Study on Hierarchy

part 1

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In a general sense, hierarchy is a way of organising things or a way of categorising and putting things in order. If we cast our eye over various human endeavours we will see hierarchy is expressed in our political systems, the armed services, schools, universities, hospitals, commerce and in many other areas of life. We also can see this same division and organisation reflected, at appropriate level, within animal and plant life on our planet. For instance, without plankton, large fish and sea mammals would die as plankton is the basis of their food chain. Similarly, without jelly fish the circulation of sea nutrients from sea bed up to the shallows would be reduced so that essential materials necessary that support sea life in shallow water would be reduced.

To begin with, we really need to ask ourselves if hierarchy is a real thing reflected in our world around us or whether it is simply a convenient way for us to categorize things? Put another way, we might alternatively ask if Mankind did not exist, would this manifestation of hierarchy remain? The answer to this seems reasonably obvious and Nature confirms it.

Now in the Order of the Lily and the Eagle, we consider hierarchy to be expressed not only in physical Nature, but is also is mirrored in the hierarchy that exists at the higher levels that are invisible to us. Otherwise, where would this manifestation of hierarchy come from?

Having said that, we also accept that the expression and manifestation of hierarchy in human structures and organisations leaves much to be desired. This is because humanity has distorted this wholly natural way of arranging things. Human organisations are far from what we can call a "true hierarchy". They are, by and large, organisations designed to support submission to an alpha 'male' or indeed, an alpha 'female'.

So, how should hierarchy be expressed in humanity according to the Order?

We can get a better idea if we turn to our original teacher and guide on this subject – Nature and the Creation. We mentioned that plankton is absolutely essential to life in the seas, we consider plankton to be inferior to other sea life, and we do not even notice plankton when we look at ourselves. And here is our first lesson - we use the term "inferior" or "superior" to express 'geographically', if your will, what level plankton is to be found or positioned in our hierarchy. It is unfortunate, that the human mind always seems to add a value judgement – and in our opinion, an invalid one. That is, we think that we are ''uperior' to plankton.

This leads us to assume that we are better and more important in some way. This is our first incorrect conception – an erroneous idea born out of the feelings and thinking of our lower ego. In order to neutralize this thinking in ourselves, let us instead use here the terms 'senior' and 'junior' rather than the more misunderstood 'superior' and 'inferior'.

Let us now consider another example from Nature that is very familiar to us. As we have said, hierarchy exists throughout Nature and if we look around us we can certainly find many examples. One in particularly is close to home, is our own body. It should come as no surprise that if we make a study of our body we will also discover plenty of examples of hierarchy at work. At the same time, we will also gain further and additional insight into how hierarchy functions both at the material and physical level, but by analogy, how hierarchy works in the spiritual realm.

Taking an overall or a synthetic view, the first thing we can say about the human body is that it is a unified assembly of various distinct parts. Yet, in spite of being an assembly of separate parts, the body nevertheless manages to express a coherent whole or a unity which has its purpose and scope. Thus, within this assembly we can distinguish a number of distinct parts or dissimilarities that are all work together for a common purpose: bones, muscles, tendons, organs, blood circulation, nerves and various homeostatic systems that are controlling things like body temperature, metabolic level, water, blood sugar level and so on.

One such system is the control of the quantity of water in our body and brain. This is a very complex system that includes the scavenging of water from the material that is transitioning our colon, the loss of water through our skin, respiration and, of course, the adding and removing water from the blood by the kidneys. It therefore includes the interplay between the blood, kidneys, bladder, brain centres and so on, so that a healthy water balance is maintained. Many factors are at work here to maintain this 'homeostasis' in our body. As we can see, this one system alone is exceedingly complicated. It would take page upon page of explanation to give a full exposition of the working of this system in our body.

So, what do we actually experience with respect to changes of water in our body?

For the most part, since we drink sufficient water and also get water from the food we eat, we do not necessarily notice the workings of this system. We are 'unconscious' of its activity. But I have no doubt that you have all noticed the sensation of being thirsty. When thirsty, our eyes and mouth feels dry, we become 'aware' or 'conscious' of this system. This is, we can say, a side effects that is produced when the body attempts to maintain a sufficient level of water in the critical organs of our body. In extreme cases, when suffering heat stroke for instance, the 'signals' become even more extreme and will include symptoms such as dizziness, muscular weakness, nausea, handshakes and even seizures. Luckily most of us will respond to the dry mouth signal and our natural instincts will kick in and make us drink a glass of water. In most cases this craving for water, or feeling thirsty, is generated from a central processing part of the brain based on various signals gathered from nervous and chemical signals produced across the body. As noted, these include blood pressure, osmolytes (salts) concentrations, nervous signals from various organs due to osmotic pressure. As we have said. It is a complex and intricate system.

