We have now reached the end of the life history of the emotional body, and a few points remain regarding its death and final dissolution. The steady withdrawal of the monad causes, in a time that varies within extensive limits, the particles of the emotional body gradually cease to function. This process takes place, in most cases, in layers arranged according to degree of density, the densest being on the outside. This we have already discussed. The emotional body thus slowly wears away and disintegrates as the consciousness is gradually withdrawn from it by the half-unconscious effort of the monad. Therefore, by degrees, the person gets rid of whatever holds them back from the Mental World.
During the stay on the emotional plane, in kamaloka, the mind, woven with the passions, emotions and desires, has purified them, assimilated their pure part and absorbed all that is fit for transfer to the causal envelope. In this way, the remaining portion of kama, or emotional substance, is a mere residue from which the monad, the Immortal Triad of Atma-Buddhi-Manas (as it is often called), can readily free itself. Slowly, the triad or monad draws into itself the memories of the earth-life just ended, its loves, hopes, aspirations, etc., and prepares to pass out of kamaloka into the blissful state of devachan, the “abode of the gods”, the “heaven-world”; the Mental World to you and me.
In most esoteric literature, the “higher self” is called the monad. We know that our “higher” self is currently our solar deva. So, who or what is the monad? It can’t be our soul, as what exactly is our soul? It is just a collection of causal memories contained in a sack. It is these memories that the monad draws upon in each incarnation to help it navigate its way through life, pay off karma, incur new karma and hopefully, at the end of it, end up with a net positive gain in consciousness. So, thinking of the immortal triad of Atma-Buddhi-Manas is a misnomer. Even this triad will pass away when the monad moves its focus onto the 3rd triad on its way to going “cosmic”.
What happens when a monad enters the Heaven or Mental World is not the scope of this presentation; wait till the next series. For the moment, however, it may be said, in brief, that the period spent in devachan is the time for the assimilation of life experiences and the regaining of equilibrium in preparation for a new descent into incarnation. It is thus the day that succeeds the night of earth life, the subjective as contrasted with the objective period of manifestation. The term Mental World is used loosely here, as there are two stages to the withdrawal of the monad before it goes into a state of repose, slumbering contently before being awakened to a new adventure.
When people pass out of kamaloka into devachan, they cannot carry with them thought forms of a negative nature. Emotional matter cannot exist on the devachanic level, and devachanic matter cannot answer to the coarse vibrations of evil passions and desires. Consequently, all that the person can carry with them when they finally shake off the remnants of their emotional body will be the latent germs or tendencies which, when they can find food to nurture them or an outlet to express them, manifest as evil desires and passions in the Emotional World. These latent unresolved passions are stored in the 48:1 permanent atom, which remains attached to the monad as it wends its way home. At the end of the kamalokic life on the emotional plane, the golden life web withdraws from the emotional body, leaving it to disintegrate and encase the emotional permanent atom (48:1), which retreats within the causal body.
This has always been difficult for me to reconcile. How can matter that belongs to the emotional plane, 48, be stored in the causal plane 47? Not just plane 47, but on the 2nd triad to boot. This golden web, which must represent the lower causal envelope, can encase the emotional atom to be stored on the higher plane of matter until it can be reactivated as the solar deva organises the building out of the new emotional envelope.
The final struggle with the desire-elemental takes place after the emotional life, for the monad is then endeavouring to draw back into itself all that it has put down into incarnation at the beginning of the life, which has just ended. When the monad attempts to do this, it is met with determined opposition from the desire-elemental, which the monad has created and fed. The concept of the desire-elemental has already been discussed. How does one picture such a structure? Some see it as the devil on your left shoulder. They see it as a single coherent entity, able to thwart your more noble desires. I see it as a collection of competing desires, which are elemental structures in themselves, all bundled together in a sack. It is not a malicious entity in itself. It is a shadow of ourselves. The residue that follows us from life to life until we cleanse ourselves entirely of it.
In the case of the average person, some of their mental matter has become so entangled with their emotional matter that it can’t be entirely freed. The struggle results in some portion of the mental matter, and even the causal (higher mental) matter is retained in the emotional body after the monad has completely broken away from it. If, on the other hand, a person has, during life, completely conquered their lower desires and succeeded in absolutely freeing the lower mind from that desire, there is practically no struggle, and the monad can withdraw not only all that it has “invested” in that particular incarnation but also all the “interest”, i.e., the experiences, faculties, etc., that have been acquired. There are also extreme cases where the monad loses both the “capital” invested and the “interest”, these being known as “lost souls” or elementaries.
The treatment of the method in which the monad puts a portion of itself down into incarnation and then endeavours to withdraw it again will be reserved for the third and fourth series of presentations, dealing with the mental and causal envelopes.
The exit from the emotional body and the emotional plane is thus a “second death.” The person leaves behind them an emotional corpse that, in its turn, disintegrates, its materials being restored to the Emotional World, just as the materials of the physical body are returned to the Physical World. This emotional corpse and the various possibilities that may happen to it have already been dealt with in the presentation on emotional entities under the headings Shades, Shells, Vitalised Shells, etc.
The concept of the “second death” is mentioned in the Bible, where it says in Revelation 2:11 that Jesus promised that those who overcome it will not be hurt by it. Revelation 20:6 also states that the “second death” has no power over those who have a part in the first resurrection. We can now understand what is really being said here. This almost makes the Bible sound sensible, but we need not fear. Revelation 20:14-15 and 21:8 then describe the “second death” as the lake of fire, which is the final judgment for those whose names are not found written in the Book of Life; business as usual!
It is essential to understand that each world we travel through is accurate in our journey into and out of incarnations, yet it is just a temporary abode. The Physical and Emotional worlds can be objectively viewed by the monad. Very few human monads are objectively conscious in the Mental and Causal worlds. The concepts that people carry about the afterlife are all predicated on their conceptions of how they think the Emotional World functions. For them, this is either a paradise or a hell, or possibly a transition from one to the other, after a period of purgatory and a good roasting by Beelzebub. People do not see much further than this paradise. They imagine themselves dwelling there for eternity with like-minded “souls”. It is a shame that this “reality” is fictional and, like any daydream, eventually fades. What also needs to be understood is that everything decays except the monad, which is immortal. So, like your body, which eventually wears out, despite your best efforts at plastic surgery and Botox, your emotional envelope is going to decay. Considered in Earth-time, this can extend our life in the Emotional World for centuries, but ultimately, it is the way of the Universe that this shell must fade away. The only exception to this rule are black magicians, who can maintain their emotional envelope by drawing energy from terrified entities on Earth, including animals and humans. If you have watched the cartoon movie “Monsters Inc.”, the world of the monsters is fed from the terrified screams of children. The story ends with the monsters realising that laughter is a much greater power source than screams.
Black magicians aside, the source of our “power” comes from Fohat ultimately, and this source is fed from the Ante-Verse, down through successive planes of matter until it reaches and animates us. If you really want to be pedantic, the monad is always connected to the source because it is just an inverted bubble within the structure of the Ante-Verse, so its connection to Fohat is direct. However, this energy is also lensed through a succession of mighty monads that channel this power, enriching it with their own character. For us, the nearest source of energy is our causal envelope, and it is in this envelope that we are drawn. Consequently, our emotional envelope eventually dissolves, and we must move on.