The Verticality Of God's Plan

It is commonplace in circles of religious discourse to hear talk of the notion of "God's Plan" as the legitimizer both, on the one hand, of a positive and optimistic faith in predestination, and, on the other hand, of a dangerous complacency and a renunciation of one's true agency. The profane colloquial definition of God's Plan, therefore, has to do with temporal lineation and the question of self determination, especially when considering its Christian associations. We must acknowledge, however, that this theme is a common thread among all ideas associated with The Will, Divine Law, Theological Predeterminism, and eschatological assertions of every proper Tradition (Tradition, here, according to its quintessential definition as the way in which Man participates in his Archetype, and, thereby, the highest accessible Reality), but, more than this, that it permeates also both into the sphere of whimsical and informal spiritism, and the sphere of secular and humanistic philosophy - and not just as the simple notion of cause and effect, but as a type of determinism in which there is an echo of a true understanding of supernaturality. This is to say that, regardless of how general or how limited the frame of consideration is, there always remains the notion of a "Plan".

To begin from the bottom and work our way upwards, from the most relative position to the most absolute - quite contrary to our usual analytical process - we might begin at the purely scientific level, at which we find, again, on the one hand, a positive assessment of the cosmos and a deep seated security in the predictability of planetary motions, the shifting seasons, the cycles of living organisms, while on the other hand we find the sense of nihilism that only exists because of a popular lack of true philosophical inquiry, and at the same time a dread of that very same nihilism. Yet at this level we find in conversational speculation and in the lowest philosophical and spiritual considerations the age old questions of free will and of moral impetus, the former of which, from this perspective, questions whether sentient beings possess true agency, or instead are set on an atomic trajectory of which their "autonomy" is merely a result, and the latter of which employs an incomplete and superficial understanding of certain Vedic principles, and the lowest ideas of Protestant Christianity. Nevertheless, the notion of a cosmic metanarrative and supernatural predestination are present here in their most profane forms, whether it be certain residual remnants of the previous religious paradigm, or an innate but unrefined understanding of the true nature of reality.

At the Philosophical level, however - that is to say the level of true Philosophy: Philosophy defined as the becoming aware of objective, holistic, and Divine Reality - the frame of consideration notably expands, and the ideas and archetypes common to various eschatologies become increasingly distinguishable. Even in the most rudimentary understandings, which result only from dogmatic interpretations of certain scriptures, there are already common themes: in the Abrahamic traditions, there is significant overlap in the symbols associated with end times that having to do with the fulfillment of prophecies which lead to Eternal Salvation and reveal the Divine Mind. There is to be a final "Golden Age" or a paradisal millennium on Earth, after which the Last Judgment will be issued, and the familiar structure of Reality will be dismantled and replaced with a better "world to come". In many cases it is also thought that there will be a generation of strife, hardship, decadence, or war prior to this paradisal age. Similar themes are found in the Zoroastrian tradition regarding the "destruction of evil" at the end of time; however, in the Zoroastrian tradition in particular we find the beginnings of an even broader notion: a sequential set of thousand year periods, each with a similar ending in a climactic catastrophe of popular heresy and decay, after which the world is said to be returned to the state of Pure Goodness in which it was initially created. In the esoteric sects of these traditions, whose primary focus is Gnosis and true universal knowledge as opposed to dogma, there is an emphasis on similar cycles: a beginning period of true Goodness, a decay from this initial state, and a subsequent return to the initial state as this Goodness prevails over various forms of Evil; this Goodness is often defined as the "unity with God", and its triumph over Evil - which, in this case, means disharmony with God - along with the fulfillment of the aforementioned prophecies, is attributed to the fruition of a temporal scheme that was established at the beginning of time - in other words, God's Plan.

