In the previous series of presentations, we looked at a basic framework for how the universe came into existence. We also looked at the 49 planes of matter. I started from this vantage point because I wanted to place us, we humans, into a context. Where do we lie in this grand structure? What are the basic processes we go through as we evolve?
We start as a potentially conscious monad and develop into a fully conscious god! To say we have god potential within us is not blasphemous. The Hylozoic view of existence says we come into the universe to expand our consciousness. Eventually, our consciousness expands to allow us to create universes ourselves. We traverse 49 planes of matter and expand our consciousness on each one of those planes. We finally become omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient on all 49 planes.
Human Kingdom
I wish to draw your focus now to the monad as it passes through the human phase. We did not start as humans, we started as an unconscious 1-atom. Through two intermediary steps, we became conscious and able to remember what was happening to and around us. Finally, as a quaternary atom, we began to develop will-power. The process of developing will-power, is in itself, a long process. It spans from the mineral kingdom, through the plant and animal kingdom, all the way to where we are today. We are now humans inhabiting the 4th, the Human Kingdom. This sequence of transitions, from the mineral kingdom to the human kingdom is discussed further at a later date.
Awareness
So what does it take to be a human being? I will answer that question by asking another. Are you aware of your physical body? If you are then you must be more than just your body.
Are you aware of your emotions? Again, if you are, then you are not your emotions. And lastly, are you aware of your thoughts? I think you know the answer now. “Yes I am aware of my thoughts, therefore I must be more than just my thoughts”.
No matter what part of yourself you focus on, there is always a sense of awareness above and beyond what you happen to be focusing on. That awareness I am speaking of is the real ‘you’. Awake or asleep, dead or alive, it is eternal.
There is an esoteric saying; “we are spiritual beings undergoing a human experience”. While this is true, it has led, firstly, to us under-valuing the physical human experience. Mystics tell us that everything physical is an illusion. You can philosophically go round in circles with this viewpoint. The fact of the matter is that if a rock falls on your head, it hurts.
Whether philosophically it is an illusion or not does not matter much to you at the time. The second mental construct that we have, is that we have tended to equate ‘spirit’ with something other than matter. If there is one concept I have tried to expound in these series of presentations so far, is that whatever experience you are having, it is always happening in matter. Whether you are ‘physical’ or ‘spiritual’, you are in matter. What changes is the frequency of vibration and the expansion of consciousness.
We can consider ourselves as being ‘pure awareness’, temporarily inhabiting a physical body to develop our consciousness. Imagine pure white light, shining through the ‘film’ of life. That light becomes coloured by the film. It is giving depth and develops new dimensions of consciousness. The model I wish to propose to you is that as a human, you are not just flesh and blood. Instead, you are a series of bodies that are all interlinked and inter-penetrating.
Our bodies
Your persona is composed of a monad. This is your fundamental unit of self-awareness. It is also composed of a causal body. This represents your creativity. The causal body as a functioning unit is described later in the series. The next body within your persona is your mental body. This is where your intellect resides. Next, we come to the emotional body. This is the home to your emotions and desires. The last body that constitutes the persona is the etheric body. This body provides the life energy to the last, the physical body. All the previous mentioned bodies operate through the physical body. However, they are not part of it. The physical body stands apart. It is just a physical vessel that your persona and all its envelopes of incarnation, ‘put on’. They do this so that they can experience the physical plane objectively. The etheric body is considered the physical body of the persona. The relationship between the etheric and physical body is a fascinating one and is to be explored further. I wish to point out that we, as humans, evolve by focusing our consciousness through our bodies. We start with the etheric body and rise to the causal body.
The physical body can be viewed as a virtual reality suit. It uses our five senses to generate electrical impulses. This it feeds into our subtle bodies. The bodies already mentioned. The etheric body, the first of our true bodies, determines our physical health. It can be viewed as a distribution network. Through it, chi, or prana, is distributed around the physical body. The etheric is a template around which our physical body develops in the womb. The relationship between these lines of electrical force is exploited by the acupuncturist. They treat the etheric body to heal the physical body.
