GROUP SOULS
In this presentation, we are going to look at group souls. What are they, how do they form, and what purpose do they serve? Each Monad is now equipped with a Higher Triad, which includes a permanent atom from the planes of Atma (45), Buddhi (46), and Manas (47), as well as a Lower Triad consisting of a mental unit (47:4), an emotional (48), and a physical (49) permanent atom. These particles of matter act as nuclei, allowing the Monad to connect with the different planes and construct bodies or vehicles through which it can gain experiences and learn to express itself on those planes of existence. To comprehend the mechanism by which these results are accomplished, we must then examine the phenomenon known as Group-Souls.
We have observed that when the atoms of the Lower Triad connect to the Sutratma or life-thread, thin layers of matter are created. These layers separate the seven main types of triads from each other, forming the seven primary groups or “rays” of triads. Through further division and subdivision, these groups will ultimately generate numerous Group-Souls across the different kingdoms of life.
These seven great types, or “rays,” of Group-Souls remain separate and distinct throughout all the circumstances and fortunes of their evolution. In other words, the seven types evolve in parallel streams and never unite or merge into one another. These seven types are clearly distinguishable in all kingdoms, and the successive forms taken by any one of them create a connected series of elementals, minerals, vegetables, or animals, depending on the case.
The seven primary Group-Souls appear as vague, filmy forms floating in the great ocean of matter, much like how balloons might float in the sea. They are first seen on the mental plane, becoming more clearly outlined on the emotional plane and even more so on the physical plane. They float in each of the seven main streams of the Second Life Wave.
Each Primary Group-Soul contains numerous Lower Triads, each connected by a radiant golden thread to its Higher Triad. These Triads depend on the overhanging Monad. The golden life web does not appear around the Triads until the mineral kingdom is reached.
In the diagram, we are at a stage where the small number of Triads shown in the seven Group Souls actually represents much larger numbers. These larger numbers also include their associated higher Triads and Monads.
The diagram represents the stage at which the thin film separating the seven Primary Group-Souls has received three layers: mental essence, emotional monadic essence, and atomic matter of the physical plane. As mentioned before, these films will eventually become the enclosing walls or envelopes of the Group-Souls.
It should be noted that these envelopes are formed of matter of the same Matter-group to which the Triads belong. The general plan of the evolutionary process—more strictly the involutionary process—is, as we have seen, a gradual differentiation of the great stream of divine life until definite individualisation as a human being is attained after repeated division and subdivision. After this individualisation, no further subdivision is possible, as a human entity becomes an indivisible unit or “soul”.
The concept of Group-Souls suggests that they exist in the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms, representing intermediate stages before becoming separate human entities. This means that in the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms, we do not find one soul in a single piece of mineral, plant, or animal. Instead, a single unit of life, or Group-Soul, is associated with a large quantity of mineral substance, a number of plants or trees, or a group of animals. We will discuss these details further later on, but for now, let’s focus on understanding the general function and purpose of Group-Souls.
The Group-Soul can be likened to water in a bucket. If a glassful of water is taken from the bucket, it represents the soul, or a portion of the soul, of a single plant or animal. At this moment, the water in the glass is separate from that in the bucket and takes the shape of the glass containing it. So, a portion of a Group-Soul can inhabit and animate a vegetable or animal form.
An animal’s soul is just as separate as a human’s during its life on the physical plane and for some time after that in the emotional world. However, when the animal completes its emotional life, its soul does not reincarnate in a single entity but rather returns to the group soul, which is a reservoir of soul matter.
The death of the animal can be compared to pouring water from a glass back into a bucket. The individual soul of the animal becomes combined and united with the total soul in the Group-Soul, similar to how water from the glass mixes and unites with the water in the bucket. Just as you can’t take the exact same molecules of water from the bucket to fill another glass, the same portion of the total soul in the Group Soul cannot inhabit another specific animal form. Continuing the analogy further, it is evident that we could simultaneously fill many glasses with water from the bucket. Similarly, many animal forms can be ensouled and vivified by the same Group-Soul.
If we imagine that a glass of water gets its own distinct colour, then when it is poured back into a bucket, the colour will spread throughout the entire bucket, altering the colour of all the water to some extent. Similarly, if we think of the colour as representing experiences or qualities gained by an individual animal, then when that animal’s soul returns to its overarching Group Soul, those experiences and qualities become part of the collective pool of the whole Group Soul and are shared by every part of it, although to a lesser extent than in the original animal. In other words, the experiences concentrated in an individual animal are spread, in a diluted form, over the entire Group Soul to which the animal belongs.
