Isis on the Regions of the Cosmos

[sdi]

There are in the universe, four regions, governed by a fixed and immutable law: heaven, the ether, the air, and the most holy earth. Above, in heaven, dwell the Gods, ruled as are all the rest, by the Maker of the universe; in the ether are the stars, governed by the great fire, the sun; in the air are the souls of the genii, governed by the moon; upon earth are men and other animals governed by the soul who, for the time, is their king. [...]

This expanse, my son, is divided into four provinces, and into sixty regions. The first province from the earth upwards comprehends four regions, and extends as far as certain summits or promontories, which it is unable to transcend. The second province comprises eight regions in which the motions of the winds arise. Be thou attentive, my son, for thou hearest the ineffable mysteries of the earth, the heavens, and of the sacred fluid which lies between. In the province of the winds fly the birds; above this there is no moving air nor any creature. But the air with all the beings it contains distributes itself into all boundaries within its reach, and into the four quarters of the earth, while the earth cannot lift itself into the mansions of the air. The third province comprehends sixteen regions filled with a pure and subtle element. The fourth contains thirty-two regions, in which the air, wholly subtle and diaphanous, allows itself to be penetrated by the element of fire. Such is the order which, without confusion, reigns from depth to height;--to wit, four general divisions, twelve intervals, sixty regions, and in these dwell the souls, each according to the nature thereof. They are indeed all of one substance, but they constitute a hierarchy; and the further any region is removed from the earth, the loftier is the dignity of the souls which dwell therein.

(Kore Kosmou ["The Daugher of the Cosmos," that is, "On the Soul"] II–III.)

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The material world has, of course, its four elements; Isis is saying as you go up the hierarchy, the scale of each world doubles. This smells suspiciously similar to the notion of Flatland: four elements is, of course, the number of quadrants in a two dimensional world; doubling this is equivalent to adding a dimension, comprising the octants in a three dimensional world; doubling this is equivalent to adding another dimension, comprising the sixteenth parts in a four dimensional world; etc. It touches nicely, I think, on how we are bound by time; how angels exist in time but may freely traverse it (that fourth dimension, a prison to us, can be walked back and forth by them); etc.

Obviously, as the Absolute comprises all that exists, the dimensions must go infinite as one gets high enough, so this repeated doubling must be a mere model rather the reality of the matter; nonetheless, it points at the notion that the divine worlds are far, far more vast and interesting than the dusty, gray wastes which we are equipped to inhabit.