Welcome back, not only to the Continuing Adventures of the Monad but the continuing look at the Terminology used in religious and esoteric writings. We are also looking at the symbols they use to communicate their ideas. We start with “The Oversoul”. What does this term mean? Let us start by defining what it means in esoteric parlance. The Oversoul means the highest collective being of the Solar System. Note the word ‘collective’. We are not talking about one monad in charge of the whole show. There is one monad in charge of the whole show and that is the Solar Logos, but that monad is not the oversoul. There is no hierarchy above this oversoul within the Solar System. This ‘collective soul’ is sometimes called the “Soul of all Souls”. Think back to the concept of a collective cosmic consciousness, in which every monad has a share. Well, our oversoul is a subset of this larger grouping.
The definition just given is not how the term oversoul is understood by most occultists. Note, I do not use the term esoterician; they should know better. In an essay written in 1841, Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote a beautiful article in which he stated,
“The Supreme Critic on the errors of the past and the present, and the only prophet of that which must be, is that great nature in which we rest, as the earth lies in the soft arms of the atmosphere; that Unity, that Over-soul, within which every man’s particular being is contained and made one with all others; that common heart”.
Laurency laments that this concept was taken over by ignorance and used when people did not know what they were talking about. It has come to mean many things to many people. From a factual point of view, it could mean any one of the higher envelopes that surrounds a monad. You know what Laurency feels about exactitude, so for an esoterician, it has one meaning and one meaning only. The collective consciousness of the Solar System.
Now we come to a term that should be very dear to all our ‘collective’ hearts, the term “monad”. How could anyone get this term wrong? To paraphrase Shakespeare, “let me count the ways”. Prior to the publication of the writings of Laurency, the term ‘monad’ has been used by authors throughout history. This is after Pythagoras originally coined it. Things however took a turn for the worst, when Theosophists, namely Anne Besant and Charles Leadbetter, made the mistake of confusing the monad with the 3rd Triad, also known as the 3rd-Self. Laurency puts this mistake down to the fact that both these initiates, yes, they were initiates, thought they were able to interpret esoteric writings on their own. Laurency points out that to ‘know’ something is correct it has to come from a higher source. If you are dealing with subject matters from the superconscious world, you should always consult your master for confirmation of your understanding of an idea or concept. A disciple may argue that they do not wish to bore their master, who may be busy with much weightier matters. However, it is safe to say that the teacher would rather be bothered than let misinformation propagate that takes a lot of work to correct.
The term ‘monad’ has by now been given many different meanings by occult sects. Pythagoras clearly states that the term monad applies to an indivisible primordial atom and that is all. As stated, the problem is that when terms get assigned incorrectly, they are very difficult to correct. The job of the Hylozoic mental system is to teach the student the correct interpretation of any concept and not get distracted from the main issues by side issues. I still, however, develop heartburn when I see diagrams like this.
The Monadic plane refers to Plane-44, whereas it should refer to Plane-43. Note also the use of the term ‘Buddhic’ to refer to Plane-46. As has been mentioned, repeatedly, nothing that has reached a bBuddhic level can exist within the Cosmic Physical Planes of matter. Quite why this plane ever got called Buddhic is beyond me. Being students of Hylozoics you should have none of these problems.
An oft used term in esoterics is that of the ‘Self’. But before we get to this term itself, let us refer to an often-used term, “man is a soul with a body”. We have already looked at the term ‘soul’, so it should be immediately obvious that the term ‘soul’ used in this context is not appreciating what the soul really is. How do we correct this misrepresentation? We start by acknowledging that we are all monads that operate through envelopes. We acquire more envelopes as we evolve, from the Mineral to the Human kingdoms. Both we and rocks have physical envelopes. We, however, have emotional, mental and casual envelopes as well. We know these envelopes stretch all the way up to the 3rd Triad. We have used the term envelope here and that is because we are looking at the ‘self’ from a matter perspective. We could just as easily have said ‘consciousness’ instead of an envelope. Both refer to the evolving monad.
So, how should we regard the self? It is easier to think of the self in terms of the triads. A 1st-Self encloses the mental, emotional and physical envelopes found on the 1st -Triad. To a 2nd-Self, the 1st-Self becomes irrelevant and the same can be said about the 2nd-Self in the eyes of a 3rd-Self. This seems logical to us now, with our knowledge of Hylozoics. To esotericians from around the globe, the different levels of the ‘Self’ were given cryptic designations known only to the ‘initiated’ in that order. We can thank our lucky stars we don’t need to wrap ourselves in layers of mysticism anymore. It should be noted that some of the terms used were nonsense anyway. An example would be to call a 3rd-Self “true be-ness”. Logically, every form of “being” is ‘true’ on its plane of matter. Why would a monad functioning on the 3rd-Triad, be any more real than you and I functioning on the 1st-Triad? The term “the Absolute” also gets used to designate consciousnesses at much lower levels than has been used in these presentations, where the ‘Absolute’ stands on the threshold between the Anti-Verse and the universe it thinks up.
At our level of evolution, we are aware that we have an objective world, which we perceive and a subjective one that dwells in our ‘mind’. Esoteric literature mentions, that when the monad is discussed, it is often referred to as the “seeing eye”, or the “all-seeing eye”. The reason for this is that on Plane-43 there is no distinction between the objective and the subjective. Now, all levels of consciousness below that of the monads’ are included in its view.
Laurency, wisely suggests that the term “self” should be dropped in favour of the word “triad”. In this way, students would not be confused into thinking that these two terms represent different entities. In reality, a 1st-Self and a 2nd-Self are the same monads that just happen to be focused in different triads. Similar confusion exists between the Theosophical terms “personality” and “individuality”. For the sake of clarity, the “personality” is the self in its envelopes of incarnation. The “individuality” is the self in the casual envelope at the conclusion of its latest incarnation. The lack of clarity that the Theosophical Society expressed in its understanding of what the term ‘monad’ referred to, meant that they never explained to their readers that the self is a primordial atom. This atom is what is otherwise known as a monad. This monad is present both in the 1st-Triad, in a particular envelope, and usually in the emotional envelope (48). It is also focused in the causal envelope. This may sound confusing as if the monad is present in two places at once. Well, be confused, because the monad is also present in Plane-43 and Plane-1. This is occurring at the same time as it is present in these two lower positions. Our monad is a multi-talented primordial atom. Just to reiterate, the ‘personality’s a self in the 1st-Triad envelope, in one of three envelopes, physical, emotional or mental. The 1st-Triad envelope is also called the lower causal body. The ‘individuality’ is the same monad that has moved its focus from the 1st-Triad envelope and refocused itself in its higher causal envelope. The keyword here is ‘focused’. The monad is not really present anywhere within the Cosmic Physical Plane. That is precisely why it needs triad envelopes in the first place.
Now that we have got the terminology about the ‘self’ straight, we can now go on to the symbology around this term but we will do that in the next presentation.