(9) This Elemental Soul, embodied in elemental substance as stated, is that Something which to the race has been known as the "ghost," "spirit" (in this case the term "spirit" is grossly misused and inappropriate), ethereal body, "fluidic body," "double," "wraith," "doppelganger," etc. It has sometimes been called "the astral body," but this is a mistake, for what the occultists have long known as the true "astral body" is something very different.

(8) The Elemental Soul, clad in the garments of Elemental Matter is the pattern upon which the ordinary physical body is built. It is the "ghost" of the physical body, and persists after the disintegration of the latter. The intelligence or consciousness manifesting in this garment of substance is quite simple and elementary, and performs merely the office of providing and sustaining a pattern or form upon which the ordinary physical body is built.

(10) This Elementary Soul survives the dissolution of the physical body of the individual to which it belonged, and under certain conditions and circumstances it may become visible to living persons as the "ghost" of the deceased person. When the Elementary Soul has been "sloughed off" by the higher vehicles of the Soul (after the physical "death"), and has also been released by the partial or complete disintegration of the physical body, it is really but a "shell" having for form and shape of the latter, and is almost lifeless, although held together by the cohesive forces of the fast-dying vibrations. In such cases it possesses neither intelligence nor consciousness beyond that concerned in holding its substance together and to all intents and purposes can be regarded as nothing more than a mass of cloudy vapor assuming the form of a human being , and destined to become speedily disintegrated on its own plane.

(17) The Rosicrucian Teaching is that the World Soul is not a soul lacking a body, but that, on the contrary, it is clothed in the garments of the most tenuous and ethereal substance—a substance as much finer and more ethereal than the Ether of Space, of the material scientists, as the latter is much finer and more ethereal than the hardest steel or granite. From this ethereal substance the World Soul weaves bodies for its manifestations, even the densest forms of matter—and even the tenuous bodily form of the highest forms of life, far removed from our comparatively gross earth-plane.

(27) If the earth transmits the generative soul to growing things- or retains it while allowing a vestige of it to constitute the vegetal principle in them- at once the earth is ensouled, as our flesh is, and any generative power possessed by the plant world is of its bestowing: this phase of the soul is immanent in the body of the growing thing, and transmits to it that better element by which it differs from the broken off part no longer a thing of growth but a mere lump of material.

But does the entire body of the earth similarly receive anything from the soul?

Yes: for we must recognize that earthly material broken off from the main body differs from the same remaining continuously attached; thus stones increase as long as they are embedded, and, from the moment they are separated, stop at the size attained.

We must conclude, then, that every part and member of the earth carries its vestige of this principle of growth, an under-phase of that entire principle which belongs not to this or that member but to the earth as a whole: next in order is the nature , concerned with sensation, this not interfused but in contact from above: then the higher soul and the Intellectual-Principle, constituting together the being known as Hestia and Demeter - a nomenclature indicating the human intuition of these truths, asserted in the attribution of a divine name and nature.

(6) Another low element in the human aura is that which may be called the auric element of "vital energy." This element is perceived by clairvoyants as having a very faint pinkish glow, sometimes filled with tiny sparks of vital magnetism if the person be very magnetic. It is occasionally visible to persons lacking clairvoyant vision, and appears to them in the form of vibrating air, similar to the heated air arising from a field on a very warm day, or from a heated stove.

(13) The moment of "death" arriving for the person, the soul sloughs off the ordinary physical body, and clad in the garments of the Elemental Soul it leaves the scene of the physical body. At first, however, the separation is not complete, for the Elemental Soul is still attached to the physical body by a thin slender thread or cord, which finally breaks and allows the soul to proceed on its way. The garments of the Elemental Soul are of course, in a sense, "physical" just as truly as were the garments of the visible body which were just cast off by the soul. In these new garments, however, the person is invisible to the ordinary sight of men, and except in the case of clairvoyants its presence cannot be detected.

(20) It may be interesting to take a hasty glance at the presence of these three forms of manifestation, as follows: Substance . The ancient occult teaching that "Everything has body" seems to be fully corroborated by all subsequent investigation. But it must be noted that by " substance" or "body" is not necessarily meant what modern science calls "matter," for the latter is merely one form or phase of " substance" or "body." Matter, as we know it, has a great range of manifestation, within the limits of which are found the hardest granite or steel or diamond, as well as the finest and most subtle and tenuous gases. The discovery by science of what it calls "radiant matter" opens out a field to science previously tilled only by the occultists and metaphysicians. Such matter is really not "matter" at all, but "super-matter," and a higher form of "substance" or "body," But, known to the occultists, there are forms of "substance" or "body" as much finer and rarer than radiant matter as the latter is rarer and finer than the granite, steel, or diamond. Even the hypothetical Ether of science is gross by comparison with some of the forms and phases of "substance" or "body" known to the occultists and alchemists. As a writer has said: 'The field of matter, as known to science, as compared with the real extent of the Principle of Substance, is as no more than a hair-line drawn across a yard-stick." The occult teachings inform us that there are living beings in existence on other planes whose bodies are composed of substance so fine and subtle that the term "ethereal" is the only one to be even fairly adequate to be employed in connection with them. Remember, the occult teaching is that "Everything has substance or body." And "everything" includes All-that-is-Manifest.

(5) The lowest element in the human aura is that which occultists call the "physical emanation," which is almost colorless, and which is marked by minute and thin "streaks" or bristle-like marks standing out from the body like bristles on a brush. When the person is in good health these "bristles" stand out stiffly, while when the person is in poor health or is suffering from impaired vitality they droop like the soft hair on the coat of an animal. This element of the aura appears to detach minute particles of itself from the aura as the person moves about, and it is believed that it is by these particles that dogs and other animals are able to track persons—it is this which is the essence of the so-called "scent" followed by the animals mentioned.

