In our adventures so far, we have discussed the division of the entire Universe into 49 planes of matter. Within our Solar System, which is right at the bottom of this ladder of matter, we find seven planes. Of these seven planes three are particularly important to us, the Physical, the Emotional and the Mental. In the past, I have numbered these planes, 1st, 2nd and 3rd. I wish to correct myself and use in future the notation set out by Henry Laurency and refer to these planes as the 49th, the 48th and the 47th. This hopefully avoids any future confusion between planes and kingdoms. Previously, I would say Humanity was passing through the 4th Kingdom and was on the 3rd plane of matter. If I then referred to the 4th plane of matter, it is easy to confuse this with the 4th Kingdom. By stating that Humanity occupies the 47th plane of matter at its highest level of existence, there is less likely to be any confusion. This clarification may not mean much to you but I will sleep easier at night.
Ok, I have got that off my chest, what else did we discuss? After the planes of matter, there are the Worlds. These are the planes of matter as they exist around our globe and correspond to the envelopes of incarnation of the Planetary Logos. You could say, “our Father, who art in heaven”. This is who that phrase is referring to. What comes next? Well, it is our own envelopes of incarnation, all five of them. This is what I will be discussing in the next series of presentations. If our field of activity extends across three planes of matter, why do we then have five envelopes? The reason as you well know now is that humanity uses two envelopes on the 49th and the 47th planes. These are the physical/etheric (49) and the mental/causal (47).
I have already mentioned this but I wish to reiterate, our five bodies are living beings in their own right. This may seem a strange concept to think of yourself like a jellyfish, made of individual cells that happen to be cooperating for their mutual benefit. Given what I have said, who are we then? We are an ensouling monad that is encroaching of the territory of these beings that go to make up these five envelopes. But fear not, both parties benefit from this arrangement. What is the reason for this partnership evolving in the first place? The reason is that to interact on any plane of matter in the Cosmic Physical Kingdom, we need a virtual reality suit. Now, in the past, I have said that our physical body is a virtual reality suit and the four higher bodies, etheric, emotional, mental and causal, are deemed to be our principal bodies. That is true for the soul residing in the causal envelope. This is not however the case for the monad, which resides in the 43:1 permanent atom at the very highest level of our solar system. Why should this be? Well, just as our physical body is not a principal of our envelopes of incarnation, the whole Cosmic Physical Plane is not a principle for the rest of the Universe. Why does this affect our monad? The reason is that our monad is a single 1-Atom. It is made of the substance that is the finest and most energetic in the Universe. Although it travels as far as the boundary of the 6th Kingdom, that is where it stops. To evolve its consciousness further, it has a triad structure constructed for it by devas. It then projects its consciousness into each permanent atom or molecule within that triadic structure and slowly expands its consciousness. In actuality and this is a really difficult thing to get your head around, the monad never actually ever leaves the 1st plane of matter. This is easier to comprehend if you remember that all higher planes occupy the same space as the lower planes.
Ok, I accept I may have given you a headache, but I felt that this was the best way to understand why to operate within the Solar System, the monad has to use structures that can and do function in the Cosmic Physical Plane. These structures are made out of secondary and tertiary matter, who themselves are monads on their own evolutionary journey. So we have these five envelopes of incarnation that are not ours to own. We share our consciousness with these five envelopes and in sharing interact with the seven subplanes of the Cosmic Physical Plane. The trade-off is that we get to boss these less conscious monads around and they benefit from living in our field of consciousness, which is advanced by their standards. This, by the way, is exactly what happens to us within the body of the Planetary Logos.
The bodies we inhabit are accurately defined as collective beings and they exhibit a collective consciousness of all the matter dwelling within them. Causal, mental and emotional bodies are primarily composed of involutionary secondary matter. We know this matter to be passively conscious and very reactive to our conscious inputs. The physical and etheric bodies are primarily composed of evolutionary tertiary matter. This matter has a rudimentary memory that allows it to learn and perform simple tasks. Let us now look in greater detail at these five bodies.