The emotional body allows us to sense the environment around us. We use the term ‘atmosphere’ to describe a sensation we feel when entering a room. What is this atmosphere and how exactly are we sensing it? If it is something tangible that we can sense, then we begin to understand how group emotions can affect us. This effect can be positive or negative. The mental body is the home to the intellect and rational mind. I want you to consider the idea that thoughts, like emotions, are ‘objects’. They can be transmitted into and be received from the environment. On their own plane, they are tangible objects. Remember, everything has to be linked to matter. So a thought or an emotion must have a matter component. That matter component is an elemental. We have already discussed this class of consciousness. We called it Secondary Matter. For the present, I wish you to take away the idea that our brain is not the source of our intellect. It just allows our intellect to operate through the physical body, using it as a relay station
Causal Body (Soul)
It is the possession of a causal body that differentiates us from animals. This body has four main functions. It is the true home of the human-self. This is where the monad sleeps between incarnations. The causal body also acts as a personal storehouse of experiences and memories. These arise because of repeated incarnations by the monad into the lowest planes of matter. The causal body acts as a source of conceptual and intuitive ideas. This is not initially available to a persona. Over time links develop that allow transmission of these thoughts. Lastly, the causal body is instrumental in the construction of a link between our persona, known as the Lower-Self and our soul. The latter is often referred to as the Higher-Self.
The causal body divides when we incarnate and only sends a small portion of its total matter into the persona. Let’s give this amount of matter a figure and say it is 5 per cent. The smaller portion of matter is now known as the ‘lesser’ causal body. It surrounds the other four lower bodies. These being the mental, the emotional, the etheric and the physical. Upon death, the lower causal body reunites with the ‘greater’ casual body. This reunification allows for the transfer of experiences gained in the last incarnation. As a result, there is a net increase of experiences stored in the memory bank of the greater causal body.
The Monad and the Three Triads
The monad is the true self. This is the single indivisible atom that goes to make up any unit of existence. To awaken the latent potential of the monad, it has to be developed by ensouling a series of ever-higher life-forms. To achieve this, the monad embeds itself in life forms to acquire experience. In this way, it develops consciousness.
All life forms are composed of primary, secondary and tertiary matter. In addition to these three forms of matter, there is also a single atom of quaternary matter. This is the ensouling monad, in charge of that life form. It should not be forgotten that the three lower grades of matter are also monads. They just happen to be at lower levels of consciousness. They are ensouled by a single unit of quaternary matter. It has reached a level of consciousness, whereby, it can become a controlling unit.
Location of the Monad
There are a total of 49 levels of ensouling monads, one for each of the 49 planes of matter. The monad exists in three places at once. It is located on the 1st plane of matter, where it remains for its entire time in the universe. It is also embedded in the 43:1-atom that sit on the boundary of our solar system. It locates itself there for the entire time it spends in the Solar System. The monad is also able to embed itself in one of the six permanent atoms or three triadic molecules. This is why in the diagram I have placed a question mark.
Approximately 85 per cent of humanity currently have their monad objectively focused in the 48:1 atom. This is located in the Emotional Body. It partially explains the high degree of irrationality found on the planet at present. If the monad never leaves the 1st plane, one has to question what exactly the term ‘embedded’ means. It was mentioned in a previous presentation that the monad constructs the triad of nine atoms and molecules. It does this as it is too energetic to enter into the Solar System. ‘Embedding’ clearly has a virtual element to it.
Another explanation of how a monad may be present in three places at once is because lower planes of matter are made from higher planes of matter. In this manner, the higher planes are occupying the same space as the lower ones. The hierarchical way of looking at the 49 planes of matter makes it easy for us to visualise a scheme. In reality, we are dealing with a ‘Russian Doll’.
Evolutionary Pathways
The monad begins its evolutionary journey through the kingdoms of nature after it has embedded itself on the 43rd plane. From Plane-43, it oversees its evolution through the six kingdoms of nature. It starts on Plane-49 in the Mineral Kingdom. I have been talking exclusively so far about the evolution of humanity. I wish to point out that the Solar System is home to seven distinct evolutionary pathways. We know of two, the human and the deva. The other five are genuinely esoteric. They are only revealed to a disciple of a Master at an advanced stage of instruction.
