The soul creates a body on Earth for exactly the same reason that scientists place
satellites into outer space.1
The journey of life in essence is cultivating the ability of the ego to look inward
and perceive its true essence (soul).
Where naturalistic psychology rejects the existence of soul and spirit, and see the words as representing false ideas,
other psychological theories accept them as realities.
These theories include a wide range of modern approaches, such as mentalism,
Jungian analytic psychology, the 'diamond approach' of A.H. Almaas, transpersonal psychology and a range of newly-emerging spiritual approaches.
In addition to the ideas of many a philosopher, various versions of spiritism, mysticism and religious transcendentalism are becoming
more influential in psychological therapy and research.
Several of these assume the existence of a variety of supra-sensory 'bodies'
or 'envelopes', auric sheaths, chakras, various subtle energies, levels of consciousness and more besides.
Without pronouncing on the truth or fruitfulness of such ideas here, it can be said that such phenomena are very largely not themselves observable
in the sense of being registered by any of our five external sense organs.
Therefore these concepts lend themselves
to much abuse by dilettantes and charlatans. But it is essential to observe the absolute unavoidability of such conceptions
in some form or another in any sensible and far-reaching discussion of human nature.
Even in ordinary conversation, words like spirit and soul are practically unavoidable. Were there nothing whatever at all
corresponding to the word 'spirit', no spirituality could exist and the word would be meaningless.
Yet, on almost any reasonable
definition of the word, spirituality does exist - at least say, as something opposed to animality or brutishness and as something
superior to normal human fallibility.
The lives of truly great thinkers, artists, philosophers, saints and 'avatars' -
and their works - bear indubitable witness to something known as spirit.
Seen from one end of the spectrum of development, human beings appear more as physical organisms having a mind, while from the other
end appearíng more as conscious spirits having temporary bodies.
The physical side of human behaviour, communication and interaction
is inseparably bound up with the inner, psychical aspects of our existence: of introspective self-investigation of the person as a subject.
Without either, there is simply no human being. To avoid both the extremes of 'misplaced concreteness' or undue materialism and unrealistic
idealisms or spiritual dilettantism, therefore, we regard body and spirit as integrated into one continuum.1
We are the Soul's hologram!
Everything we experience is a projection of our internal condition—unresolved issues within ourselves are projected onto our physical plane reality. The 'outer' is a reflection of the 'Inner'.
Any inner turmoil, conflicts, or doubts are mocked up, reflected and projected in our environment.
It may look like its happening to us as if we are victims of circumstance, but we actually created it.
We are the cause and effect of it!
Humanity swims in a sea of illusion ...
It
appears that we
interact with our world on many levels but
we really only have one
relationship—the one with our Soul. The
illusion is that
'anything is happening externally
at all'.
Whatever your difficulty, its
really going on
inside of you. The
environment you find yourself in
is literally
filled with
information concerning your
internal condition.
The
Soul facilitates our
evolution by the mechanism of
constantly supplying 'feedback'
through the
'apparently' external events that happen to us.
We
literally receive environmental Tarot readings all the time,
"signs and omens."
Watch for these—they are happening to everyone
constantly; people simply overlook them.5
When you say something's wrong,
it is wrong 'within you'. When something is
difficult
or
not O.K. around you, it's because
you have something
difficult and
not O.K. 'within you'.
Our
first response is, of course, to
blame others. When you find yourself doing this
remember 'others' are just your 'mirror', revealing to you which parts of yourself you don't yet love.
Your
'environment mirrors' what is hurt and stuck inside of you ...
and simply acts as a
'reflecting lens back to you':
Life as a
viewing screen of Self.
Matter is the
vehicle or
sheath for the
manifestation of
Soul;
Soul is the
vehicle or
sheath for the
manifestation of
Spirit;
Matter,
Soul and
Spirit are a
Trinity synthesized by
Life which
pervades them all.
'The
link between
Spirit and
personality is the
soul'
The
"prison of the soul" is any set of deeply internalized conditions and response-patterns
which inhibit the soul's ability to express self.
The
"function of the soul" is to serve as a
'base of operation' for the higher type of integration
the
'integration of spirit and matter'
far
transcending the individuals
false sense of
separateness.
This soul, or
'divine spark', strives towards
unity and
perfection, and according to the Ancient Wisdom teachings, its
motivation is
'selfless' and its
purpose is
'service to humanity' or
contribution to the
greater whole.