The Physical Body
The physical body we inhabit is not very different from the primates or lower animals. Science explains the difference between us and them as a function of our DNA. But is this what really differentiates us? Esoterics informs us that the real difference between humans, who inhabit the 4th Kingdom and animals that inhabit the 3rd Kingdom is that we have causal bodies and they do not. The fact that we share 99.5 per cent of the same DNA as a chimpanzee just informs us that we have physical bodies like them.
The physical body we inhabit is the most restrictive state we will ever face. In the past, I have called this a ‘virtual reality suit’ when I should really call it a ‘reality suit’. The body is a device we use to interface with the world. It has little consciousness of its own. Being made of tertiary matter, it is actively conscious but that does not amount to much. When we are not focused in this body, it just sleeps, although sometimes it does develop a mind of its own and goes off sleepwalking. I discuss this in a later presentation.
The physical body is controlled by the etheric body and both of them are controlled by the permanent physical atom (49:1). The function of the etheric body is to activate our physical senses with etheric energy. This energy is electrical and triggers responses within our nerve and brain cells. This electrical energy drives our breathing, circulation, digestion and movement. It is fair to say that the physical body is totally dependant on the etheric envelope and the energy it circulates through the physical body. Think of it as the batteries in the back of an animated toy. Without this energy, the physical body would die.
Health
The human body, as it is currently constituted, has almost reached the end of its biological evolution. The esoteric term used to describe this is to say it has reached its archetypal form. What is there left to do? We need to increase our bodies resistance to disease and ageing. However, this is not a function of the physical body itself but the etheric body and the energy it transfers to the physical body. The physical body is quick to tire and break if we do not take care of it. Even with good care and a good set of genes, we still die.
We know our physical bodies benefit from a healthy lifestyle but so do our subtle bodies as well. Regular exercise, fruits and vegetables, sleep, relaxation, fresh air, moderate sunlight and a positive state of mind all contribute. The flip side of this is that we can harm our physical and subtle bodies by consuming tobacco, alcohol, narcotics, overeating, excess red meat, fat, salt and sugar, artificial sweeteners, sunburn, stress and negative states of mind.
Illness & Disease
I have just described a range of substances and activities that affect our health and the vitality of our physical bodies. However, it is the efficient and effective functioning of our etheric body that actually determines our wellbeing. If etheric energy flows correctly through our physical bodies we are immune from diseases. It should be noted though that only 5th Kingdom monads are invulnerable to disease when within the physical form. An important fact to bear in mind is that 75 per cent of all disease results from uncontrolled consciousness.
Physical symptoms are transferred from imbalances generated in the subtle bodies down into the physical body. As a general rule, it can be considered that 25 per cent of all diseases are due to an imbalance found within the mental body. This can be stress and tension and poorly controlled mental consciousness. This cascades through the emotional and etheric envelopes to finally ground itself in the physical body.
The next body to contribute to our ill health is our emotional body and this can be as high as 50 per cent. A good example of this is a change in society where affluence has led to an epidemic of over-indulging in food and drink. This is occurring mainly because people are compensating for emotional insecurities.
Only 25 per cent of the ill-health found in humanity can be attributed to physical or etheric imbalances. Inadequate diet and poor sanitation are still major problems. Conventional medicine only treats physical symptoms, not the underlying causes which mainly reside in the subtle bodies. We know all too well that drugs often mask symptoms rather than dealing with the issue at hand and can cause harmful side-effects into the bargain. Spiritual healing, when instigated effectively, works by addressing the root cause of the disease. The healing that is occurring is not a direct function of the healer themselves, but the work of healing devas. The name prescribed to the head of this healing order of devas is the Arch Angel Raphael. Remember that name the next time you have a toothache! Spiritual healing is not always effective and this is often linked to the fact that there are the influences of karma and destiny that are governing the outcome of events. Often diseases or afflictions must be endured for karmic reasons, a learning experience or both.
