The Spirit-Soul

The aim of the Path of Return is to lead the yearning Seeker out of the physical world and back to the Divine Kingdom. By virtue of their significantly different frequency ranges, these two realms do not touch. They are separated by a veil, a border-region that cannot be crossed without help.

In order to return to the Divine Kingdom, one's microcosm must vibrate in a range that will allow the entity to experience that realm. But our microcosm is fallen, broken. It vibrates in harmony with this physical nature-order, it is of the earth, earthy.

Soul

The personality that inhabits one's microcosm is composed of several bodies: physical, etheric, astral and mental. Together, these four bodies combine to form the mortal soul. The key word there is mortal, because at some point after the death of the physical body, the three remaining subtle bodies will also gradually and inevitably meet their end. So, man has a soul, but it is a mortal soul, subject to death.

Spirit

As for Spirit, man is disconnected from Spirit. We know this to be true, because Spirit is of God, is God. The majority of the human life-wave is not consciously connected to Spirit. The proof is in the pudding. If humans were connected with Spirit, which is linked with God, humans would manifest God's works in the physical realm. We can look about us and see that this is not the present case.

New Soul

Walking the Path in true humility, self-surrender and with a deep yearning to obtain The Good End will fuel an alchemical process within the candidate's microcosm. A New Soul will be born within the microcosm, coterminous with the old mortal soul. The old mortal soul will decrease in influence as the New Soul grows and establishes itself. It is the New Soul that must be purified so that it can fulfill its special function.

The primary function of the New Soul is to link up with Spirit, to "meet its Pymander", in the words of the Corpus Hermeticum. When the purified New Soul connects with the Divine Spirit, the Spirit-Soul becomes a reality. The microcosm now has what it needs to complete the task of Transfiguration.

~ g

Spirit-Soul (definition)

The path of the endura, the path of pupilship of a gnostic Spiritual School, has as its aim to awaken the true, immortal soul from its latent condition. As soon as this soul arises from its Sleep of Death, its link with the Universal Spirit, with God, is restored. This restored connection between Spirit and Soul, between God and Man, is demonstrated in the glorious resurrection of the Other One, the return of the True Man to the House of the Father. The Soul that is able to celebrate this link, the union with what the Egyptian Arch-Gnosis calls "Pymander", is the Spirit-Soul. It is the union of Osiris (Spirit) with Isis (the Soul), of Christ with Jesus, of the Father with the Son, the alchemical wedding of Christian Rosycross, the marriage of the heavenly Bridegroom with his heavenly Bride.

The presence of the Spirit-Soul necessitates a heart sanctuary completely emptied and purified of every nature-born influence and activity, and vibrating in harmony with the Spirit-Spark atom. Only in such a purified heart can a meeting with God, the Pymandric consciousness, take place. The Spirit-Soul is the nuclear radiation of the Monad (the Divine Spark) which comes to ensoulment within the heart of material man.

From The Egyptian Arch-Gnosis, Vol. II - Jan van Rijckenborgh