarnations (Aurobindo), Higher or Spiritual Self (Assagioli), and the Monad of Theosophy (right). At least one experience [link xxxx] indicates a Matrix of Higher Selves.
• Immanent/Evolving Higher Self - This is the Divine Soul or Purusha as immanent Divine Soul; the Pneuma or Divine Spark of Gnosticism, Sri Aurobindo's Chaitya Purusha or "Psychic Being", perhaps also Kashmir Shaivism Purusha, the Immortal Personality evolving to perfection, the Divine Soul or Higher Triad or Immortal Ego (right) of Theosophy and Alice Bailey's tecahings. Many teachings confuse the two higher selves, but I am here following Sri Aurobindo in considering them separate but in relation to each other. This is just like the Heavenly Twins of ancient Hermetic, Gnostic, Ishraqi, and Sufi thought.
• Essential Being - True Being or purushas of each plane or level, according to Sri Aurobindo (perhaps Samkhya seems to refer here to the mental purusha). These are part of the Inner Being that supports the prakritic nature (It is unclear whether Sri Aurobindo considers the Inner Being and the True Bewing as one or two principles). Also the Antakarana or "Inner Being" (especially Buddhi and Ahamkara) of Samkhyan philosophy in part. This is equivalent in part to the "Divine Soul".
• Ego - Conscious Self - This is the conscious personality or conscious self, the Ego according to Freud and Jung, the Manas and Manovijnana of Samkhya and Yogachara respectively, the "field of consciousness", the part of our being we identity with as "I" or "self" or "mind" or "soul". Normally it corresponds to the Outer or Surface Consciousness, but with spiritual development the field of consciosuness expands and is elevated to include more of the inner being. The Ego or I corresponds also to the Upper Left Quadrant (or alternatively the Upper and Lower Quadrant, in asmuch as the Lower is "Intersubjective", not a true omni-subjectivity [ref xxx) in Wilber's Integral map.
• Double / "It" / Unconscious - The "Double" or "Id" (literally, "It") is that part of the self that is experienced as "other", as a sort of Double or Doppleganger to the Ego. It can be understood as a transitional or intermediate reality between the complete Not-Self, which is specifically not a part of the individual, and the ego. In other words, it is intermediate between Within and Without, Subjectivity and Objectivity, Interiors and Exteriors. It lies outside the field of consciousness, but it still connected to the psyche, although it has a large degree of autonomy. A review of the Double in folktales and elsewhere (including Steiner's teachings) can be found here
• Not-self / All Other Selves - To some extent this is the Prakriti of Samkhya and Advaita, but also everything that is not included in the individual Self. It is also, at least in its physical aspect, Objective reality according to science and secular thought.

All of which can be shown diagrammatically as follows:

This however is not the complete story. Because if we adopt a monadological stance, according to which everything that exists is a "self" or Aspect or reflection of the Absolute, and there is nothing that is not-Absolute and hence not-Self, then the not-Self includes all other selves apart from one's own Self. Because they are not one's own Self (but other selves), they are experienced as "Without" (Teilhard) or "exteriors" (Wilber - the right half of his diagram) rather than the "Within" or interior or subjectivity. This can be represented as follows:

This gives us the "participative paradigm" defined by John Heron (P/I: Pluralities/Integration #67 (April 25, 2005)) and already previously referred to. This participative paradigm includes:

"An epistemology that asserts the participative relation between the knower and the known, and, where the known is also a knower, between knower and knower. Knower and known are not separate in this interactive relation. They also transcend it, the degree of participation being partial and open to change. Participative knowing is bipolar: empathic communion with the inward experience of a being; and enactment of its form of appearing through the imaging and shaping process of perceiving it"

I would extend this by saying that because everything that exists is a Self (and/or an aspect of the Supreme Self / Absolute Reality), this relation of Knower and Known extends even to so-calkled "inanimate" objects. This is the opposite of the depersonalisation and objectification of things that one finds in physicalist-materialist, naive postmodernist relativist, and exoteric religious literalist worldvies.

