The Sixteen States of Consciousness and Sixteen Aspects of Brahman Mapped on to the Dignities of the Metaphysical Chart Arranged as a Table

Metaphysical Chart

This is a 4-column by 4-row table. (For ease of reference, the columns will be referred to as columns 1-4, reading from left to right, and the rows will be referred to as rows 1-4, reading from top to bottom.)

Column 1 consists of the dignities of houses 1-3 (first quadrant), column 2 consists of the exaltations, column 3 consist of the falls, and column 4 consists of the Soul detriments.

Row 1 consists of the dignities in the first quadrant; row 2, the dignities in the second quadrant; row 3, the dignities in the third quadrant; and row 4, the dignities in the fourth quadrant, with one exception: since all the entries in the first column are in the first quadrant, the first entry in rows 2-4 is not in the same quadrant as the rest of the entries in that row.

Each entry in columns 3 and 4 is associated with one of the sixteen states of consciousness, where each of the four states—turiya, sushupti (deep sleep), svapna (dream), and jagrat (being awake)—is, in turn, divided into four, so there is, for example, svapna-turiya, svapna-sushupti, svapna-svapna, and svapna-jagrat.

In this diagram, when determining the name of the state that applies to a dignity, the ring determines which of the states comes first, and the quadrant determines which of the states comes second.

Each entry in columns 3 and 4 is also associated with one of the sixteen aspects of Brahman (here labeled “form”), where each of the four aspects—Turiya, Avyakta (unmanifest), Hiranyagarbha (subtle), and Viraj (gross)—is, in turn, divided into four, so there is, for example, Hiranyagarbha-Turiya, Hiranyagarbha-Avyakta, Hiranyagarbha-Hiranyagarbha, and Hiranyagarbha-Viraj.

In this diagram, when determining the name of the aspect of Brahman that applies to a dignity, the ring determines which of the aspects comes first, and the quadrant determines which of the aspects comes second.

The labels for states and forms at the top of the table and to the left of it show the correspondence between states and forms, but they are not intended to be labels for either one of the sixteen states of consciousness or one of the sixteen aspects of Brahman that characterize the dignities in either the rows or columns. For example, the label “Jagrat Viraj” at the lower left doesn’t characterize Saturn in Aries, which should be either Jagrat-Turiya or Viraj-Turiya.