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The Ray of Creation is an esoteric cosmology which was taught by G. I. Gurdjieff. It is a diagram which better represents the place which Earth occupies in the Universe. The diagram has eight levels, each corresponding to Gurdjieff's Law of Octaves (see In Search of the Miraculous , chapter 7). [1] [2]
The first level is "The Absolute", followed by "All Worlds", "All Suns", "Sun", "All Planets", "Earth", "Moon", and "The Absolute":
This lineage indicates and compares the construction of all of the levels, matters, and laws of the Universe, placing them in scale with one another.
It was taught that in "The Absolute" the three holy forces form a whole, and thereby there is only one law (force) in the Absolute (which is the Will of the Absolute). The three forces of this law converge to form "All Worlds", whose level, now, being a part of the whole now has three laws. This level also having three forces, acts in creating "All Suns" in a similar process, and thereby "All Suns" has six laws (three new ones and three of the All Worlds level). Similarly, "Sun" has 12 laws, "All Planets" 24 laws, "Earth" 48 laws, "Moon" 96 laws, and "The Absolute" 192 laws.
Each level after the Absolute has a bigger number of laws which govern it. Therefore, the further the level is away from the Absolute, the more mechanical the living things in it are. By this comparison it is claimed that there are 48 laws governing the life of living beings on Earth, thereby also claiming that the life on Earth is quite mechanical. Note that "The Absolute" mentioned here does not refer to God as it is normally understood or described by most humans.
Similarly to the difference of laws on each level, the level (in this case 'density') of matter differs in the same way. "The Absolute" has a matter density of one, "All Worlds" has a density of 3 (one atom of "All Worlds" has a three times the density as one atom of "The Absolute"), "All Suns" 6, "Sun" 12, "All Planets" 24, "Earth" 48, "Moon" 96, "The Absolute" (which in this case represents dead matter) 192.
This way everything in the universe according to this cosmology is classified as matter. (Note that even the matter of density 12 is too rarefied for contemporary science to classify it as matter.)
Gurdjieff's classification of Higher Bodies can be better represented on this scale. Physical body has the properties of the "Earth" level (that is, it has a density of 48 and it is subject to 48 laws). In comparison, a higher plane body would have a lighter density and it would be subject to a lesser number of laws (the amount varies on the level that the body falls under).
In the book Gnosis I, author Boris Mouravieff explains the names given to the notes of the solfege:
The names of the notes have historically been attributed to the hymn 'Ut queant laxis' by Paulus Diaconus, where UT is used instead of DO. Mouravieff explains UT as indicating the uterus in the birth of flesh, and SI as representing "the door of the second Birth, according to the Spirit". [3]
There are many properties which the Fourth Way relates to the Ray of Creation such as: the evolution of the substances in the Universe, relationship between the cosmoses and the human body, etc. Many of the properties of the law of octaves could be displayed using the Ray of Creation.
"Involution" describes the branching out of the Ray of Creation from the level of God to the most mechanical and law-bound, and processes going in that direction. "Evolution" describes processes going in the opposite direction, as in the goal of Fourth Way development to transcend the level of the physical body, as well as cosmic processes.
The law of octaves relates all processes which occur in time to the diatonic scale, ascribing a particular meaning to the intervals corresponding to the just diatonic semitone (a pitch ratio of 16:15). All vibrations are said to proceed with periodic unevenness corresponding to the diatonic scale.
According to G. I. Gurdjieff, some of the ancient geocentric models don't represent an Earth-centered universe at all, but in reality display the Ray of Creation. This confusion was due to a lack of knowledge on the part of those examining the diagrams. Thus, the Ray of Creation is a part of ancient knowledge. Gurdjieff also claimed to have learned it in Asia and the Middle-East, during the end of the 19th century and the early part of the 20th century.
The following outline is provided as an overview and topical guide to space science:
The universe is all of space and time and their contents. It comprises all of existence, any fundamental interaction, physical process and physical constant, and therefore all forms of matter and energy, and the structures they form, from sub-atomic particles to entire galactic filaments. Space and time, according to the prevailing cosmological theory of the Big Bang, emerged together 13.787±0.020 billion years ago, and the universe has been expanding ever since. Today the universe has expanded into an age and size that is physically only in parts observable as the observable universe, which is approximately 93 billion light-years in diameter at the present day, while the spatial size, if any, of the entire universe is unknown.