The Mandala

The review of the above four gradations or polarities of being may imply that in order to explain everything, a four dimensional cartesian grid would be required. So for example a physical object might be considered as (from "least" to "most" ontologically significant):

Individual (holoncline) - Outer aspect of Outer Being (endocline) - Dense Physical (ontocline) - Not-Self (autocline)

But while this may work in some instances, it may not in all. We find for example that Sri Aurobindo says that the Psychic / Innermost Being does not pertain to any of the conventional planes ("vertical" hierarchy) like Physical, Vital, or Mental (ref. xxxx) . Rather it supporst the outer being. In Kabbalah, in Samkhya and Kashmir Shaivism, in Procline neoplatonism, and in Gnosticism, we find a sort of tree-like phylogeny of being, in which emanation from the origional Godhead or Absolute branches out into a number of channels or worlds, aeons, tattwas, or sefirot, which then converge or alternatively further multiply. Sometimes there is a final convergence tyo represnet the physical or material world (e.g. Malkhut in Kabbalah) as the "furthest point" from the Absolute. But this sort of dulaism is probably too simplistic, especially since m,any more esoteric teachings speak about the Absolute or Godhead being beyond and giving rise to all polarities, dualities and opposites, all of which are reconciled and transcendend in the Source.

It may well be (although this is speculation) that the original polarity or divergence or Coming Into Being (by which the One becomes Many) is in the form of that most universal of glyphs and diagrams, the mandala.

Here is a typical Buddhist mandala

We have the four quarters, representing the four primary archetypes, four deities (with the fifth in the center), four elements, four Jungian ego-functions, four worlds, four colours, whatever. And you have a series of layers, leading to and focussing on the center.

When meditating upon the mandala, the consciousness is guided through the various layers or rings from the periphery representing the outer consciousness to the center representing the Buddha Mind at the core of one's being (shown by whatever deity the mandala addresses or embodies, in Buddhism all deities are aspects of the void (shunya) or Absolute Reality)

Yin and Yang

In a traditional mandala there are four such variables (one for each quarter or quadrant) plus a fifth as the Source otr Origin in the center. Alternatively, these can be seen as a doubled duality (as in the "bigrams" of the yin yang series of lines in the I Ching). The dynamic mandala applies the interrelationships between any two of these parameters or variables, or any two points on the same axis. One of these points or variables or modes will be "yang" and one will be "yin", because in any manifestation there is always a polarity (in the Absolute itself, this polarity - Yin and Yang (Chinese philosophy), Shiva and Shakti (Tantra), Hesed and Gevurah ( Kabbalah), whatever term one may wish to give to it - is considered latent and unmanifest), and indeed it is this polartity or difference in potential that not only causes but is manifestation.

The following is a suggestion of the polarity of the four parameters of existence (which - iof each is derived from an archetype or godhead, would fit nicely with the four points of the mandala:

• The "horizontal" "Holarchy" Axis: orientation to the "Atomistic" Individuality is the "yang" / Controller polarity; while orientation to the larger Cosmic or Universal dimension is the "yin" / Work Component
• The "horizontal" Inner-Outer Axis - orientation to the Innermost Being is the "yang" / Controller polarity; ("subjective") to orientation to the Outermost (most external or "objective") Being is the "yin" / Work Component
• The "Vertical" Axis / Planes of Existence - orientation to the Higher Nous = "yang" / Controller; orientation to Physical Matter is the "yin" / Work Component
• Levels of Selfhood - orientation to the True Self / "I" or "Within" is the "yang" / Controller polarity; orientation to the Non-Self / "This" / "Without" or Phenomena is the "yin" / Work Component

It is important to understand that neither of these is more important than the other; both are complementary and necessary polarities of manifestation. This is not a moral cosmology of "good" and "evil".

The following diagram represents the various parameters as a sort of multi-dimensional grid.

Each axis or parameter consitutes a distinct spectrum of consciousness (or "chain of being"). So the "vertical parameter" from physical matter to noetic planes consists of many subplanes.