The notion of cyclical history and the division of eras into particular archetypes is a significant theme among the various proper Traditions. In some cases, these eras signify different stages of a finite transient period between two eternals: the beginning and the ever-after. This interpretation, however, we can safely say, is simply the application of an eternal verity onto a precise window of time as opposed to the principle of time itself; the "beginning" and "ever-after", as we have put it, rather than being eternal verities in themselves, are simply beyond the frame of reference applied in this interpretation. This is to say that the state of Reality, in the time of the beginning and the time of the ever-after, is either not important to those to whom this interpretation applies, or are completely unidentifiable when compared to the specified eras in this interpretation. When the totality is considered, however, it becomes clear that the eras themselves, of this apparent transient period, are mere incarnations of a cyclical archetype as opposed to unique instances in themselves. The value we must extract from them, therefore, cannot be in the specific events that transpire in these eras, but instead in their respective qualitative states of which these events are indicative. These qualitative states correspond in turn to their respective cyclical archetypes, which, when considered in their totality, illustrate the quintessential archetype of a complete cycle, which is transposed onto the principle of time itself, creating an eternal sequence of consecutive cycles with more or less the same qualitative structure. There is no temporal beginning, only a cyclical one, and likewise this applies to the end of a cycle, or the ever-after, which is, in reality, only the beginning of a new cycle altogether.

When understood in this light, the archetype of a cycle can be identified in the following structure: a beginning Golden Age, in which the qualitative state of "All Things" is of "Pure Goodness"; a procedural decline from this initial state, in which various things become attuned more so to their chthonic and terrestrial element than to their archetypal one; a period of crisis at which point the previous trajectories more or less converge at a few points, demanding a reaction from what is still left of "Pure Goodness"; the execution of said reaction, and a restoration of the initial state, creating a new Golden Age, leading into the next cycle. In the traditions we previously mentioned, this structure is applied one time; in others this structure is eternal, repeating itself, not in the actual transpiration of specific events, but in quality, one after the other, invoking the same eternal principle of the cycles of time.

The latter is what is understood by other, more holistic, interpretations. We will only briefly touch upon the following subjects, as by now they are common knowledge, yet they are still relevant to the topic at hand. In other cosmogonic forms we find the principle of cyclical time applied on a broader scale; in fact, the most developed of these will suggest the aforementioned structure forms only a smaller cycle, which, when grouped with other cycles, is a mere numeration that makes up much larger cycles. The Vedic doctrine of cyclical time expresses the notion of four ages, or Yugas: the Satya Yuga, the time of "Pure Goodness"; the Treta Yuga, suggesting a period of "Three Fourths Goodness", or a time in which Goodness consists of 3/4ths of the qualitative elements of the era; the Dwapara Yuga, suggesting an equilibrium between "Goodness" and "Evil"; and the Kali Yuga, the critical period of strife and rapid decay, in the end of which the reaction by Good against Evil finds its ultimate success, leading into the Satya Yuga of the next cycle. These four ages create one Yuga Cycle, which endlessly repeats itself; however, a Yuga Cycle is not the largest cosmic cycle, nor are these ages equal in their lengths: if a complete Yuga Cycle were broken up into ten units of time, the Satya Yuga consists of four of them, the Treta Yuga three, the Dwapara Yuga two, and the Kali Yuga one. It is said in certain scriptures that a complete Yuga Cycle consists of 4 million years; in other testimonies the Cycle is condensed to a period of around 60 thousand. Now 71 Yuga Cycles, when considered in their holistic summation, consist in one larger cycle, or Manvantara, meaning an "Age Of Manu", "Manu" referring to "Archetypal Man" in his quintessential state. 14 Manvantaras, considered in their holistic summation, consist in a Kalpa, considered to be a "Day Of Brahma", representing a period of time "between the creation and recreation of a world or universe". This is necessary information only to substantiate our earlier claim that what is required to fully integrate this idea properly into any formal doctrine is the expansion of a frame of consideration to the highest possible degree; the infinite degree.