Thus, one way of speaking about hierarchy is to view it as a means of passing information (or signals) from one level to another whether that be from the junior to the senior or the senior to junior. And we should not forget that there is a degree of integration of that information within and relevant to the level we are considering. The job of each level is to respond appropriately to the information it is receiving either from above or from below – above and below without our usual value judgement. Returning to our water homeostasis example, as the quantity of water drops in our body, we eventually notice that we are thirsty and we are obliged to act. Notice here that there are multiple parallels or different hierarchies or organisations at work. One, for example, is the monitoring while the other is pushing us to drink some water. The former is controls the level of water as well as monitoring this level.

Based on this we can clearly say that hierarchy has a number of innate properties. First we can say that there is a collaboration between the parts within any given level - a working together in harmony. This is true unless of course there is a pathological problem in the body. If we excluding this, we can deduce, for instance, that the cells within the kidney are working together for a particular purpose and not contrary one to other organs and cells.

Another point is that this system has a 'negative feedback'. An example of a positive feedback is when we place a microphone too close to a speaker and a positive feedback is produced. We hear the characteristic high pitch squeal which obliges us to turn the volume down rather quickly. In our example of thirst, negative feedback dampens down our desire to continue drinking water. After a period of time, we stop drinking liquid because our thirst is assuaged – or we might notice, our stomach feels full.

To that observation we might also argue that the kidney cells are unconscious or genetically programmed to carry out such works, but this is a rather superficial comment as for sure, these cells integrally respond to their surroundings, react to the various environmental information they are receiving, and are fully aware how they need to respond. We should not mix up Man's possibility to go against the natural laws and the degree of consciousness that we imagine might exist in the cells of our body.

By studying this water homeostasis example, we see that there is a vast array of cells, organs, hormones, nerves and brain centres that are involved in keeping the water levels in the body in a normal range. Various systems are providing the necessary information, sensations and signals and they act as the 'junior' partner by providing the necessary and essential information to trigger the 'senior' partner (the brain) to be aware that we need to seek out water. Clearly, for the most part, these 'junior' balancing processes and elements are completely unconscious to us as they are to the conscious level of our 'senior' mental state. And, from a strictly informational point of view, the 'junior' simply becomes 'noticed' by the 'senior' because our mouth is dry. The junior elements provide the sensations needed for the 'senior' elements to respond appropriately. Of course, at the same time, these 'junior' elements continue to carry out all the second by second activities which we are wholly ignorant of.

There are many different ways for us to interpret how hierarchy is applied and is working in Nature. We can appreciate that it is quite useful to find as many different ways as possible of looking at hierarchy - in the realisation that each will enhance our understanding a little further.

For the most part, we rarely remark on us seeking out water because it just happens without us needing to pay attention. It is so natural and familiar that we do not give it much thought or assign it any particular importance. And, there are many such examples of similar bodily processes that go unremarked. We rarely notice our breathing, for instance, but try to imagine if we had to mentally monitor and control our breathing for every second of the day; and in particular when we are, in essence, unconscious during our sleep. We would quickly end up forgetting to breath. We can appreciate more fully now how important these 'junior' colleagues are. Without them we would be unable to maintain our life.

Conversely, if our 'senior' faculties do not assert themselves sufficiently on the 'junior' faculties then we can end up in difficulties. Using another straightforward example, if we are not careful how much we eat we might end up devouring too much or too little. This will eventually put our life at risk as many eating disorders have demonstrated. Each level of the hierarchy is important – the junior and senior, the inferior and the superior. The important factor here is the harmonious balance between them.

From an initiatic point of view, we can consider the human body to be comprised of a ternary hierarchy: the head, chest and abdomen. These are analogically, a reflection of our spirit, soul and body or we can say, the part that thinks, the part that allows us emotions or sentiments and the part that provides us with sensations or sense data. We can also add to this analogy: our spirit corresponds to our nervous system, our soul corresponds to the circulatory system or hormones, and our body corresponds to the digestive system or chemical energy (ATP); once again these systems correspond to the head, chest and abdomen.

