In the previous presentation, we ended by looking at how the time and place of birth of a person influenced their temperament. What happens at the other end of a life? It is likely that in most cases, the exact time and manner of a person’s death are not predetermined before or at their birth. Astrologers often claim that they cannot predict a person’s death, but they can calculate when malevolent influences will be strong, indicating a potential risk of death. If the person does not die at that time, their life will likely continue until another occasion when negative influences pose a threat, and so on. The uncertainties probably signify aspects that are not yet determined and are subject to later decisions. These decisions will depend largely on the modifications made by the individual during their lifetime and how they use their opportunities.
Regardless, we should avoid assigning excessive importance to the time and manner of death. We can be confident that those responsible for such matters possess a much truer understanding of relative values and prioritise the soul’s progress as the most important consideration.
When discussing the topic of death, it’s important to note that the main objection to killing is that it disrupts the process of evolution. Killing someone prevents them from having the opportunities they would have had in their current lifetime. They will, of course, have another lifetime later on, but killing them delays their progress and creates additional complications for the forces of karma to find another suitable path for their evolution.
It is much more serious to kill a human than an animal. This is because when a human dies, they must start over and develop a completely new personality. Conversely, when an animal dies, it returns to the group soul, and another incarnation is relatively easier. However, generating even this smaller amount of karma should not be done thoughtlessly or needlessly.
An advanced Soul finds all the earlier stages of childhood to be exceedingly tiresome. Sometimes, a truly advanced person avoids all this by asking someone else to provide them with an adult environment, a sacrifice that any of their disciples would always be delighted to make for them.
This method, however, also has its drawbacks. Everybody has unique characteristics and habits which cannot easily be changed. Therefore, it may not fit well with another soul. In this case, the person would have kept their previous mental and emotional characteristics, which are naturally a match for their former body. Adapting these to a new body, grown by someone else, can be challenging. If the new body is that of a baby, this adjustment can be done gradually. However, if it is an adult body, it has to be done immediately, which can be quite unpleasant and stressful.
In the series on the Etheric Envelope, it was explained how the new physical envelope is gradually built into the mould provided by the etheric double. This etheric double is built in advance for the incoming soul by an elemental, a joint thought form of the four Devarajas.
The elemental takes charge of the body from the beginning, but sometime before the physical birth occurs, the soul also connects with its future body. From that point on, both forces work together. Sometimes, the characteristics imposed by the elemental are few, so it can withdraw at a relatively young age, leaving the soul in full control of the body. In other cases, the limitations require more time for development, so the elemental may remain in place until the body is seven years old.
In most cases, the soul does very little work on the new body until the elemental withdraws. The soul is connected to the body but usually doesn’t pay much attention to it. Instead, it waits until the body is more responsive before putting in more effort.
Throughout the embryonic period, as the physical body develops from the mother’s substance, the soul watches over the mother and influences the embryo’s development to a limited extent. The embryo is not conscious of its future, but it is vaguely aware of the mother’s life and is affected by her thoughts, desires, hopes, and fears. The soul’s influence on the embryo is weak, primarily transmitted through the physical permanent atom(49:1). The embryo does not comprehend the soul’s profound thoughts and emotions expressed through its causal envelope.
During the years, as the soul gradually connects with its new physical body, it continues to lead its own enriched life on its plane. This connection with the new body is shown through the development of brain consciousness. Souls have different levels of interest in their physical bodies: Some are very attentive to their bodies from the beginning and take care of them diligently, while others are quite indifferent.
The case of the Adept (45-self) is very different. There is no negative karma to resolve, no artificial elemental at work, and the soul is solely responsible for its development. This allows for creating a much more precise and delicate instrument, but it also requires more effort and consumes a significant amount of time and energy for several years. As a result, for this reason, and probably others, an adept does not want to go through the process more frequently than necessary. Therefore, they make their physical body last as long as they can. As our bodies age and eventually perish due to inherited weaknesses, disease, accidents, self-indulgence, worry, and overwork, the Adept’s body is unaffected by these causes. It’s important to note that the Adept’s body is strong and capable of enduring much more than the average person.
In the case of the average person, there appears to be little continuity in their physical appearance from one lifetime to another, although there have been instances of strong resemblance. Since the physical body partly reflects the soul and the soul stays the same, there may be situations where it manifests in similar forms. However, generally, racial, familial, and other traits dominate this tendency.
When an individual is highly advanced, their personality becomes infused with the characteristics of their glorified form in the causal envelope, which is relatively permanent.
When a person reaches a high level of spiritual development, all their past actions and consequences, known as karma, have been resolved. Their physical body is a close representation of their spiritually evolved form. Therefore, spiritual masters will be recognisable across different lifetimes, and their physical appearance may not change significantly, even if they are born into a different race. Prototypes of the bodies that people will have in the seventh Race have been observed, and they are described as extraordinarily beautiful.
Emphasis has often been placed on the seven-year period in connection with the soul taking full possession of the physical body. This is due to a physical reason. In the human embryo, there is a specific set of cells that do not subdivide like other cells. These cells move to the upper part of the embryo, where they remain separate for some time after birth. Over time, changes occur within the cells, and they send out branches. Eventually, these branches meet and interconnect, creating a channel within the cells. The process takes about seven years to form a fair network, which becomes more complicated over time.
Physiologists and psychologists emphasise that a child’s reasoning ability is limited until a complex neural network is developed. Therefore, children should not be given tasks requiring advanced reasoning abilities that may strain them. Materialistic science suggests that as this neural network develops, a child’s reasoning abilities also grow. From an occultist perspective, the brain’s physical development allows the inherent power of reasoning in the soul to manifest. The soul is believed to wait until the brain is sufficiently developed to closely interact with and permeate it.
As the soul descends for rebirth, materials are drawn around the permanent atoms for building the new mental and emotional bodies. If a young child is left to develop independently, the emotional permanent atom will naturally form an emotional envelope similar to the one from their past life. However, there is no requirement to use all these materials. When the child is wisely treated and guided, they can be encouraged to develop the positive qualities from their previous life while allowing the negative traits to remain dormant. By doing so, the negative traits will gradually weaken and disappear, allowing the soul to cultivate positive virtues freeing the individual from those negative traits in future lives. Parents and teachers can assist a child in reaching this desirable outcome not only by teaching specific facts but also by providing encouragement, rational and kind treatment, and, above all, by showing an abundance of affection.
In the series on the Emotional and Mental envelopes, specifically on Rebirth, we have already emphasised the significant impact that individuals responsible for a person’s upbringing and training can have on their soul. Therefore, there is no need to reiterate what was previously stated in those series.
We may, however, add that if a person, instead of nurturing love and positive qualities in those under their care, causes them to develop negative qualities like fear and deceit, they are hindering the spiritual growth of those individuals and causing them serious harm. Misusing such an opportunity can lead to a terrible downfall for the person responsible. In some cases, this kind of cruelty may lead to mental disorders like insanity, hysteria, or neurasthenia. In other cases, it may result in a drastic social decline, such as a high-ranking individual being reborn into a lower social status due to the mistreatment of children.
On the same principle, a person who has wealth and power and uses their position to oppress their employees generates very bad karma. The only aspect of the matter that concerns the agents of karma is that the person in such a position has an opportunity to be a helpful influence in the lives of many people. Neglecting or abusing such an opportunity is at their peril.
We now better understand how reincarnation happens from a material perspective. In the following presentation, we will examine reincarnation from the soul’s perspective.