The deva pathway runs parallel to the human stream and overlaps it in places. The deva stream specialises in controlling matter. The human stream focuses on developing consciousness. I wish to reiterate that although there may be a specialisation within a stream, all streams are composed of matter, motion and consciousness. It is just the degree to which they specialise that varies. Another point I wish to re-state is that monads embed themselves within permanent atoms or permanent molecules. The monad is embedded in a 43:1 atom at the top of the Cosmic Physical Plane. That atom itself is composed of 1.34e+81 atoms of primary matter. Just one of those atoms of primary matter is the monad itself. The monad locates itself here, as it can not work directly at lower frequencies. If it came in contact with matter at those frequencies it would ‘fry’ it. The monad needs intermediaries.
This is where the human stream and the deva stream begin to cooperate. The monad, when it starts its evolutionary journey in the human kingdom, contrary to popular belief, is not an all-knowing entity. It is barely conscious. It is taken in hand by advanced devas, who attach it to an atom or molecule of Tertiary matter. These tertiary atoms and molecules remain permanently attached throughout our evolution in the Solar System. They are the focus of consciousness for the monad. The nine permanent atoms and molecules are distributed into three triads. The purpose of these triads is to allow consciousness to develop on three levels at once. In our case, it allows development on the physical, emotional and mental planes at the same time. The triadic system is only utilised in the Solar System. Once the monad evolves beyond the Solar System, it operates as a single atom. When I say ‘single’ atom, I mean the permanent atom of that plane of matter. This is a vast collection of other atoms as well. The monad is the controlling unit of this cluster of atoms.
Causal Bodies
When a monad incarnates, it takes a portion of mental matter from the causal body and creates a persona. This body is also called the lesser causal body. The persona surrounds the three lower bodies of incarnation. These are the mental, emotional and physical bodies. The mental atom, 47:1, always remains in the greater causal body. The lesser causal body does not have a permanent atom. Without a focal point of consciousness, the lesser causal body only has passive consciousness. The lack of a permanent atom or molecule means that the persona has no direct memory of itself. It is just a temporary construct that is used to hold the three lower bodies and direct their activities. The experiences of the three lower bodies are stored in their two permanent atoms (48:1 & 49:1) and one molecule (47:4). The persona just serves to transfer back the lessons learnt in the incarnation. It hands this information on to the higher causal body. It is for this reason that I mentioned the analogy of a monad reading the contents of a book, where it identifies with the main character in the story. The character, the persona, has no identity outside the pages of the book.
Very few people have the capacity to use causal consciousness. They can only use their mental and emotional consciousness. Mental consciousness is concrete. Causal consciousness is abstract and has other defining properties that will be expanded upon later.
Linking the triads
The two atoms and one molecule that are located on every triad level can communicate instantaneously between themselves. This is one of the major benefits of having a triad. It allows development to occur in three bodies at the same time. Communications between triads are much weaker. The mental body is split between the 1st and 2nd triad. One of the main function of the causal body is to establish contact between these two triads. This it does by building a permanent physical link.
The second triad is known as the Soul Triad. When esotericists refer to as the ‘soul’, they are talking about the monad located in the 47:1-atom. On the 2nd triad, there are two more ‘bodies’. These are organised in the same way as the bodies on the 1st triad and will be discussed further. These two bodies, the 46th and the lower-45th are not developed in most humans at present.
The 3rd Triad is the most developed of the triads. It is referred to as the Spirit Triad. we know there is a causal body on the 2nd triad that is a link between the 1st and 2nd triads. The Spirit body performs the same role on the 3rd Triad. It links the 2nd and 3rd triads together. This allows the objective consciousness of the monad to migrate from the 2nd to the 3rd triad eventually.
In the next presentation, I will begin a description of the envelopes of incarnation in greater detail. The bodies are known as subtle bodies. I will discuss how they are constituted and what forms their sub-structure.
Kazim, I agree with you about the second point. The greater causal body looks like an almost uncorruptible entity; let us suppose that a long series of consecutive failed incarnations happens to the persona. Would it mean that the greater causal body would undergo an important involution? That sounds rather unlikely in my modest opinion. I think that a slowdown or a pause in soul development is a more acceptable hypotesis, rather than a counter-evolution.
I agree with you Roberto, clearly, you can not go so far backwards as to end up in the Animal Kingdom. However, clearly human monads can become very bestial. Laurency mentions that a monad can choose to deliberately sever itself from its causal body. This it does when it reaches the highest stage of mental development but choose to follow the left-hand path. This is a catastrophic decision, which eventually leads to a monad dropping down to the mineral kingdom at the end of the globe, as there is nowhere for it to sleep in the pralaya.