Moreover each of these gradations is not a simple spectrum or series, but rather a fractal with numerous aspects and ramifications, each of which has a "yin" and a "yang" polarity. So matter is yin, spirit is yang; cosmic or universal is yin, individual is yang.

More on trhese parameters here

The Absolute Reality

The various mystical and esoteric traditions of the world are (apart from a few dualistic traditions like Samkhya and Gnosticism) unanimous in affirming that behind and beyond, including but also transcending, these dualities and polarities, there is the Absolute Reality in Itself. The description of the Absolute however differs, according to the religion or esoteric tecahing one consults. Vaishvanites like Chaitanya and the Hare Krishna school of Prabhupada, and Sufis like Jili, consider the Personal Godhead higher than the impersonal. In contrast, Neoplatonism, Shankara and Wilber have the Impersonal or Nonpersonal as highest. Others like Ramanuja incorporate elements of both, or, as Sri Aurobindo perceptively suggest, say the the Supreme is beyond limitations of both Persinal and Impersonal.

A further distinction is to refer to an Unmanifest Absolute on the one hand, and a Manifest or Noetic Absolute on the other. The former is the Nirguna (qualityless) Brahman of Vedanta, the Tao that cannot be spoken, the En Sof, the Shunyata ("void", "emptiness", "openness"), Forefather of Gnosticism, and Godhead of Dionysus and Eckhart. The latter is Saguna (with qualities) Brahman, the Logos of Philo and Sufism, the Manifest Godhead, or the Supermind of Sri Aurobindo. Like the center of the mandala which unites the four quarters., this can be said to constitute a fifth or unifying principle behind and at the heart of the other four. As Ken Wilber says about Spirit, it is both the hiughest member of the hierarchy and the underlying reality of the entire hierrachy {ABHOE, etc]. But this is not entirely correct, because it is not only the highest member of each hierarchical spectrum, but also the lowest. I would follow Tantra and Taoism in saying that it is what preceds the original polarisation of each ontocline into purusha and prakritiu, yin and yang. It is neither yin nor yang, higher or lower, self or non-self, but equally beyond both alone.

Parameters of Reality

Unmanifest Absolute shunya, tathata, paratpara Reality in Itself beyond Absolute and Phenomena	Pleroma (The Manifest Absolute) The One Absolute Unity The Many within One: These aspects within and of Unity, expressing absolute Harmony and Perfection
	Kosmos Aspects that are polarised (yin-yang) and dualistic. These constitute the dimensions of Kosmic and phenomenal, dualistic, involtionary-evolutionary existence SelfNonself InnerOuter NousMatter IndividualUniversal

Perhaps each of these sequences begins from a different aspect of the Absolute. Or maybe from the same aspect expressed in different ways.  Whilst still within the Absolute, all these dimension/parameters are unitary.  Within the Absolute Reality things are simple (Absolute Unity, Inifite, timeless spaceless conscioousness, etc). But when they are projected down into and as finite or relative existence, distinction appears, and separation, and complexity. It seems to be a common esoteric teaching (and one that makes a lot of sense) that the purpose of the ever-unfolding Kosmos, of phenomenal existence, is for the infinite possibilities within the Absolute Itself to be allowed individual expression.

The Metaphysics of Process - Ontodynamics

The term Ontodynamics has been independently coined by Stephen Harrison and myself. As I define it, it refers to the dynamic nature and interelations of being (ontos), as opposed to a simple static formulation of koshas, planes, atoms, or whatever. Reality,, rather than being static, is a constant process, a "play of consciousness" (skt. lila), of involution and evolution, the working out of the infinite possibilities of the Unmanifest and Manifest Absolute within the infinite Kosmos

I originally intended to formulate an ontodynamic theory in terms of a number of fundamental principles, like the axiis of manifestation in the metaphysics scetions above. But instead this section became a sort of mini-encyclopaedia. Rather than try to force it into a form to which it doesn't belong, I decoided to leave it as an alphabetical listing and glossary.