(6) The Universal Ether, which is postulated by science without its nature being understood clearly, is held by the Hermetists to be but a higher manifestation of that which is erroneously called matter--that is to say, Matter at a higher degree of vibration--and is called by them "The Ethereal Substance." The Hermetists teach that this Ethereal Substance is of extreme tenuity and elasticity, and pervades universal space, serving as a medium of transmission of waves of vibratory energy, such as heat, light, electricity, magnetism, etc. The Teachings are that The Ethereal Substance is a connecting link between the forms of vibratory energy known as "Matter" on the one hand, and "Energy or Force" on the other; and also that it manifests a degree of vibration, in rate and mode, entirely its own.

(8) When the object reaches a certain rate of vibration its molecules disintegrate, and resolve themselves into the original elements or atoms. Then the atoms, following the Principle of Vibration, are separated into the countless corpuscles of which they are composed. And finally, even the corpuscles disappear and the object may be said to Be composed of The Ethereal Substance. Science does not dare to follow the illustration further, but the Hermetists teach that if the vibrations be continually increased the object would mount up the successive states of manifestation and would in turn manifest the various mental stages, and then on Spiritward, until it would finally re-enter THE ALL, which is Absolute Spirit. The "object," however, would have ceased to be an "object" long before the stage of Ethereal Substance was reached, but otherwise the illustration is correct inasmuch as it shows the effect of constantly increased rates and modes of vibration. It must be remembered, in the above illustration, that at the stages at which the "object" throws off vibrations of light, heat, etc., it is not actually "resolved" into those forms of energy (which are much higher in the scale), but simply that it reaches a degree of vibration in which those forms of energy are liberated, in a degree, from the confining influences of its molecules, atoms and corpuscles, as the case may be. These forms of energy, although much higher in the scale than matter, are imprisoned and confined in the material combinations, by reason of the energies manifesting through, and using material forms, but thus becoming entangled and confined in their creations of material forms, which, to an extent, is true of all creations, the creating force becoming involved in its creation.

(6) Thought-earth is the Heavenly Heart of the middle house (intuition). Spirit-fire is used for effecting, thought-earth for substance, and seed-water for the foundation. Ordinary men make their bodies through thoughts. The body is not only the 7 ft. tall outer body. In the body is the anima. The anima, having produced consciousness, adheres to it. Consciousness depends for its origin on the anima. The anima is feminine (yi i), the substance of consciousness. As long as this consciousness is not interrupted, it continues to beget from generation to generation, and the changes of form of the anima and the transformations of substance are unceasing.

(3) That earth again is the body in man, for in it the vital airs (prânas , which are everything) rest, and do not go beyond.

(11) Whoever has done good in the main, has a power of spirit that is pure and clear when death comes. It passes out by the upper" openings of mouth and nose. The pure and light air-power rises upward and loats up to Heaven and becomes the ive-fold, present shadow-genius, or shadow-spirit. But if, during life, the primordial spirit was used by the conscious spirit for avarice, folly, desire, and lust, and has committed all sorts of sins, then in the moment of death, the power of the spirit is troubled and confused, and the conscious spirit passes, together with the air, through the lower openings to the door of the belly. For if the power of the spirit is turbid and unclean, it crystallizes downward/ sinks down to Hell and becomes a demon. Then not only the primordial spirit loses its nature, but the power and wisdom of the true essence is thereby lessened. Therefore the Master says: If it moves itself, that is not good. If one wants to protect the primordial spirit, one must first not fail "to subjugate the knowing spirit. The way to subjugate it leads through the circulation of the Light. If one puts the circulation of the Light into practice, one must forget both body and heart. The heart must die, the spirit live. When the spirit lives, the breath will begin to circulate in a wonderful way. This is what the Master called the best (5). Then the spirit must be allowed to dive down into the abdomen (solar-plexus). The power then mixes with the spirit, and the spirit unites with the power and becomes crystallized. This is the method of putting the hand to it.

(15) III. The Plant Soul By the term "The Plant Soul," the Rosicrucians seek to indicate the Soul embodied in the Vegetable Cellular Substance of which a very large proportion of the human physical body is composed. Apart from advanced scientists and advanced occultists, few realize how great proportion of the processes of the human and animal body is really vegetable in nature. The growth of bodily tissue, of parts and organs, is distinctively vegetable in character.

(12) Next above the Plane of Ethereal Substance comes the Plane of Energy (A), which comprises the ordinary forms of Energy known to science, its seven sub-planes being, respectively, Heat; Light; Magnetism; Electricity, and Attraction (including Gravitation, Cohesion, Chemical Affinity, etc.) and several other forms of energy indicated by scientific experiments but not as yet named or classified. The Plane of Energy (B) comprises seven subplanes of higher forms of energy not as yet discovered by science, but which have been called "Nature's Finer Forces" and which are called into operation in manifestations of certain forms of mental phenomena, and by which such phenomena becomes possible. The Plane of Energy (C) comprises seven sub-planes of energy so highly organized that it bears many of the characteristics of "life," but which is not recognized by the minds of men on the ordinary plane of development, being available for the use on beings of the Spiritual Plane alone--such energy is unthinkable to ordinary man, and may be considered almost as "the divine power." The beings employing the same are as "gods" compared even to the highest human types known to us.