Hello Colin and Kazim,
I would like to say what I read in Lee Bladon’s book “The science of spirituality” about this point.
The mechanism related to the ratio between the greater causal body and the lesser causal body is pre-determined for safety reasons. This happens in order to limit the damage that one bad life can have on our overall development. Bladon tells the example of Adolf Hitler, whose bad deeds committed in his adult life caused his level of consciousness to fall dramatically.
If his entire greater causal body had incarnated, it would have been totally damaged by a single incarnation.
Anyway, as a second layer of protection, Hitler’s guardian angel could stop the lesser causal body from reuting with the greater causal body to prevent the entire soul contamination. Bye. Roberto
Very good point Roberto,
I would also like to add a few points to expend on what Bladon said. If the causal body is just a repository for memory until you take full control of it, how can its consciousness rise and fall? You may have no increase in consciousness as the result of a failed incarnation, but how do you actually remove consciousness from such a body?
The second point is how can the lower causal body contaminate the higher one? Casual molecules only know the truth. So no falsehoods can exist at the causal level. If the persona has acquired a stack of bad traits and habits from an incarnation, they will remain in the permanent emotional atom or mental molecule. These kinds of experiences are stored in lower vibration matter.
Now to get back to the Bladon model. You could postulate that the causal molecules that were resonating in the lower causal body had somehow lowered in their vibrational capacity. This would mean they would return to the greater casual body with less capacity than which they arrived in the incarnation. In this case, the total mass of the greater causal body on reunification would be less than when it started the incarnation. In such a scenario limiting the exposure of the total causal matter to the results of a bad incarnation would then make good sense.
Another question. If the Human stream deals with consciousness and the Deva stream deals with matter, where does the monad fit in with all of this. Is a deva not a monad?
Everything is a monad Colin. This includes Primary Matter, Secondary Matter, Tertiary Matter and Quaternary Matter. Everything from a rock upwards is Quaternary Matter. The three lower grades of matter are also monadic. What differs with them is their consciousness. Primary matter is potentially conscious. Secondary Matter is passively conscious and Tertiary Matter has limited memory but no will as yet. Will begins to develop when the monad receives the 3rd Out Pouring from the 1st Logos.
So if i have understood you correctly, both we as spiritual beings and devas are monads. Monads deal with matter and we as the triad spirit, matter consciousness deal with thinking. Monads then run all the organs of our body?? Were we once monads and have evolved to where we are now??
You ask the question, where we once monads? We can only be monads, as there are only monads. The only difference between monads is it state of consciousness and what path of evolution it is on. The devas are on one, we are on another. The monads that make up our envelopes of incarnation are monads vibrating at the level of tertiary atoms and molecules. The matter that inhabits our subtle bodies is composed of secondary matter, otherwise known as Elementals. They are surrounded by an envelope made of tertiary mater. The devas that run our bodies are vibrating at the quaternary level, just like us.
The concept of a spiritual being is a confusing one. What makes something spiritual? There is such a thing as a Spirit Triad and we as humans are nowhere near functioning on it. So if that is not what spirit means, what else can it be? Every monad has three aspects, matter, motion and consciousness. Place spirit where you like in this trinity but remember this trinity is common to all monads and therefore every speck of dust in this entire universe.
Hi Kazim, You mention that the lower causal body takes only 5% from the higher causal body and incarnates with that. Its incarnation to gain experience through matter leads it to various experiences. Only this would be a complete waste of time – a waste of an incarnation – if the 95% left behind had already experienced what the 5% had just gone through. Why not 100%??
Hi Colin, firstly I wish to say that 99% of what we do in an incarnation is repetition. Repulsive monads like us learn very slowly. Your guardian angel, because it operates in 6 dimensions, is able to see past, present and future in the present. I explain this concept in presentation 16. So it gathers together that bundle of causal matter that allows you to fulfil your objectives for that particular incarnation. We still have the ability to cock things up. Even our guardian angels can not completely predict our capacity to stuff things up!
There is another issue of energy. The full causal body has a lot more energy than just 5% of it. As a monad nears enlightenment, it also strengthens it envelopes of incarnation, so that it is able to handle the voltages that will circulate through these bodies when it is carrying a full load.
The last issue is one of capacity. The monad is consciousness where you are right now. It does not have the capacity to operate with the knowledge of all its incarnations right back to when it was a rock!