Axial Evolution - evolution that represents an ascent from a lesser to a greater state of physical existence - e.g. the evolution of life from inanimate matter. The term is identical to what Teilhard de Chardin calls "Radial Evolution".

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Co-action Compass - universally applicable cybernetic diagram presented by Edward Haskell and his associates, which shows the interactions between any two entities or elements of the same entity.

Using a standard mandala as a cosmological "map" means a "static" timeless, or cyclic (like the famous "Wheel of Rebirth") diagram. But we also need something that can convey process and evolution as well. Hence the "Co-action Compass", a cybernetic feedback diagram that forms the basis of the Unified Science paradigm presented by Edward Haskell and his associates. An example of this diagram on the cover of their book Full Circle - The Moral Force of Unified Science is shown here:

This diagram (and Unified Science in general) is based on the premise that with any two interacting factors, one will have a controlling role (this is represented by the y axis, and can be considered "yang") and the other will be the "work component" (the x axis, corresponding to yin). These two elements can interact in a way that benefits, harms, or is neutral to, one, both, or neither. The result is a matrix of 9 possible interactions, which are represented graphically as the co-action compass. The following diagram shows how these 9 possible relationships determine the 9 fundamental states of the co-action compass:

The following diagram shows how even the co-action between the opposite poles of only one of the above axii can produce a whole range of situations.

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Compound - consisting of parts; not simple. These parts may or may not be holons

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Cosmos - creation, the totality; everything. Also spelt "Kosmos". From the Greek "ornament". There are also indidual cosmoses or worlds which make up elements or nodes or aspects of the larger Cosmos as a whole.

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Emanation - the effect that any entity, system, and/or being has on its environment. The Absolute Reality, being infinite, generates cosmos-creating emanation, through which all manifest existence comes about. Of course, the Absolute is also all that is, so it only affects Itself. creation, the totality; everything. Gods and other hierarchies of beings produce emanations of entire autonomous beings, even worlds. Humans, as physically embodied beings, produce a constant stream of mental and astral thought-forms, an etheric aura, and physical molocules, skin flakes, and a weak electromagnetic field, as "emanation". A sub-atomic [particle produces its own "emanation" of virtual particles.

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Emergent Evolution - the evolutionary appearance of qualitive phenomena that cannot be explained in terms of their component parts, and which appear in physical reality with each higher or larger level of complexity. e.g. chemistry emerges at the level of atoms amd molocules, and cannot be explaine din terms of quantum phenomena alone. Life emerges at the level of cells, and cannot be explained simply in terms of the chemistry of molocules. At the same time, aspects of the lower are lost - quantum physics pertians only to the smallest scales, biochemistry doesnt work on the level of planets, and so on.

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Entropy. The progression from more complex to simpler structures through through lose-lose (-/-) co-action. The reverse of evolution.

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Evolution - linear, branching, or converging change or succession or series from an original (usually although not always simpler) state or ancestor or group to another (usually although not always more complex) state or descendents or group. Evolution may occur anywhere along the holarchy or holocline, using many or few elements of the holocline. So there can be individual evolution, collective evolution, cosmic evolution, and so on. Evolution may be phsyical, psychic, spiritual, or of any pother nature. In fact evolution is a fundamental law or principle of the Cosmos. Evolution is only possible in an open system; in other words, either or both X / Work Component and Y / Controller (see Co-action Compass) must include at some elements outside the individual being. These elements may pertain to any axis or parameter of reality, and/or to the Absolute which is beyond all axiis

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Feedback and Feedforth - the flow of being (which may be energy, matter, information, ch'i, consciosuness, or anything else) between components within an individual system, as well as from the individual itself to other (equivalent, larger, or smaller) individuals or systems

Cybernetics understands feedback (within a system), but not feedforth (beyond a system). In the Unified Science paradigm of Edward Haskell and his co-workers, the various levels or systems, develop and relate through a feedback and feedforth both within and between each level, which is as follows:

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Holarchy. A hierarchy of holons