The cosmos is an alternative name for the universe or its nature or order. Usage of the word cosmos implies viewing the universe as a complex and orderly system or entity.
Astronomy is a natural science that studies celestial objects and the phenomena that occur in the cosmos. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and their overall evolution. Objects of interest include planets, moons, stars, nebulae, galaxies, meteoroids, asteroids, and comets. Relevant phenomena include supernova explosions, gamma ray bursts, quasars, blazars, pulsars, and cosmic microwave background radiation. More generally, astronomy studies everything that originates beyond Earth's atmosphere. Cosmology is a branch of astronomy that studies the universe as a whole.
This timeline of cosmological theories and discoveries is a chronological record of the development of humanity's understanding of the cosmos over the last two-plus millennia. Modern cosmological ideas follow the development of the scientific discipline of physical cosmology.
In astronomy, the geocentric model is a superseded description of the Universe with Earth at the center. Under most geocentric models, the Sun, Moon, stars, and planets all orbit Earth. The geocentric model was the predominant description of the cosmos in many European ancient civilizations, such as those of Aristotle in Classical Greece and Ptolemy in Roman Egypt, as well as during the Islamic Golden Age.
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An astronomical object, celestial object, stellar object or heavenly body is a naturally occurring physical entity, association, or structure that exists within the observable universe. In astronomy, the terms object and body are often used interchangeably. However, an astronomical body or celestial body is a single, tightly bound, contiguous entity, while an astronomical or celestial object is a complex, less cohesively bound structure, which may consist of multiple bodies or even other objects with substructures.
The celestial spheres, or celestial orbs, were the fundamental entities of the cosmological models developed by Plato, Eudoxus, Aristotle, Ptolemy, Copernicus, and others. In these celestial models, the apparent motions of the fixed stars and planets are accounted for by treating them as embedded in rotating spheres made of an aetherial, transparent fifth element (quintessence), like gems set in orbs. Since it was believed that the fixed stars did not change their positions relative to one another, it was argued that they must be on the surface of a single starry sphere.
In astronomy, the fixed stars are the luminary points, mainly stars, that appear not to move relative to one another against the darkness of the night sky in the background. This is in contrast to those lights visible to naked eye, namely planets and comets, that appear to move slowly among those "fixed" stars. The fixed stars includes all the stars visible to the naked eye other than the Sun, as well as the faint band of the Milky Way. Due to their star-like appearance when viewed with the naked eye, the few visible individual nebulae and other deep-sky objects also are counted among the fixed stars. Approximately 6,000 stars are visible to the naked eye under optimal conditions.
The term involution has various meanings. In some instances it refers to a process prior to evolution which gives rise to the cosmos, in others it is an aspect of evolution, and in still others it is a process that follows the completion of evolution in the human form.
The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception or Mystic Christianity is a Rosicrucian text by Max Heindel, first published in 1909.
Cosmology is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe, the cosmos. The term cosmology was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount's Glossographia, and in 1731 taken up in Latin by German philosopher Christian Wolff in Cosmologia Generalis. Religious or mythological cosmology is a body of beliefs based on mythological, religious, and esoteric literature and traditions of creation myths and eschatology. In the science of astronomy, cosmology is concerned with the study of the chronology of the universe.
The World, also called Treatise on the Light, is a book by René Descartes (1596–1650). Written between 1629 and 1633, it contains a nearly complete version of his philosophy, from method, to metaphysics, to physics and biology.
Astronomia nova is a book, published in 1609, that contains the results of the astronomer Johannes Kepler's ten-year-long investigation of the motion of Mars.
In George Gurdjieff's Fourth Way school of thought, Earth Level or Planet Level refers to the level of the Law of Forty-eight on the Ray of Creation, meaning that forty-eight laws govern it.
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This glossary of astronomy is a list of definitions of terms and concepts relevant to astronomy and cosmology, their sub-disciplines, and related fields. Astronomy is concerned with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth. The field of astronomy features an extensive vocabulary and a significant amount of jargon.
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Historical models of the Solar System first appeared during prehistoric periods and remain updated to this day.. The models of the Solar System throughout history were first represented in the early form of cave markings and drawings, calendars and astronomical symbols. Then books and written records became the main source of information that expressed the way the people of the time thought of the Solar System.