As we have said before, we cannot do without any of these three hypostases that we see in every person. Therefore, to speak of the spirit as 'superior' is trite. Indeed, we only have to see how even a minor dysfunction in our digestive system or hormones, or metabolic ATP, for it to be catastrophically crippling to the rest of our being. For instance, the nerves cells in our body need oxygen to work. This oxygen is delivered by the blood that is circulating between the lungs and the brain; and all these organs are dependent upon the delivery of energy that is extracted by the digestive system from the food that we eat. Again, the delivery of this energy, ATP, is delivered via the circulatory system. Our head – the brain, needs the chest – the lungs and blood circulation, which both are dependent on the abdomen – the digestive system for its chemical energy. And of course, we should not forget the importance of water to life.

Now we instinctively know that the brain, which is located in our head, is the centre of our awareness. We would not put our awareness in our belly although what is in our head, can certainly become aware of our stomach. And because of that, we can say that the head is 'senior' to our heart and to our belly because the 'head' can do something about it. But with such a position of seniority, there comes an associated responsibility. For example, if we let our stomach govern our eating habits, we may very well end up with an inappropriately sized abdomen and more than likely, a rather over stressed heart due to the accumulation of fat in and around the heart. In such a situation, we would expect the 'head' of the person to take care of its responsibility and seek to moderate the demands of the belly. We can look at this as an appropriate and reasonable application of hierarchy.

In contrast, we should keep in mind that it is also perfectly possible for the mind or spirit to impose itself inappropriately on its 'juniors'. For instance, our mind might become so drunk with its power and its will to control our food intake, that it starts to impose all sorts of unhealthy diets upon the body. Of course, some dieting can be helpful for a certain period of time, but if this becomes excessive or the norm, we might unwittingly end up starving our body of essential minerals, vitamins and proteins. This is not an appropriate and reasonable understanding and application of hierarchy.

And once again, we might start drink far too much water during the day, not realising that so much water will deplete essential vitamins and minerals from our body.

What is the responsibility of the mind/spirit or senior member here?

An obvious answer is one which respects the roles of the various levels, junior to senior and back again. In the example of our diet, we should be providing as broad diet as possible, but always with moderation being our guide. We do this in the perfect knowledge that the abdomen, as represented by the digestive system, is wise enough to extract out all the essential elements, vitamins and proteins necessary for the perfect running and maintenance of our body and its organs.

How does this change our view on how we should express hierarchy correctly in humanity?

We can use symbolism to express various aspects of hierarchy. Normally hierarchy is drawn as an equilateral triangle:

In such a structure we would say that the most senior person is located at the top of the triangle whilst the juniors are placed further down towards the triangle's base. This then is the typical representation of the hierarchy of authority or the hierarchy of power or the hierarchy of the quantity of the work actually gets done.

But what then for responsibility? For this, we might use the following symbol:

Here we have the hierarchy of responsibility. That is, the width of the triangle at different levels shows the degree of responsibility required at that level. The wider the triangle, the greater the responsibility. In other words, the further up the hierarchy we find ourselves, the greater our responsibilities will be. Or, to put it another way, the more senior the level, the greater the degree of responsibility towards those in or under our care. It is unfortunate that this simple idea seems so little respected today in human life, whether we are speaking of collectives such as companies, or indeed, general interactions between individuals and couples. Avoidance of proper responsibility is the source of many dysfunctions in relationships and a cause of many a problem. We might also assign to this symbol the degree of information or the hierarchy of information.

Combining these two symbols we get:

Of course, this symbol has had many symbolic meanings associated with it over the years – for instance, the fall and reintegration, but in relation to what we have been considering here, we can reframe its symbolism to mean that the higher up the hierarchy we find ourselves, the more 'senior' we are, the greater is the degree of responsibility that we have, and is required from us. That is, the higher up the hierarchy, the greater is our responsibility to help and look after juniors under our care.

And yet another way of considering the issue is to rotate this triangle on its side thus:

This reframes the concept of hierarchy from a 'top-down' structure to the idea of a 'supply-line' structure.

On the left we have the directing principle and on the right we have all the people carrying out the work flowing from the direction given. In the army this would be the general on the left and the front line soldiers on the right. In a commercial company it would be the managing director on the left and the people who are carrying out the work for the customer on the right.

In both examples, the intermediate layers have two goals: 1) to ensure that the level immediately to the right in our diagram, is provided with the 'tools' necessary to do its work and 2) to transmit to the directing level on the left, all the necessary information regarding issues or problems that require attention. That is, the intermediate block is there to ensure the smooth and uninterrupted running of the whole. We can draw a direct parallel from the example of the circulatory system delivering ATP from the small intestines via the liver to the head. In this way, the whole system can function as an integral unit and avoid and disruptions that will cause a suffering of the whole.

The question now arises – how should a proper understanding of hierarchy be applied to life, and in particular, our spiritual life and growth?

(to be continued)

KePu
updated July 2025