The Earth
THE SPIRITUAL EARTH
- Chapter 50 -
The soul and spirit in a human being
The soul is the receptive organ for the countless ideas of the Prime Source, out of which she came forth like a breath. The soul is the carrier of forms, proportions, and practices. All these have been laid down in her in the smallest of envelopes.
The proper measure of all of these, comprised in one being, makes up a complete human soul. Since the soul consists of many different particles of intelligence, she is a compound body as such, and therefore may be divided into her parts again.
The whole universe is filled with the ideas of the divinity; even in a single monad all can be found - on the smallest of scales, of course.
Although the spirit is formless, he is yet the one who produces the forms. In other words, not until the forms are produced may the spirit effectively appear in them. Any force or energy, if it is to appear as a force or energy, must provide itself with a counteracting force. Only as a consequence of this point of support may the force express its effects and bring that power to its representation. Therefore the spirit is like the light that, in itself, continues eternally to be light. But it may not appear observable as light as long as there are no objects which it may illuminate. The light emanates continually and consistently, the sun being the best example of this. But without an object the eye cannot perceive its existence. A moonless night has just as much light emanating from the sun as a moonlit night. But in the first instance the light has no object in the ether, and that is why no one sees it, even though it is present. When, however, the moon, as a body, occupies that place during the night, the sunlight is immediately perceptible, because it strikes the moon and illumines it.
You can already recognize the spiritual effect of the light in Nature. On the earth, in the air, and in apparent matter, all forms of existence and development lie motionless together. But as soon as the light appears, the forms that lie together as if dead receive life and assume new forms. Now compare summer with winter, and the light's spiritual activity will not escape you. Now you know what the spirit actually is: he is the light which produces itself out of its own warmth from eternity to eternity, and warmth is like love, and wisdom is like light. Even when a human being possesses ever so complete a soul but has little or no light at all, he will manifest little or no activity in his soul and also in his body.
When, however, light comes into the soul, she becomes active in accordance with the measure of light which is within her. The soul of a feeble-minded human being is just as complete as the soul of a scholar. But the body of this soul is too plump, and allows only little or no light into the soul. The light spark that is placed in the soul cannot flare up, because it is compressed too much by the firm mass of flesh. The soul of a philosopher, however, lets more light through, for the fleshy matter has become looser through much study, and it does not compress the spiritual flame in one point. This is why little or no activity may be found in the first example. Yet in the second instance the individuum will find little or no rest because of too much activity.
Certainly we cannot speak of wisdom when everything becomes light in the soul. Here we can only speak of more or less light. This leads to the conclusion that, without spirit or light, everything is dead, while in the light everything can ardently and effectively develop and perfect itself.
Light in itself has no form, but it creates the forms, and as it forms them it works in them. The forms may be separate or connected, and new forms may be created in great variety. The light cannot be separated; instead it penetrates everything that is capable of receiving light. That which is not capable of receiving light remains within itself dark and dead.
It should be obvious that we are speaking here about the eternal, uniform light, which alone determines life; we are not speaking of the light of lightning or anger, which provides doubtful illumination for just a few moments. This light is like the light of Hell. There are also such flare-ups in Hell, but each of them is followed by a much greater darkness.
Since we now know sufficiently the difference between the soul and the spirit, we should easily comprehend that the Earth, in her firmness, belongs to Satan's captured soul, while her spirit is held and chained in indestructible fetters.