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Nº. XXXIX
CONCERNING THE “FOUR ATMOSPHERES”
(1)
THE earthly mind (anima bruta)
is that part of man which contains his material memory, abilities, affections,
cares, acquirements, and the images bred of his associations in each particular
incarnation. This mind is shed with the body and shade, and is – as it were – an
individual in itself. It inhabits the astral sphere and
cannot get beyond it; nor does it ever return to earth (embodied), but dwells,
perhaps for many centuries, in the magnetic light, which it takes for heaven,
seeking its own affinities and frequenting the places and persons familiar to
it. But the soul – or anima divina,
which is the true man – has another destiny than this. It leaves its body on
earth, its shade and its earthly mind in the astral sphere, and mounts to its
own proper higher region, until the time comes for it either to pass into Nirvâna, or to become again incarnate. The soul retains the
celestial memory; – that memory only in which lives such of its past as is
worthy to live, and is not of an ephemeral nature, – its knowledges, virtues,
and true loves. The only affections, therefore, which live eternally are those
of the soul, – those which have struck deep into the man and made part of his
inmost being. The loves of the mere body or earthly mind die with these, and
form no part of the permanent man. True it is that some souls are retained in
their phantoms for a time more or less long, not being pure – or, rather, not
strong – enough to mount higher. But being in the astral sphere they cannot see
beyond it, and – like the astral phantom – believe they are at their journey’s
end. The larva, or shade,
is not the same as the phantom seen by the
ordinary lucid. For the two are separable, and the shade
occupies a yet lower atmosphere. After a little while, moreover, the
shade consumes away and disappears; but the phantom with which the lucid
converses, remains as strong and individual as ever, it may be for centuries.
For not only the recently dead, but some who lived and died before the Christian
era, have been evoked and conversed with, and these are not mere reflects (like
the purely astral entities which are emanations from the living), since they
reason and remember, and give proofs of their identity. The ordinary lucid
obtains access to them only because he is himself in the astral when in the
lucid condition, and sees, therefore, only what is there. To enter the heavenly
sphere, and to come into communion with souls, a regenerated state is necessary.
Now, the sphere entered depends, not alone on the lucid, but also on the
magnetiser (1) and the circle present at the
experience. There are four atmospheres surrounding us, and only in the highest
of these do we find the freed soul. Each sphere is the counterpart of each
portion of man, and each has its system and its sun. Interior knowledge, earnest
aspiration, and purity of thought and life, are the keys by which alone can be
opened the gates of the inmost and highest sphere. The lowest is enlightened by
the material sun. It is that of the present life of the body. The next is
enlightened by the astral or magnetic light; and it is that of the sideral body or perisoul. The next
is that of the soul, and it is enlightened by the spiritual sun. And the highest
is the immediate presence of the Lord God, where is the “great white throne” and
the company of the “virgins.” Now, the “virgins” are souls which, being
perfectly spiritualised, retain no taint of materiality. (2)
Footnotes
(94:1)
(95:1) This is not
necessarily a corporeal, or even an extraneous, being, but may be the spirit of
the lucid himself. E.M.
(95:2) See Apoc.
xiv, 4, where they are called virgins in virtue of their having overcome the
need of sexual relations prior to their final incarnations, as in No. XXIV, par. 4. The term “women”
was sometimes used as a general term for things material. See also Dreams and Dream-Stories, No. IX. E.M.
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