The Group-Soul in the Mineral, Vegetable, and Animal Kingdoms closely resembles a human child in its prenatal stage. Similar to how a human child is nourished by the mother’s life force, the protective envelope of the Group-Soul nourishes the lives within it. It receives and distributes the experiences gathered within it.
The cycle of life involves parents providing nourishment for their young plants or animals until they are ready for independent life. In this way, the developing lives of minerals, plants, and animals are sustained by elemental and monadic essences filled with the life force of the universe.
The evolution of lives in these early stages in the Group-Soul depends on three factors.
(a) first and foremost, nurturing the life of the Logos;
(b) the collaborative guidance of the Devas;
(c) their own relentless pressure against the boundaries of the enclosing form.
The general mechanism of the process through which the vibratory powers of the atoms in the Lower triads are awakened via these three agencies is as follows:
The Second Logos, working within the Group-Soul, energises the physical permanent atoms. The devas place these atoms into different conditions within the mineral kingdom, where each atom is connected to many mineral particles. The experiences the mineral substances go through, such as heat, cold, blows, pressure, shaking, etc., are transmitted to the connected physical permanent atoms, awakening faint responses of sympathetic vibration from the largely dormant consciousness within.
When a permanent atom has reached a certain level of responsiveness, or when a mineral formation, i.e., the particles to which the permanent atom is attached, is broken up, the Group-Soul withdraws that atom into itself.
The experiences acquired by that atom, i.e. the vibrations it has been forced to execute, remain in it as powers of vibrating in particular ways, as vibratory powers in short. The permanent atom, having lost its embodiment in the mineral form, remains, as we might say, naked in its Group-Soul. Here, it continues to repeat the vibrations it has learned, repeating its life experiences and thus setting up pulses which run through the envelope of the Group-Soul and are thereby conveyed to the other permanent atoms contained in that Group-Soul. Thus, each permanent atom affects and helps all others.
A significant phenomenon emerges. It is evident that permanent atoms with similar experiences will have a stronger influence on each other compared to those with different experiences. Consequently, a segregation will occur within the Group-Soul. Eventually, a faint separating barrier will form within the envelope, dividing these segregated groups from each other mineral form, the permanent atom.
Let’s consider the metaphor of water in a bucket. Initially, a thin film forms across the bucket, allowing some water to pass through. However, the water that passes through is continually returned to the same side, causing the water on one side to separate from the other. Over time, the barrier thickens, eventually creating two distinct portions of water.
Similarly, the Group-Soul eventually divides itself through fission, forming two Group-Souls. This process repeats multiple times, leading to an ever-growing number of Group-Souls, each with increasingly distinct levels of consciousness while still sharing fundamental characteristics.
The laws governing the process by which individual atoms in a Group-Soul enter the different kingdoms of nature still need to be fully understood. There are signs that the development of the mineral, vegetable, and the lowest level of the animal kingdom is more closely linked to the evolution of the Earth itself than that of the Triads, which represent the Monads evolving in the solar system. Eventually, these Monads come to Earth to continue their evolution using the conditions it provides.
The relationship between grass, small plants, and the earth is similar to that between a man’s hair and body. They are not directly connected to the Monads and their Triads. The life within grass and other plants is like that of the Second Logos, which shapes them as forms, while the life within the atoms and molecules that make them up belongs to the Third Logos. This life is influenced by the Planetary Logos of our system of Chains and an entity called the Spirit of the Earth. These kingdoms provide a platform for the evolution of Monads and their Triads, but their existence is not solely for that purpose.
Hence, we find permanent atoms scattered throughout the vegetable and mineral kingdoms, although we still need to understand the reasons governing their distribution. For example, a permanent atom may be found in a pearl, a ruby, or a diamond, and many will be found scattered through veins of ore and so on. However, many mineral substances do not contain any permanent atoms.
In the same way, short-lived plants also have permanent atoms. However, in long-lasting plants like trees, permanent atoms are consistently present. In this case, the tree’s life is more connected to the evolution of the Deva rather than the evolution of the consciousness to which the permanent atom is linked.
It’s as if the evolution of life and consciousness in the tree is being taken advantage of for the benefit of the permanent atom. The permanent atom could be seen as a parasite, benefiting from the more highly evolved life it is immersed in. It’s important to recognise that our understanding of these matters currently needs to be improved.
Now that we have studied the general nature and functions of Group-Souls, we can move on to consider in more detail the Group-Souls of Minerals, Vegetables, and Animals, starting with the Mineral Group-Soul. See you next time.