In the final presentation on the soul and the monad, we will clarify the relationship between the soul and the monad. In the average person, the Monad has little communication with the soul and the personality, although both of these are somehow expressions of the monad. Just as it is evolution for the personality to learn to express the soul more fully, so it is evolution for the soul to learn to express the Monad more fully. And just as the soul in time learns to control and dominate the personality, so the Monad, in turn, learns to dominate the soul.
This diagram is a rough illustration of the relationship between Monad, Soul, and Personality and the stages by which these three gradually come more and more into touch with one another. On the left-hand side of the diagram, we see the soul represented as very small: it is just a baby soul, complete but small and undeveloped. The personality is also slender, indicating its primitive condition. As evolution proceeds, the personality gradually widens out until, eventually, it becomes equilateral, indicating that it is well-developed, all-round, and symmetrical. Also, it will be observed that the link between the personality and the soul, at first very narrow, has widened out until it becomes almost as wide as the full width of the personality.
While all of this has been happening, the soul has been steadily growing, and the connection between the soul and the Monad has been steadily increasing.
On the right-hand side of the diagram, there is a strong and wide connection between the Monad and Soul. Through this strong connection, the Soul is fully developed and has complete control over a well-developed personality.
Eventually, the time will come when the personality and soul merge into one, and similarly, the Monad and soul also become one. This is the unification of the soul with the Monad. When this is achieved, the individual has fulfilled the purpose of their descent into matter and has become the Superman, the Adept, a 45-Self.
This diagram is an attempt to illustrate six points, which we will summarise and then expand upon:
- The complete alignment, or unification of Monad, Soul and Personality
- The consequent one centre of consciousness
- The one life flowing through all three
- The limitation imposed upon the manifestations of the one life by the outline barriers of Personality, Soul and Monad.
- The fact that Personality, Soul and even Monad are but mayavic or illusory veils imposed upon the Divine Life
- The fact that the One Life itself is unlimited and universal, as indicated by the circularity of the aura of radiation, thus transcending its expressions through Monad, Soul and Personality. “With one portion of Myself, I manifest, but I remain”.
The diagram illustrates the concept of perfect alignment between the Monad, Soul, and Personality, creating an “at-one-ment.” All three manifestations are permeated by the same life, but the Personality can express less of this life than the Soul, and the Soul can express less than the Monad due to their respective sizes and constitutions.
Even the Monad cannot confine or fully express the divine life that extends beyond the veil of separative matter. When this alignment is achieved, the entity enters into its real life, which marks the beginning of the true life of the spirit. Humanity represents the culmination of the evolutionary process, and upon leaving this stage, individuals enter the life of the glorified Spirit, the life of the Christ.
This life is described as having a glory and splendour beyond comparison and comprehension. The attainment of this state is an absolute certainty for each individual, and while selfish actions or resistance to evolution may delay progress, they cannot ultimately prevent it.
The relationship between the Monad and the soul closely resembles the relationship between the soul and the personality. Just as the soul has been the guiding force of the personality for a long time, there comes a point when the soul itself becomes a vessel, guided by the fully active and awakened Monad. All the experiences and qualities the soul develops are absorbed by the Monad, leading to a much fuller realisation than the soul could achieve alone.
The question arises: Does the Monad ever directly influence the personality of an ordinary person? This kind of interference is rare. The soul is striving to gain complete control of the personality on behalf of the Monad, but until this goal is fully realised, the Monad may feel that it’s not the right time to intervene from its level. However, when the soul starts to succeed in managing its lower aspects, the Monad may choose to intervene; who knows?
In the course of investigating thousands of human incarnations, traces of such intervention by the monad were found in only a few instances. The most prominent instance is given in the twenty-ninth life of Alcyone, when he pledged himself to Lord Buddha to devote future lives to attaining Buddhahood in order to help humanity.
