English
Obscure, allegorical forms of expression are not superior, in occult dignity, to definite and exact phraseology— though in the past such forms have often been pardon- able, either because the writers who used them were pledged to partial secrecy or precluded by the bigotry of their age from being quite explicit. That which we have now to aim at—now that spiritual research has been endowed with advantages it mever possessed in the days of the alchemists and medizeval mystics—is the exact comprehension, as far as that is possible, of mysteries till now cloaked in an almost impenetrable obscurity. Of course, as we extend our conquests there will always at their confines be a region of thought and conjecture which baffles exposition. But it is of the utmost importance that we should push precision as far as possible, and with care and patience it will be found practicable to analyse some of the processes by which soul evolution is accomplished and realise them, unseen and intangible as they may be, even as it is possible to realise some of the intricate laws governing the no less intangible and unseen molecules of matter in their chemical reactions. 94 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL. The law which we have to bring under a higher microscopic power than that applied to it hitherto, is the law regulating the alternate physical and spiritual existence of the human entitv. The human soul, we have seen, once launched on the stream of evolution as a human individuality, passes through alternate periods of physical and relatively spiritual existence. It passes from the one plane (or stratum, or condition) of Nature to the other, under the guidance of its Karinic affinities, living, in incarnation, the life which its Karma has preordained, modifying its progress within the limita- tions of circumstance, and developing fresh Karma by the use or abuse of its opportunities. It returns to spiritual existence after each physical life—through the intervening region of astral experience—for rest and refreshment and for the gradual absorption into its essence—as so much cosmic progress—of the life’s training passed through “‘ on earth”’ or during physical existence. This broad view of the subject, however, though it may suggest to a thoughtful mind, does not necessarily include an all-important conception which is required to invest the whole process with a truly Nature-like aspect. It is clear that, even during physical existence, people who possess certain unusual faculties—psychic senses that open other avenues to their consciousness besides those of the physical plane—remain in connexion in some way with the planes of superphysical conscious- ness. All of us, indeed, as the experiences of sleep show, are capable of entering into conditions of con- THE HIGHER SELF. 95 sciousness with which the five ordinary senses have nothing to do. And the phenomena of somnambulism, as it is sometimes called (the somnambulism of the soul, not of the body), or of clairvoyance, whether of spon- taneous occurrence or induced by mesmerism, point to the same conclusion with very much greater force. We—the souls within us—are not, as it were, altogether contained in the material envelope we actuate during life. We clearly retain some rights and interests in the ocean of spirit, so to speak, from which we have been stranded on the shores of incarnation. ‘The process of incarnation is not fully described when we speak of an alternate existence on the physical and spiritual planes, and thus picture the soul as a complete entity, slipping entirely from the one state of existence to the other. A more correct definition of the process might represent incarnation as taking place on this -physical plane of Nature by reason of an efflux emanating from the soul. The spiritual realm would all the while be the proper habttat of the soul, which would never entirely quit it; and that non-materialisable portion of the soul which abides permanently on the spiritual plane may fitly be spoken of as the Higher Self. In some theosophical writings, the term here employed has been identified with a highly profound metaphysical idea, which we may consider later on, and which con- templates the spiritual unity, if we push the conception back far enough, of all temporarily segregated centres of human consciousness. Between the explanation I am now endeavouring to give and that great conception there is no divergence of principle, but the term 96 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL, “Higher Self’ seems to me most fitly assigned to the individual spiritual consciousness of each soul, and I will maintain the harmony of my own writings on this subject by continuing its employment in that sense. I must not, however, be supposed to mean that absolutely every human being is to be thought of as associated with a more exalted form of consciousness on a higher plane than the physical, the lower orders of mankind, meaning by that term the savage races as a whole and the least evolved amongst ourselves, may be as yet undeveloped beyond the stage of physical consciousness. Their quasi-spiritual existence between incarnations, would be little more than a pale reflection of that through which they have passed on earth. But as the human being advances as regards his interior complexity, developing in protracted lives of intellectual activity and intense emotion, great possibilities of thought and feeling which it would be difficult fullv to express in any one life thereafter, he gradually drifts into the condition of those referred to, whose real spiritual or higher self is so to speak, too great for expression in any one physical life. Of course it will be seen that between these two extremes lie all possibilities of intermediate development. One great comfort at once afforded by the apprecia- tion of the nature of the Higher Self is that we escape from the embarrassment of having to think of the whole complete soul of a highly advanced human being, inhabiting the highly unsuitable tenement of a young child’s body. However unsatisfactory the notion of such an arrangement would appear, it would THE HIGHER SELF. 97 be futile to try and escape from it by the hypothesis that the child could be born first and, so to speak, ensouled afterwards. From the earliest beginning, the child and the soul, to which it might be destined to give incarnation, must evidently be regarded as already in union. But the conception with which I am now dealing harmonises with the fitness of things and with the analogies of Nature. The soul on the spiritual plane and ripe for Re-incarnation takes note, as it were, of the newly germinating human being whose physical associations and destiny render it the most appropriate physical habitation that soul can find. Of course, there is no conscious, deliberate selection in the matter. The Karmic affinities constitute a line of least resistance along which the soul throws out a magnetic shoot into the objective world, just as a root germinating in the earth throws“out through that portion of the ground which most readily gives way before it, the first slender blade of green growth which makes its appearance at the surface. A more recondite but still more exact illustration might be drawn from the behaviour of an electric current choosing among several available channels of approach those which, though not necessarily the shortest, conduct it under circumstances best suited to its own nature to its goal, the earth. Along the magnetic fibre thus estab- lished—itself no doubt growing in vigour simultaneously with the growth of the child—the psychic entity flows into the new body by degrees. The same idea has sometimes been expressed in other terms. The growing child has been said to be H 98 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL. destitute of a sixth principle—morally irresponsible and incapable of generating Karma—till attaining the age of seven years. ‘This amounts to the same thing. Before seven years, there is not enough of the soul passed down into the child’s bodily consciousness to allow of the development of a moral sense. Conscience has not begun to assert itself. The Higher Self has not begun to brood over the impulses of the flesh. If the child dies, the soul has simply to sprout in another place. This reflection has an exceedingly important bearing on all problems concerning the death of young children and their states after death, but it will be most- convenient to deal with them separately. Let us for the moment keep our attention fixed on the child, who advances successfully towards mature life. As the body develops, more and more of the true soul- consciousness passes into the new organism till at last in the grown-up man, all of the soul which is sus- ceptible of expression in physical consciousness is once more re-established, or re-incarnated, on the earth plane. But there is still an all-important something belong- ing to the soul remaining behind (if I may still for a while cling to a materialistic figure of speech quite inevitable 1f we are to have the idea clearly established in our minds) on the spiritual plane. This something is the most essentially spiritual element in the incar- nating soul—its Higher Self— almost dormant and unconscious during the full activity of the incarnate being, but constantly, during the sleep of the body, recovering a more vivid sense of existence. Certainly THE HIGHER SELF. 99 the extent to which such consciousness is revived, differs for different people, within very wide limits. The Higher Self is not merely the colourless, imperish- able, spiritual monad, but the growing spiritual individuality of the man, in each given case.