Only the confirmed materialist, who, with his physical senses, does not perceive

anything else but the material world and who only believes in what he sees, hears
and feels, will doubt that there are other spheres beside this material world. The
genuine magician will not give any judgement upon a materialist and will not try to
dissuade him from his views. The materialist is in the state of maturity, in this
physical world, which corresponds to his personal development. The magician will
therefore make no effort to teach a materialist better, for the latter will always end
by saying that he has never seen a spirit and therefore only believes in the things
he has been able to perceive with his physical faculties, that is to see, hear or feel.
The materialist does not deny the matter, he agrees that the material and power in
which he lives must exist, but to believe that there exist other, more subtle spheres
of material or power goes beyond his horizon. Therefore the magician never tries to
influence the belief of another human being, for the non-initiate will always have his
individual opinion of higher facts, and will always judge from his own point of view.
Just the same as our physical world exists in three different states: solid, fluid and
gaseous, so exist, following the laws of analogy, certain states of aggregation in a
more subtle form, which are not accessible to our normal senses, but which are,
however, connected with our physical world. These states of aggregation are called,
from the hermetic point of view, planes and spheres. In these more subtle spheres
the same things happen as in our physical world, and there, too, the Law of the
Hermes diagram is valid: that which is above is as that which is below. The same
powers are in action there, just the same as on our planet. Here as well as there the
same kind of influences work.
Therefore, in every sphere we have the same play of elements, the electric and
magnetic fluid, which is maintained and controlled by Divine Providence according
to the Akasha-principle. The person relying only on what he perceives with his five
physical senses has only one sphere open to perception: the sphere corresponding
to his physical senses, and he is not able to procede beyond it. Everything else must
remain inconceivable, incredible and supersensual to him. The genuine magician,
who has refined and developed his senses by mental and psychic training, will only
consider this physical world as the starting point of his personal development and
will never deny the existence of higher spheres because he is able to convince
himself of their existence.
That these spheres are more subtle and more compact states of aggregation has
long become obvious to the true magician by his own personal experience. The
magician will always be able to visit with his mental body the sphere corresponding
to the state of development of his mental body's senses, and to be active in it. He
must always bear this in mind when practising the magic of evocation. Naturally,
these more subtle spheres are not subject to our ideas of space and time but go into
one another in our terms, so that for instance, in a space which, in our imagination,
is always somehow bordered and furnished with limits, many different spheres may
be present.
Depending on the grade of subtlety or density, there are innumerable spheres and

intermediate spheres. To name them all here would be impossible. I will only
mention those which are of importance for the practice of magic. Their graded
density is called hierarchy. Before a magician plans to work on these spheres he
must have a conception of their hierarchy, and must be well acquainted with the
sphere in which he intends to work, first theoretically and later, of course, also
practically. But, above all, he must have a thorough command over the physical
sphere before he proceeds to the more subtle one next to it. Each of these spheres
of hierarchy have their particular influence on our physical world according to the
laws of analogy. With regard to the planetary spheres astrologers have discovered a
somehow workable synthesis, but unfortunately the astrologers of today uses this
chiefly only for mantic purposes, and it is hardly known that astrology actually only
gives a partial explanation of the influences of these spheres, of planets and
zodiacal signs. The astrological part of the higher spheres will not be dealt with
here, for it does not come within the scope of this book. The true magician,
however, will find a much closer relation between the individual spheres, if he deals
with astrology, and will notice that astrology shows the true influences of the
relevant spheres on our physical world, in their causes and effects.