What is the Soul and Where can it be Found?- Bruce Lyon

In studying the Ageless Wisdom teachings, I have often found it difficult to answer this question with any precision. The problem is compounded by the many different ways that ‘soul’ is used in, and within, any one tradition. In the Secret Doctrine for example, the term is used variously in reference to the monad, the spiritual triad, the higher self, the Ego on the mental plane, and the personal self. Gradually, I have come to realize that the soul is in fact all these, the term referring to the evolving ‘middle principle’ amongst the many different states of consciousness wherein the identity rests in the journey to remember the One. In this paper, I will attempt to put these different ‘soul’ identities in relationship to each other on the seven planes of our solar system. Firstly, the term soul in reference to the monad – for example in the Secret Doctrine II p 111 "the Souls (monads) are pre-existent in the world of emanation". Figure 1 shows the monad represented by the small sphere located on the monadic plane and extending to the atmic plane below and the ‘sea of fire’ or plane of Adi, above. I have used rings to illustrate that the lives which express on the different planes are actually interpenetrating spheres of energy. It should also be remembered that the whole cosmic physical plane is but the seventh plane of a system of seven and therefore the monad is in ‘physical incarnation’. It’s origin from higher planes is outside the scope of this paper. While incarnated on the etheric planes of the cosmic physical, the monad is nevertheless too rarefied to be able to influence life in the three lowest worlds (our mental, astral and physical) except by unconscious reflection into the animal life forms prepared through evolution.

Figure 2 illustrates the three worlds of the personality, centered in the astral plane. The common or everyday use of the word. This is the central or ‘soul’ aspect of the personality and it is this unconscious identification with the feeling nature that the wisdom teachings try to lift us out of. The identification with the astral is strengthened, ironically because the power of the Monad or true self is reflected into the astral via the buddhic plane. ‘Demon est Deus inversus’ runs the ancient aphorism. The situation is quite hopeless without the presence of a middle principle as indicated in the Secret Doctrine.

© "Theosophy" (September 2000) published by The Theosophical Society in New Zealand Inc., 18 Belvedere Street, Epsom, Auckland 1003, New Zealand. Website: www.theosophy.org. Reprinted with permission.

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