In the ascension teachings, a dimension is a state of consciousness. It is a way of perceiving, with its own laws and its own sense of what is real. The dimensions are not stacked one above another like the floors of a building. They occupy the same space, as many radio signals fill the same room, and which one you receive depends on where you are tuned.
A Map, Not the Territory
Different teachers number the dimensions differently, and some describe twelve or more. The nine-fold map below is the one used by our circle, because it is the one the Venusian Council uses in speaking with us. It is offered as a help to understanding. No map of the inner worlds should be mistaken for the worlds themselves.
It is also worth saying at the start that a higher dimension is not a better one. Each has its purpose. The third dimension is not a mistake to be escaped. It is where individuality is learned, and nothing that follows would be possible without it.
The Dimensions at a Glance
| Dimension | Keynote | How it is experienced |
|---|---|---|
| Third | Form and separation | The world of solid objects, fixed time and the separate self. Its lesson is individuality: learning to be someone. It becomes painful only when it is taken for the whole of reality. |
| Fourth | The bridge | The realm of dream, imagination, emotion and memory. Time becomes fluid here. It is where the unfinished past is met and healed, and it is the passage through which everyone moves on the way to the fifth. |
| Fifth | Unity and the heart | The same world, seen from love. Separation is known to be appearance. Guidance is immediate and synchronicity is ordinary. This is the settled home of the Ascended Masters and the destination of the present ascension. |
| Sixth | Pattern and soul | The realm of the templates behind form: sacred geometry, number, color and tone. Here the soul knows itself as part of a soul group, and the purposes of many lifetimes are seen as one design. |
| Seventh | Pure light and tone | Form gives way to streams of living light and sound. This is the level from which the Archangels are said to work, and where the higher temples of Venus have their source. |
| Eighth | The councils | Individual purpose merges into shared purpose. Consciousness is experienced as we. The planetary councils, the Venusian Council among them, meet at this level. |
| Ninth | The planetary whole | The awareness of an entire world as one being, in relation to other worlds. The Kumaras hold this level for Venus. From here the life of a planet is seen as a single unfolding act of love. |
The first and second dimensions, which are not shown, are the realms of mineral existence and of plant and animal life. Human consciousness includes and builds upon them.
Living Between the Third and the Fifth
Almost everyone reading this is living in all three of the lower human dimensions at once. You are in the third when you are absorbed in a practical task, or defending a position. You are in the fourth when you are daydreaming, remembering, or swept by a mood. And you are in the fifth, however briefly, whenever you are wholly present, wholly kind, and wanting nothing: watching a child sleep, perhaps, or standing in the first light of morning.
Ascension is the gradual shifting of your center of gravity from the first of these to the last. Nobody leaps. The fifth-dimensional moments simply become longer and more frequent, until one day you notice that they are where you live, and the third dimension is somewhere you visit to get things done.
Why the Fourth Dimension Matters
People are sometimes impatient with the fourth dimension and wish to go straight to the fifth. It cannot be done. The fourth is where everything that was pushed out of sight is stored: old griefs, old fears, old beliefs about oneself. These have weight, and a person carrying them cannot hold the lighter state for long.
This is why the path so often becomes harder before it becomes easier, and why practices such as the violet flame are given such emphasis. They are tools for the fourth-dimensional work of clearing. Archangel Michael, Archangel Zadkiel, Saint Germain and Kuan Yin are the great helpers at this stage.
Where the Beings of Light Dwell
- The Ascended Masters are established in the fifth dimension and above. Because they once lived in the third, they understand it and can step their presence down to reach us there.
- The Archangels work from the seventh dimension and above, and send their legions of angels through all the levels below.
- The Venusian Council of Light serves from the fifth through the ninth. The temples that human souls visit are in the fifth and sixth. The Council itself sits in the eighth, and the Kumaras hold the ninth.
These beings are not far away. From their side, the distance between the dimensions is no more than a difference of attention.
A Practice: Noticing Where You Are
- Three times a day, pause for one breath.
- Ask: where am I right now? In a task, in a mood, or in presence?
- Do not try to change it. Simply notice, and name it to yourself.
- If you wish, take one more breath with your attention in the heart.
That is the entire practice. Within a few weeks most people find that the mere act of noticing begins to shift them, and that the fifth-dimensional state is far closer and more familiar than they had supposed.