In Janus, a Summing Up, Arthur Koestler presents the theory of holons, as a third way between atomism and holism. Each entity at each hierarchical level, each "holon" as Koestler termed them, is both a whole of the parts or entities of the level below, and a part of the whole above. Atoms are made of subatomic particles, molocules of atoms, biological cells of molocules, and so on, upto the entire cosmos as a whole. Koestler coined the term Holarchy ( wikipedia page) to describe this particular hierarchy. This term was then adopted by Ken Wilber who added a lot of additional ideas, and created a sort of monadology based on the idea that all that exist are Holons and nothing else. This, in my opinion, makes the concept of holarchy too amorphous (if everything is a holon, why even say holon?). Also, there may well be entities like the Samkhyan concept of purusha that are not a part of or made up of, other units.

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Holon - a system that is itself a part of a larger system.

In interepreting holons I have taken a position opposite that of Ken Wilber, who reduces the entire cosmos to nothing but holons, each of which are made up of four quadrants and so on, and other integral theorists who present holons in too generic a sense of any a whole that is itself a part of a larger whole. As indicated in the following diagram, holons are not "atoms", but autonomous systems.

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Interaction - co-action between two or more beings

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Karma - the effect a system's or a being's action on other systems or beings has on itself

Karma implies that all beings are actually co-essential, because by affecting another one also affects oneself.

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Open System - A system that interacts with and is acted upon by its larger environment.

The laws of thermodynamics proved that for life (which builds up complex systems, in apparent violation of the second law of thermodynamics) to occur an open system is necessary, because entropy must be dumped outside the individual being. The only way you could have life in a closed system would be as a perpetual motion machine, a physical impossibility.

Note that this does not have to refer to only the dense physical dynamics of matter and energy; Steven Guth and I have proposed the concept of Astrognosis, whereby cosmic influences ray down on Earth. The Earth is not a closed system, a little bubble separate from everything else, but a holon that is part of a larger, galactic, ecology which incorporates "astrodevic" forces.

The following diagram shows the relation between the individual entity and its environment, in terms of a holarchy of increasing scale.

Smaller order holons (shown as elipses in the lower right of the diagram), become or are part of the yin or Work Component (X) of the individual being or system or holon in question. These may be holons that are already included in the totality of this holon, or they may be holons from elsewhere in the holon's environment (light blue) or in the cosmos or the universe as a whole (dark blue). Likewise, both or either the holon as a whole, or the Controlling (Y) or yang component of the holon, in turn are originally, or become, sub-levles or lower order holons in the larger environment or totality, or in a larger order holon in that environment or totality (center top of diagram).

Depending on how the middle holon or being (the one illustrated in the diagram) processes the work component, or is itself processed by the larger order holons, local entropy or syntropy results. Note that this does not have to apply to the larger reality or holarchy; altruism and self-sacrifice is a classic example (on the physical level, because spiritually things are quite different) of local entropy leading to larger syntropy (indeed this is the way metabolism works; all negentropy or syntropy requires a greater degree of disorder elsewhere). Hence life, which locally appears to violate the second law of thermodynamics, does not actually do so on a larger holarchic scale.

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Simple - not made up of component parts.

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Singularity - an axial ascent (emergant evolution) from one toposophic level to the next, such that it is impossible to understand the outcome or nature of the new evolution using only the understanding and experience of the previous or lower toposophic level. The concept was originally developed by sci fi writer Vernor Vinge [ref xxxx]

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Syntropy - evolution through win-win (+/+) co-action.

Whenever syntropy occurs, the result is progressive evolution, leading to novelty and higher order structures. Hence evolutionary developments are indicated at the top right of the compass, as shown below:

Here only three evolutionary levels are shown - abiotic, biotic, and cultural (corresponding to Matter, Life, and Mind) - but any number of levels can be indicated in this way.

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System - a dynamic compound being; consciousness in evolution.

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Toposophic Level - a singularity level, a quantum level of the physical evolution of consciousness. The term was originally coined for Orion's Arm