The
soul is a
divine son of God,
omniscient and
omnipotent. As the
'immortal twin' increases in
power and
brilliance, that of the
'mortal brother' decreases.
The
soul is that factor in matter (or rather that which emerges out of the
contact between spirit and matter) which produces sentient response and what
we call
'consciousness' in its varying forms;
- it is also that
latent or subjective essential quality which makes itself felt as light or luminous radiation.
It is the
"self-shining from within" which is
characteristic of all forms.
The achievement of
'full awareness' is of course the
goal of the evolutionary process. Again symbolically speaking, the
unevolved man emits or manifests no light.
The soul can be spoken of as the
Son of the
Father and of the
Mother (
Spirit-Matter) and is therefore the embodied life of God, coming
into incarnation in order to reveal the quality of the nature of God, which is
'ESSENTIAL LOVE'.
This life, taking form,
nurtures the
'QUALITY OF LOVE WITHIN ALL FORMS', and ultimately reveals the purpose of all creation. This is the simplest definition for average humanity,
being couched in the language of mysticism, thus
linking the 'truth' as found in all religions.
It is only when man is no longer
deluded by appearance and has freed himself from
the
'veil of illusion' that he arrives at a knowledge of the quality of
Cosmic consciousness.
He discovers his own soul, the product of the
union of his
Father in heaven with the Mother or the material nature.
This last is the
personality. He then, having
discovered the
personality, discovers the
quality of his
own soul life, and the
purpose for which he has
"appeared."
The
'personality' has no other function in the
divine plan than to be a
'channel' for,
and
'the medium of expression of, the soul',
- so the
lower mind is
intended to be the
channel for the pure inflow of higher mind energy;
A
pure channel for the
'DIVINE WILL'.
The nature of the
'INTEGRATING PRINCIPLE' found within
'ALL COHERENT FORMS'
and on that which can (for lack of a better word) be called the
S O U L or
S E L F.
This principle, which informs the body nature and expresses its reactions through the emotional and mental
states, is of course recognized by many schools of psychology, but remains nevertheless an
unknown and undefinable quantity.
Earth is
esoterically considered a
school or
'laboratory' for the
'incarnating soul'. The soul draws substance to itself in order to build a body of manifestation on Earth; substance corresponds to,
resonates with, and reveals the levels of consciousness potentially available to any organism.
The visible human being operates through a physical body which is dynamized by
subtle interpenetrating
fields of energy known as the
etheric,
astral and
mental bodies; each of these vehicles is characterized by the particular quality of the substance of which it is formed, and
'together they comprise the personality'.
We are used to thinking of substance as something tangible in physical terms, but what is less completely understood is that
substance is
energy "captured" at various stages of refinement or expression; its origin
is in the world of forces.
The
physical body is the result or effect of preceding energetic causes
'whose ultimate source is Spirit', and
'the link between Spirit and personality is the soul'.
The relationship between the subtle and physical bodies is thus that of
'Spirit-soul-substance', and that paradigm describes a solar system as truly as it does a human being; each forms around a central spiritual core or idea, and
'that spark
of Godhead eventually expresses in form'
The
"prison of the soul" is any set of deeply internalized conditions and response-patterns which inhibit the soul's ability to express self.3
As long as the autocratic power of the I-center totally dominates and controls the closed mandala of personality, the mind is most often blinded by that power.
The mind can only begin to become aware of the deepest and ultimate purpose it is meant to serve when the "I am" power of integration tends to break down,
finding it too difficult to cope with crucial problems of life as an individual in constant conflict with other individuals within an increasingly chaotic society.
When, at the same time, another kind of power operating through the soul exerts constant pressure upon the mind and perhaps is able to penetrate its rigid structure
with flashes of inspiration and intuition, the mind gradually — or in some cases suddenly — realizes its bondage to the "I am" center, and the nature of its higher function.
It begins to work at building the inner temple under the impulsion of the power it dimly senses operating through the soul. This power is, symbolically speaking,
that of the zenith-star — a light-radiating entity belonging to a more-than-individual level of existence — the level at which the spiritual reality of Humanity-as-a-whole has its being.
The
"function of the soul" is to serve as a
'base of operation' for the higher type of integration
— the
'integration of spirit and matter'
far
transcending the individuals false sense of separateness.
What is beyond the soul and uses it to serve as a
'base of operation' at the level of individualized human personalities,
is Humanity as
a spiritual Being encompassing all individuals — a Pleroma of consciousness and activity existing at
a
transindividual level.