The Etheric Body
Dr. Rupert Sheldrake in ‘A News Science of Life’ postulated that there was an organising field of energy/consciousness and called is a ‘Morphic Field’. According to Sheldrake, these fields contain all the information necessary to shape the living organism. Embryos in the Human and Animal kingdoms, seeds in the Plant Kingdom and Crystals in the Mineral Kingdom rely on these Morphic fields to guide their development. They must therefore exist before the organism or crystals takes a physical form. The Morphic field described by Sheldrake is nothing more or less than the etheric body or energy template. I have often spoken about an etheric template that guides the development of all of creation.
We are only aware of our etheric body when our physical body tingles or our vitality is low. The etheric body itself is a faintly luminous, semi-transparent, blue/grey replica of the physical body. Having said that, it would be more precise to say that the physical body is a replica of the etheric body. The physical body is made from molecules found on the 49:7 to 49:5 subplanes and the etheric in composed of molecules found on the 49:4 to 49:2 physical subplanes.
I have already discussed how the etheric projects an ‘aura’ a few centimetres beyond the physical form. This body has three main functions. It is an energetic template. It is an intermediary between the higher subtle bodies and the physical body. It also performs the function of absorbing prana or chi and distributing this around the physical body. Prana is a fascinating substance that emanates from the physical Sun, however, its real source starts on cosmic planes 36-42. This is the Cosmic Emotional plane. Five kinds of prana periodically vitalise the human body over a two hour period. I discuss the modes of action in the future.
I have spoken about the physical and etheric bodies being a conjoined unit that only completely separates at death. In fact, the etheric body itself is comprised of two halves. The etheric template around which the etheric body forms is designed and constructed prior to conception. It must be in place before the physical body can begin to grow. The etheric template does not form around the monad’s physical atom (49:1), because the monad and the first triad (49:1, 48:1 & 47:4) is still usually sleeping in the causal body. It is for this reason that the etheric body forms in two parts, which unite at birth.
The Etheric template is the energetic blueprint around which the physical body grows. It is constructed by the building devas prior to conception based on karma and destiny. This begs an interesting question if the template is constructed before to conception, how do the egg and sperm know which soul it is about to receive? Ponder that in your sleep. Fortunately or unfortunately for us, the ruling devas know who is about to take up residence. They are guided what exactly to construct. They receive specifications of the blueprint for the ensouling monad from the Lords of Karma. The Lords of Karma are another lifestream which we know precious little about. All we know is that we can not escape their gaze and that they work on the Energy/Motion stream of the Holy Trinity.
The etheric envelope itself is a sphere of etheric matter that forms around the permanent physical atom (49:1) as it descends into incarnation. This part of the etheric can be considered a principal and part of us. The template part of the etheric is not part of us, but like the body we are about to inhabit, it becomes so. Our etheric envelope, like the emotional and mental envelopes, are constructed by devas on our behalf.
Prior to incarnation, all our subtle bodies are just spheres of the subtle matter found on that plane. These envelopes only assume the human shape when they are connected to the etheric template and physical body. Molecules of the emotional body are ‘gravitationally’ attracted to the dense matter of the physical body and match its shape. Incarnating monads may temporarily visit developing physical bodies in later months of the prenatal development phase. They only ensoul at the moment of birth. This is something to consider when emotions start to fly around the abortion debate.
It is your guardian angel that connects your Life Thread, the Sutratma, between your etheric envelope to your etheric template. The two parts consequently merge and form the etheric body. If for whatever reason, the physical body constructed by the building devas, does not meet the requirements of the monad’s next incarnation, the guardian angel does not connect the two parts of the etheric envelope. The physical organism miscarries or is stillborn. This is not a hard and fast rule because there may also be a karmic lesson at play here with the parents. This may be the reason why the pregnancy does not go to term. Rejecting the foetus is a big decision for the guardian angel to make. It now has to quickly find a new body for the monad to ensoul. The process to assemble your successive subtle bodies takes time and effort. It is not a simple matter of just popping back to your causal envelope and going to sleep again if your physical vehicle is not up to scratch. This can obviously be done but what a palaver. The monad clearly has an agenda if it has chosen to incarnate and to do this it needs a suitable and viable ‘reality’ suit.
I think I will leave it there for this presentation and in the next presentation continue with my examination of the physical etheric body.