Similar testimonies to the Yugas are found in the Nordic and Greek traditions, the latter of which divides eras into a Gold, Silver, Bronze, and Iron period, with less a less precise prediction on the numerations of years in each period. Both eschatologies arrive at the conclusion that at the end of the cycle there will be a catastrophe, after which the "Heroic" element, signifying the quintessential state, will prevail over the terrestrial element. In the Greek interpretation in particular this will happen quite literally, and in the Nordic interpretation the world will be reborn after the catastrophe of Ragnarök to be inhabited by the descendant of Odin and repopulated by the remaining humans.

As for the humanistic principle in particular, the question of God's Plan relates to the idea of predestination, and the question fate and choice. We have answered this, however, by suggesting that what is predetermined, as opposed to individual actions, is the qualitative aspect. For the most part, individual activities are of no consequence, and, for the most part, simply reflect the quality of the times. Therefore, it is possible on the one hand to affirm fate, but also, on the other hand, to also affirm one's individual agency. However, this is in no way a suggestion that renouncing one's responsibility to achieve their quintessential state is forgivable under the pretense of "following the times"; our concern is not with the cycles of time, but with ontological propriety. Ideally, every age would be the Golden Age, and this is possible, not through a capability to bring upon the other ages the qualitative state of the Golden Age, but to actively pursue and achieve, through the exertion of effort and the fulfillment of the various archetypes, the quintessential state from one’s own position in other ages. In the Golden Age, this state is default; this is not the case in other ages, however that is not to say that it this state is not accessible in other ages. To "go with the times" is to reject this state, and one's individual duty to achieve it.

Therefore, it is necessary to apply another interpretation to the notion of God's Plan altogether. Until this point, every reference we have made to the ideas that consist in this notion has been to ideas associated with temporality and the progression of time. In the quintessential symbol of the cross, our considerations have been limited to the horizontal axis - that is to say, limited to ephemeral fluidity and a state of flow. Indeed, often God's Plan is thought to refer to a temporally linear series of events over which we have little effect, or, in other words, to a purely temporal predestination and positive fatalism. In this context, God's Plan is often spoken of positively, not simply in its affirmation, but as a comfort to those upon whom some misfortune or another has fallen, and therefore its insinuation of a "positive end", so to speak, has the same effect on those of a religious persuasion as nihilism does on the atheist. Our understanding of this conception is quite different. In the common understanding, the word "plan" can be defined as "the will and intention to carry out a particular action or series of actions", and in this regard the word carries a temporal connotation; for us, the word "plan" equates to the word "design", which refers to requirements to be satisfied and/or conditions to be met, and in this regard the word carries an atemporal or principled definition. For us, God's Plan is not the unavoidable transpiration of predetermined temporal events, but instead it is the total schematic of Reality itself, regardless of its full actualization in the temporal domain. Therefore, the Plan of God to which we provide affirmation is a vertical plan, the design of Reality in its totality, beginning from the most fundamental and absolute Total Universality, and proceeding indefinitely unto numerous relative individuations.

As we have said elsewhere, "existence is provided derivatively by that which is more fundamental to that which is less fundamental. Existence is derived through an ontological sequence of principles that begins with a most universal, most quintessential, and most fundamental member, and concludes in an indefinite number of non-universal and less fundamental beings. In other words, existence is preordained from the top down, through a sequence that originates with that which is most fundamental - which is also the most universal and the most quintessential, also called the Monad - and relativizes into any given being." Here, we are required to examine more closely.

Every principle possesses the property of being, which is provided to it by an external and ontologically-sequentially prior source. This source itself in turn also has a more fundamental and more universal source, by which it is ontologically preceded, by which it is provided its property of being. This, on a larger scale, must be understood as part of a sequence of principles that originally begins with a most fundamental member, or a source of existence that does not itself have a source, because it is itself the source of all existence. This is what we have elsewhere called the Monad. Directly derivative from the Monad, all things exist in an essential state of Pure Being, prior to sequential integration, actualization, transposition, and so on. In other words, in the degree of Pure Being, which we have elsewhere called the First Derivation, all things have a qualitative and potential character which becomes actualized upon necessitation by condition; through this continuing process of derivation, or by the continued actualization of potentials, conditions of relativity begin to appear, and a principle takes on a contingent form, either by imposition from above, or from spontaneous action from below. The Absolute quality within a principle becomes more obscured with the more properties of relativity it acquires. Therefore, a discontinuity between a principle and its function is not only possible, but indeed highly likely, in the conditions of highest relativity. What Praxism is concerned with is the proper actualization and maintenance of the continuity between a relative principle and its absolute character and function. We are therefore concerned with the relationship between essence and substance.