All individualized persons can reach this level,
but only if their minds not only
become
'aware of the reality of the soul', but
'accept to include this reality' in the
'field of consciousness'
and persuade the I-center to open itself and
'welcome' the unfamiliar and often disturbing experiences
resulting from the
'admission of the soul into the field of consciousness'.
When the
mind and the soul fully interpenetrate, the light and power of the
'greater whole',
can
fully illumine the field of consciousness. The
'I-center' accepts to
'surrender' its central station
- its
"throne".
When the
'throne' of the
"I" dissolves, under the the powerful profound influence of the
'Neptunian Transpersonal *L O V E* light'.
Through that central void, the light of the "star" — which our consciousness interprets as our transindividual self — can be seen.
Its rays transfigure the mind now
'united with the soul', and the power of the vast
'GALACTIC COMMUNION' of
STARS reaches down into the
'Biological Roots' of the Human Being to gradually trans-substantiate
the matter of the cells that life had bound and the mind had often
perverted or filled with
toxins produced by social ambition or individual vices.
Please keep in mind that even the so called "perverted or filled with toxins produced
by social ambition or individual vices"
SERVES A NECESSARY EVOLUTIONARY PURPOSE.
According to Jung
When this occurs, a psychologically transforming process which Jung calls
"the assimilation
of the contents of the Unconscious" and
"the process of individuation" begins to operate.
the 'Shadow'
All processes of transition from a lower to a higher level generate what Carl Jung called
the
Shadow — a fact that Medieval theologians and Occultists expressed by saying that
'Satan is God inverted'.
'SATAN'
symbolizes an
'inversion of the transpersonal process' — an inversion in most cases
engendered by the
'PRIDE' of being able to develop an apparently
'totally independent,
self-motivated individuality'.
Such a
'pride-intoxicated I-center' eventually
destroys the
soul-area, and by so doing
'cuts itself loose from both the lower and the higher collectivity'.
It eventually becomes
'a center without a circumference', a mere abstract point, individuality pushed to the extreme in a quasi-absolute repudiation of the desire for relationship. This is the end of the
'inverted transpersonal process' — the end in store for the
"black magician".
'the White Magician'
On the other hand, is produced by the
"divine Marriage" of the
'objectively conscious
and centered "I" with the soul'.
This is the higher kind of
'alchemical Marriage' which, as we already saw, must occur in the
"presence of God", that is, in a
'conscious relationship with the greater Whole', Humanity as a spiritual pleroma of beings.
The
soul links the sociocultural collective to the
'transcendent reality' of Humanity-as-a-whole which, in religious terms, is represented by the
'Mystical Body of Christ'.
If we use the old Chinese terms, the
soul is Yin, the individualized I-center, Yang.
The
soul is the
"Eternal Feminine" that draws men upwards.4
By seeking within for the
'pillar of stability' that lies at the core of our soul
we come to acquire an inner fortitude; to assume a
disposition that is
'unshakeable' in the face of external change.
The
'spirit principle' within us desires to create a new foundation that is based upon our own essence and that is perfect in its ability to
support and
nurture our human manifestation.
The
'Metamorphosis' into a
profound state of
heightened conscious awareness is the accomplished through the
gradual down flow of
light and
'transcendent radiant energy'
which
passes through the
soul.
The
type of "matter" our
senses perceive and our
intellect categorizes as
"physical" is
'transmuted' into a
subtler kind
, to which the imprecise name
"etheric" has often been given.
This
'subtler matter' may also refer to what the traditions of India called
'Akasha'.
The existence of transindividual beings can be experienced once an
'unrestricted openness of the I-consciousness has been achieved', and the karma of the physical and emotional-mental personality makes
such an experience possible and safe.
It would be neither safe nor possible in a concrete manner if the individual had not first passed through a
'process of biological and "magnetic" purification',
and if the
mind were not
fully open to and
'welcoming the experience without fear'.
There are, however,
'various levels of realization — various kinds of experiences' that provide an increasingly solid
and indisputable
'foundation' for what, at the level of a strictly individual and I centered consciousness,
is at first only an "intuition".
When I refer to a
transpersonal individual, I am not speaking of a transindividual being, but only of an individual person who has definitely taken steps on the
path of
'radical and total transformation'.