This promise is for the far-distant future, so it was obvious that the personality through which it was given could not keep it. Investigation revealed that even the soul, though full of enthusiasm, was being impelled by a mightier force from within, which he could not have resisted even if he had wanted to. Following the clue further, it was found that the impelling force unmistakably came from the Monad. He had decided and registered his decision. His will, working through the soul, will clearly have no difficulty in bringing all future personalities into harmony with his great intention.
Other examples of the same phenomenon were found. Certain Monads had already responded to the call of the higher Authorities and had decided that their representative personalities should assist in the work of the Sixth Root Race in California, some hundreds of years hence. Because of that decision, nothing that these personalities might do during the intervening time could possibly interfere with the carrying out of that decision.
The compelling force is thus not from without but from within, from the real person themself. When the Monad has decided, the thing will be done, and it is well for the personality to yield gracefully and readily, recognising the voice from above and cooperating gladly. If it does not do this, then it will lay up for itself much useless suffering. It is always the person themself who is doing this thing, and the person, in the personality, has to realise that the soul itself, and it has for the moment to take it for granted that the Monad is still more itself—the final and greatest expression of itself.
What is known as the great Company of Servers affords another instance; the Servers are a type apart, to which Monads seem to be attached from the beginning, however long it may take for the type to be expressed in the outer consciousness. In a certain sense, it is a kind of predestination, the Monad having taken the resolve. These servers were charted in diagrams in the series on Chains, Rounds and Globes. In a perfectly ordered universe where chance has no place, the process of individualisation in the animal kingdom was likely predetermined by the Monad, either for or by itself, in preparation for its future role in the great work.
There will come a time when we will all be part of the great Heavenly Man, not merely as a myth or symbol but as a real and vivid reality, as attested by certain investigators. This celestial envelope has many members, each with its own function to fulfil, and the living cells that will form part of them require diverse experiences for preparation. It is possible that since the beginning of evolution, the parts have been chosen. Each Monad has its destined path of evolution, and its freedom of action is mainly concerned with the speed at which it moves along that path.
In the Celebration of the Holy Eucharist, there is a lot of symbolism related to the Monad, the Soul, and the Personality. Firstly, the Host represents God the Father and the indivisible Deity. The Wine symbolises God the Son, whose life is poured into the chalice of material form. The Water represents God the Holy Ghost, the Spirit symbolised by water and who brooded over the face of the waters.
In terms of the Deity in humanity, the Host signifies the Monad, the unseen cause of all. The paten, a plate, typically made from gold or silver, represents the Triple Atma or Spirit through which the Monad acts on matter. The Wine indicates the individuality poured into the chalice of the causal envelope, while the Water represents the intimately mixed personality.
Regarding the effect of Communion on the communicant, the force of the Host primarily affects whatever represents the direct action of the Monad. The force of the Chalice is more related to the soul, and the Wine has a powerful force on the higher emotional levels. The Water sends out etheric vibrations.
When the priest makes three crosses with the Host over the Chalice, he strongly wills the influence from the Monadic level to descend into the soul in its threefold manifestation of Atma, Buddhi, and Manas. Then, as he makes two crosses between the Chalice and his own breast, he draws that influence into his own mental and emotional bodies so that it may radiate fully upon his people.
This symbolises the earlier stages of evolution, when the Monad hovers over his lower manifestations, brooding over them and acting upon them but never touching them. The priest holds the Host above the Chalice yet never touches the one with the other until the appointed time has come.
When the priest drops the fragment of the Host into the Chalice, he signifies the descent of a ray of the Monad into the soul. Now I wonder how many of the faithful, let alone the officiating priest themselves, realised this is what was being symbolised during their church services.
Hylozoics is predicated on the existence of the monad. In this and the previous two presentations, an effort has been made to try and relate who and what we truly are, the monad, to what we hope to be, the soul and what we currently are, the personality.
We have talked a lot about the first initiation (i3). In the following presentation, we will go on to look at the second and higher initiations.