Thus, each derivation from the most Absolute principle, or the Monad, establishes another degree of Reality, in which there is at least one more relative or contingent characteristic than the previous one. For example, the degree of the First Derivation, or the degree of the infinite, contains All Things as an essential universality, and the only actualization is that this infinitude exists, meaning that in the degree of the First Derivation from the Monad, all things are contingent upon the Monad. Once other potentials are actualized, however, the product of that actualization is a new composite that is contingent upon its own actualization to exist, and therefore that principle is now contingent upon the potential that is the product of the actualization of the Monad, and this proceeds in a sequential fashion. If "beings" are understood in this case as a thing which retains the property of being outside of manifestation, by simply being a potential or a possibility, or having an essential character, or as the result of an actualization of a potential, this means that the more contingent that a being is, the more relative properties it has when compared to its essential properties, or "what it is truly made to do". These relative properties may skew the being one way or another outside the realm of its essential nature, and delineate it from its proper praxis. To return to the point, however, the degrees of reality should be understood to exist on a vertical hierarchy with each one expanding into a single horizontal mode of being or presence in which different beings of that mode interact and relate to one another; and the relationship between the degrees of being themselves should be understood to be one of transposition and reflection, where what exists in the highest most absolute degree as an essential becomes manifest in the relative and substantial degrees as one form or another. What this means is that the essential of a principle or a being remains the same, however the manifestations within the various degrees themselves are separate beings distinct from one another. So again, we find the traceability of beings back to a single essential principle. One principle, or one essential, therefore, could be manifest as a separate being in each degree, and then interact according to its modality with other beings which have a presence in that same degree.

It is in this clarification that God's Plan, the humanistic principle, and the relationship there-between acquire a new significance. With each increasing degree of relativity, the respective inhabitants thereof possess a new degree of individuality and autonomy. The principles which inhabit the more Universal and Absolute degrees ultimately serve as the archetypes for their counterparts in lesser and more relative degrees to use this individuality and autonomy to realize in their corresponding mode. In this regard, all things should be understood to reflect what we might call the First Archetype of God through a sequence of archetypal actualizations that allow a principle to find its full realization in both its most Absolute and its most relative form; each archetype reflects an individual aspect of Total Universality, and therefore of God, and each being has the potential to fulfill their corresponding archetype. It is the principle of archetypal fulfillment itself that we consider to be the "ontologically proper way of being".

Because, however, it is possible for a being to exist that does not fulfill its archetype and proper praxis, it is also possible that God's Plan, by our definition, remains unfulfilled. We inhabit a degree in which certain composite principles are provided sentience and therefore a certain degree of individual agency; it is this agency itself that substantiates the idea that the actualization of the humanistic archetype in its entirety is the only way in which we may, from our position, guarantee that God's Plan may be fulfilled. The fulfillment of God's Plan itself is when all things have achieved ontological propriety through the realization of their respective archetypes. Perhaps it is an impossibility, and for this reason alone perhaps the best that can be done is to predict a cycle of eras of which in some periods there might be present certain qualities that bring Reality as close to its proper form as it can ever be; perhaps this is the reason time is cyclical in the first place. Because our concern is not with the temporal idea, however, and instead with the designatory one, we must say that this type of fulfillment is possible for the individual at any point in time, regardless of the certain unchangeable qualities otherwise present. It is therefore absolutely necessary to reject complacency and blind faith insofar as it justifies docility and inaction, and to understand the verticality of God's Plan and the eternal necessity for action by those who are blessed to be agents of its fulfillment.