The Key to Theosophy

The Septenary Nature of Man

Enq. Is it what we call Spirit and Soul, and the man of flesh?

Theo. It is not. That is the old Platonic division. Plato was an Initiate, and therefore could not go into forbidden details; but he who is acquainted with the archaic doctrine finds the seven in Plato’s various combinations of Soul and Spirit. He regarded man as constituted of two parts—one eternal, formed of the same essence as the Absoluteness, the other mortal and corruptible, deriving its constituent parts from the minor “created” Gods. Man is composed, he shows, of (1) A mortal body, (2) An immortal principle, and (3) A “separate mortal kind of Soul.” It is that which we respectively call the physical man, the Spiritual Soul or Spirit, and the animal Soul (the Nous and psuche). This is the division adopted by Paul, another Initiate, who maintains that there is a psychical body which is sown in the corruptible (astral soul or body), and a spiritual body that is raised in incorruptible substance. Even James (iii. 15) corroborates the same by saying that the “wisdom” (of our lower soul) descendeth not from the above, but is terrestrial (“psychical,” “demoniacal,” vide Greek text); while the other is heavenly wisdom. Now so plain is it that Plato and even Pythagoras, while speaking but of three “principles,” give them seven separate functions, in their various combinations, that if we contrast our teachings this will become quite plain. Let us take a cursory view of these seven aspects by drawing two tables.

THEOSOPHICAL DIVISION.

	Sanscrit Terms.	Exoteric Meaning.	Explanatory.
	(a) Rupa, or	(a) Physical body.	(a) Is the vehicle of
	Sthula-Sarira.		all the other
			“principles” during
			life.
	(b) Pranâ.	(b) Life, or	(b) Necessary only
		Vital principle.	to a, c, d, and
			the functions of the
			lower Manas, which
A			embrace all those
			limited to the
			(physical) brain.
	(c) Linga Sharira.	(c) Astral Body.	(c) The Double, the
			phantom body.
	(d) Kama rupa.	(d) The seat of	(d) This is the centre
		animal desires	of the animal man,
		and passions.	where lies the line
			of demarcation which
			separates the mortal
			man from the
			immortal entity.

	Sanscrit Terms.	Exoteric Meaning.	Explanatory.
	(e) Manas—a dual	(e) Mind, Intelligence:	(e) The future state
	principle in its	which is the higher	and the Karmic
	functions.	human mind, whose	destiny of man
		light, or radiation,	depend on whether
		links the Monad, for	Manas gravitates
		the lifetime, to the	more downward to
		mortal man.	Kama rupa, the
			seat of the animal
			passions, or
			upwards to Buddhi,
			Spiritual Ego. In
			the latter case,
			the higher
A			consciousness of
			the individual
			Spiritual
			aspirations of
			mind (Manas),
			assimilating
			Buddhi, are
			absorbed by it
			and form the Ego,
			which goes into
			Devachanic bliss.19
	(f) Buddhi.	(f) The Spiritual Soul.	(f) The vehicle of pure
			universal spirit.
	(g) Atma.	(g) Spirit.	(g) One with the
			Absolute, as its
			radiation.

Now what does Plato teach? He speaks of the interior man as constituted of two parts—one immutable and always the same, formed of the same substance as Deity, and the other mortal and corruptible. These “two parts” are found in our upper Triad, and the lower Quaternary (vide Table). He explains that when the Soul, psuche, “allies herself to the Nous (divine spirit or substance20), she does everything aright and felicitously”; but the case is otherwise when she attaches herself to Anoia, (folly, or the irrational animal Soul). Here, then, we have Manas (or the Soul in general) in its two aspects: when attaching itself to Anoia (our Kama rupa, or the “Animal Soul” in “Esoteric Buddhism,”) it runs towards entire annihilation, as far as the personal Ego is concerned; when allying itself to the Nous (Atma-Buddhi) it merges into the immortal, imperishable Ego, and then its spiritual consciousness of the personal that was, becomes immortal.