The transpersonal way refers to this path which symbolizes a long and arduous process that can take a great variety of forms,
yet which has a definite, nearly universal structure
— just as the embryonic development of a future human being, within the mother's womb,
takes place according to a series of clearly marked phases.
This
'process of rebirth' is difficult and often requires intense phases of catharsis because of the
inertia of the biological past and the
sociocultural and
individual karma that
must be overcome.
All individuals whose
minds have
opened themselves to the
'messages or visions' that the
'soul reveals in symbolic forms', and who have
"accepted the challenge of total transformation", have to
undergo such a
'process of rebirth'.
In the life of any truly individualized person,
a moment always comes when the implications of a
'Basic Choice' are more or less
"CLEARLY PRESENTED" to the
'I-center'.
The
"I" has to
"CHOOSE BETWEEN SELF-FULFILLMENT" as an
END IN ITSELF,
or
OPEN-ENDED "TRANSFORMATION".
The
'choice' is between straining after greater perfection
of form through which the self would be glorified and perhaps immortalized among men, and entering an unfamiliar "mountainous" path whose end seems always to recede beyond the horizon, and whose challenges are so complex or elusive that the mind is
never able precisely to formulate them and deal directly with the problems they pose.
On that
'path of radical transformation', faith is needed — a faith
requiring humility, as well as the
courage which can only be born of an
'inner realization' of the irrevocable character of a
decision whose
source is more than merely mental,
because it is in fact the progeny of the psychic
"marriage" of the
"soul and the mind".
The
'union of mind and soul' is a
marriage in the
true and spiritual sense of a
"union" consecrated by God, for it occurs in the
"DIVINE P R E S E N C E",
intuitively felt if not clearly perceived as profound intense
physical,
mental and
emotional "BLISS - RAPTURE", of the
'star',
symbol of the
divine state that is
'latent' in every human being.
This
'exalted state' of
'cosmic consciousness' is completely incomprehensible to the vast unconscious
'sleeping' majority.
In Astrological Symbolism
This is the level of existence represented by our galaxy, the
'Milky Way'. The star whose light and power first
'Radiates through the Soul' and
eventually illumines the mind represents the
'trans-individual' state of existence of the human being.
The potentiality of that state has been inherent in every human being
for perhaps millions of years; but it is still, for most human beings living today, only a distant potentiality. The greatest part of mankind is still hesitantly,
and most often blindly, working to actualize this possibility.4
The astrological representation of
"soul" is the
"Moon".
Every human-being has his energy centres (astrological planets) located within one or more petals of the personality expression of his own causal lotus (i.e. the houses of the horoscope as indicated in his birth-chart).
In regard to his soul group connections he also has his centres situated within the petals of the 'physical' expression of the planetary logos' causal lotus (i.e. the zodiacal signs). Each planetary centre is thus saturated with a natural abundance of a particular house/sign vibration or quality
There is always the potential for each planetary energy to be
harnessed and used by the soul in the process of creative evolution, but this is not the reality for most people.
A
'realignment' must first occur wherein the
personality is
freed from its fearful need to feel in absolute control, and so
learn to open itself to the
'guidance of the soul'.
During the process of creative evolution we are required to develop and harness the energy / quality of the houses and signs
that are opposite to our natal planets.
- The complete fulfillment of this process symbolises the successful
union (the
'divine marriage')
of the
Father and Mother principles (yod and ha) within our own
birth-chart, and thus the consummation of our present incarnation.
When a
transiting planet interacts with one of our
natal planets it
stimulates an
event to
occur within the
experiential domain of the
house of its movement.
- This event is creatively orchestrated by our own causal lotus (in communion with the Great Mother and the planetary logos)
and is provided in order to assist us in the
balancing and
creative use of the
house /
sign polarity
opposite to the
natal planet involved.
The
manifested inner /
outer event encourages the release (or
activation) within us of
energy from the
opposite pole which in turn can be used
in the ongoing process of the fulfillment of our creative evolutionary purpose.
By
consciously reading these
symbolic events that
cyclically and progressively
emerge within our personal world,
we are guided by our heart and mind
into bringing our energy centres into creative balance.
They find it impossible to discover its origin they know not what it is, whether or no it is
an informing entity, detached and separate from the body nature; they question whether it is an
integrated energetic sum total brought into existence through the fusion of the body cells, and
therefore, through the process of evolution, constituting a thinking, feeling entity; or
whether it is no more than the aggregated life and consciousness of the cells themselves.
