David's Desk is my opportunity to share thoughts and tools for the spiritual journey. These letters are my personal insights and opinions and do not necessarily reflect the sentiments or thoughts of any other person in Lorian or of Lorian as a whole. If you wish to share this letter with others, please feel free to do so; however, the material is ©2023 by David Spangler. If you no longer wish to receive these letters, please let us know at info@Lorian.org.
Spectrums and Ladders
You don’t have to read far or often in spiritual and metaphysical literature to come across the idea of the physical world—the Earth—being on the bottom rung of a spiritual ladder, at the top of which is God. It is a common perspective that when we incarnate, we “descend” into the dense, earthly sphere, leaving our home in the Light-filled “higher” realms. When we practice some form of spiritual development, we speak of moving “up.” God, Angels, Devas, and other helpful spirits are almost always described as being “higher” than we are.
This hierarchical view pervades Western culture (and likely Eastern culture as well, though I am less familiar with that). And there is some truth behind this perspective. As someone who is sensitive to subtle energies, I do experience a difference in frequency and vibration between different types of subtle beings; some definitely feel “faster” in their rate of vibration while others feel “slower.” I also fall into using the “ladderly” language of “higher” and “lower.” It’s convenient, it’s familiar, it’s descriptive…and, in important ways, it's wrong.
I’ve been watching a television show about explorers having to make their way across the Alaskan wilderness. Sometimes, the terrain is open and clear. Their way is relatively easygoing, and they can move quickly. At other times, though, they are bushwacking through very dense forest and shrubbery, and their progress is slow and often obstructed by fallen trees, clumps of thorny bushes, and so forth. Naturally, they prefer the former over the latter as it’s less work and they can make better time. But the dense forest and the clear terrain are not “lower” or “higher” than each other in an evaluative (not a geographical) sense; one is not intrinsically better than the other. One is not “closer to God.”
They are their own environment, each offering something the other does not. For instance, while travel is easier in the open terrain, the explorers are exposed to fierce, cold winds, from which they are protected in the denser undergrowth.
Similarly, scientists brave the difficult terrain of the Amazonian rainforest and jungle because there are plants and animals there found nowhere else—certainly not in the open pampas or prairies of, say, Argentina—and which contain clues and insights into new medicines or new ecological understanding. Of course, strolling through a lovely English countryside with tame gardens and gently rolling hills is going to be a lot easier than hacking through a jungle, but that doesn’t make the jungle a “lower” realm. Every environment offers its own gifts and its own challenges.
If I despise or struggle with the environment I’m in and wish I were somewhere else, I may miss seeing its gifts. The environment may be difficult and challenging, but it still has something, perhaps many things, to offer if I am open to seeing them.
Of course, physical ecosystems and their differences are not exactly the same as energetic or spiritual ecosystems (or planes, or levels, whatever image you prefer), so there are limits to the metaphor. But let’s look at another example.
The electromagnetic spectrum represents electromagnetic waves of different frequencies, from the very low such as radio waves and microwaves to the very high such as x-rays. “Higher” and “Lower” here, again, are not evaluative terms; they don’t speak to the relative merit (or “closeness to God”) of the two ends of the spectrum. They are descriptive of energy characteristics such as wavelength and rate of vibration. Right now, as I write, I’m eating a lunch heated in my microwave, a nice, hot lunch rather than a cold one. Later, I may watch some television. Both of these are possible due to low-frequency energy. On the other hand, when years ago I injured my leg, it was an x-ray that showed the bone was broken and thus guided the kind of appropriate medical attention that I received. X-rays occupy the high-frequency end of the electromagnetic spectrum.
I’m grateful for X-rays, microwaves, and radio waves! I’m grateful for the electromagnetic spectrum (which includes visible light, by the way, which enables us to see), not for some electromagnetic “ladder” that tells me I should eschew the lower frequencies (thus no hot lunches and no television or radio) and seek the higher levels of x-rays (which, by the way, can kill me!).
One of my subtle colleagues once said, “There are no lower vibrations to God’s perspective.” In other words, the Sacred is present within all vibrational levels in creation. There is no place, no level, no dimension, in the living universe where God is not. This is a key component of Incarnational Spirituality. It lets us know that the physical dimension, the physical world in which we are incarnated, is also a sacred realm, one filled with God’s Presence and Light, as much as any other dimension of energy and consciousness. God does not play favorites.
None of this means that living in the physical world doesn’t have challenges; we all know it does. Being incarnate here often means we’re doing energetic and spiritual bushwacking. No wonder so many who move on into the Post-Mortem and subtle realms communicate their delight at finding themselves in an environment that seems so graceful and Light-filled. The Alaskan explorers were always happy to emerge from the bush into clear terrain as well. But this doesn’t make the physical world lesser in its sacredness or removed from the Love and Presence of the Sacred. Energy may move more slowly here but it’s still God’s living energy.
I have visited subtle realms where the matter and energy of which they are composed are extremely sensitive and responsive to thought. I can imagine a chair, for example, and one will appear like magic. That doesn’t happen for me here in this world. On the other hand, think of what’s involved if I get up from my computer and walk into the living room and sit in a chair there. It seems a simple action to me, but this thought, this intention, has set into motion a myriad of chemical changes within me, changes that allow muscles to contract or expand, blood to move faster, senses adjusting to keep me in balance and not falling as I move (after all, walking is a form of controlled falling). Literally, millions of tiny collaborations, cooperations, integrations, communications, partnerships, exchanges, and transformations are going on within the ecosystem of my body to enable me to walk across the room and sit down. What a richness of life! What a bonanza of love! What a plethora of sacredness! All set in motion by imagination and intention. Match that magic, subtle realms!
When I said that the metaphysical, metaphorical ladder of planes and levels is wrong, what I mean is that it conveys a value system that doesn’t exist in the sacredness of creation. There is a spectrum of higher and lower, faster and slower, denser and clearer, manifestations of God, but there is no ladder in which one is more valuable, more sacred, more “real,” than another. We are asked to exchange the ladder for the spectrum.
Why this is important here is the attitude we bring to our life on earth. We are asked to love where we are, to love this world, to be open to its sacredness, even as we bushwack through its challenges. This is why incarnation is a spiritually rich endeavor, a sacred endeavor. When we stand in this realization, we change, and the world changes around us, for we see with a vision that is spacious and loving, not constrained, constricted, and wishing only to climb to the next rung and forget this one ever existed.
When we stand in this realization, we celebrate the miracle that we are, wherever we are. When we do this, God rejoices in being allowed to be present!
An Experiment
One of the advantages of David’s Desk being digital is that I can do things I couldn’t if it were printed. My Lorian colleague and friend, James Tousignant, and I do podcasts together. He thought it might be interesting to you, my Reader, if he and I were to have a discussion around the theme of that month’s essay and then add the audio at the end. That way, you could both read my thoughts for that month and also listen to me talk about them with James. So, without further ado, here is this month’s conversation. I hope you enjoy it and the added dimension it brings to David’s Desk.
