< The Triple Soul (continued from page 4-215) >
soul, and the Hebrew retains, as it so often does, the more physical meaning.
“Ru-akh, in Egyptian, is literally the spirit of the mouth; the Ru, mouth, being a symbol of utterance. The mouth is synonymous with wisdom in both Egyptian and Hebrew. So interpreted, the Ru-akh is the spirit of wisdom.
“Hence the Rukhi are the wise men, the Magii, pure spirits, the knowers, the intelligent beings. In this instance, then, the Ruach is the spirit of wisdom supposed to come with manhood, but dependent upon purity; the rekhi are the pure wise spirits.
“The Mage is called a Rekh-khet; Khet is to include, clasp, shut, and seal; Rekh, the spirit of wisdom.
“Then Rukhi became the name for pure spirit in Egyptian eschatology. One delineation of this is the Phoenix, the type of transformation.
“In the Ritual the doctrine is reapplied. I am the soul in its two halves. The deceased goes into tattu (the region of establishing), he finds the soul of the sun there. One and the other are united. He is transformed into his soul from its two halves, who are Horus the sustainer of his father, and Horus who dwells in the shrine (cb. 17). The latter was the child of the mother, the soul in its two halves is the soul of Shu and the soul of Tefnu, the male and female soul. Again, (I am the Horus of Kam-Ka, issue of the red one, supporter of his father, snatched from the waters of his mother’ (ch. 138). This is said by the deceased who uses the Solar and physical imagery. The two halves of the soul are the two truths of Egypt; these are symbolised by two feathers Mau and Shu, light and shade. How only in one place do those two feathers become three.
“That is at the point where the sun was annually reborn as the son. This is the trinity proper of father, mother, and child. The soul in its two halves following in the wake of the sun passes through the place of new birth, and here it receives the reserved soul which is in the gift of Atum (ch. 15). It is; spiritualised under the name of Akh’ (ch. 128). And as the place is on the horizon where the sun emerges, called the horizon of the resurrection, and as the horizon is the Ru, the triple soul transformed into (or by) the Ru-akh is the Rukh, a pure wise spirit, including the trinity of truths, and becomes the perfect soul revivified forever. The transactions occur in spirit world, the existence of the soul is assumed, but as some children are born dead it was possibly feared that some might not pass through the Meskhen, the womb of the Great Mother, their spiritual imagery being strictly natural. With regard to the human soul and body the language of the Ritual is very express. There was a natural body and a spiritual body. The soul and corpse are often referred to. On the sarcophagi, one of which is in London, are pictures of the soul issuing from the body: it is painted blue, the celestial colour, whilst the corpse is painted red, the Adamic colour of the Flesh-man.*
“And now for the misrendering of the primitive doctrine! The triple soul enters the man, say the Rabbins, at distinct periods; the Nephesh first, at the birth, and at the age of thirteen years and one day, if his deeds be right, he becomes possessed of the Ruach; and if his deeds continue to be right the Neshma enters into him in his twentieth year. But, if his deeds be evil the Hephesh and Ruach remain without the Neshma.
“Sometimes the man is only worthy of the Nephesh, and he continues without the Ruach and Heshma; then the Ruach and Neshma remain concealed in a place known only to God and the holy Augels. † This is the false myth, the shadow of the true. This is the result of theologising and theosophising. As we see in the true myth of the Genesis, the Heshma was in the beginning, the first forming principle; the Rabbins have given quite another value, significance, and time to its entrance into man. They are using their misinterpreted Mythology for the foundations of Theology and Eschatology, whereby they create a false kind of Spiritualism, which is entirely unverifiable, and without meaning, apart from the actual truths, on which the myth rests and remains true for ever. They have sought to attain the spiritual by inverting the natural.
The pyramid of the old builders was so constructed as to be climbable. This has been reversed, and only presents a, broad basis in the air, without the means of mounting to stand upon it.”
I may add to the foregoing extract the fact that, according to this philosophising, there is no need to stop at the triple soul; for, just as they followed the Triad of mythology here, so they added two more parts—the Chaja and Jechida—and founded a five-fold soul; and following still further in the wake of the myths, they adopted the system of the eight great gods of Egypt, and formulated an octagonal soul, or an ogdoad and ark-full of souls.
But my point is that the potential immortality of. Man is not based on any spiritual revelation whatever, but is solely an inference from physiological and astronomical facts; one of the many abstractions with which we have been so long pestered in theology, and now it would seem are to be in Spiritualism. But as mythology is not based upon Spiritualism we cannot afford to have mythology read into Spiritualism. The wisdom of the East so-called, has to be interpreted by an appeal to first principles; these which were once expounded in the mysteries have to be set forth without mystery before that wisdom can be of service to Spiritualists, or we can distinguish between the primary meaning and the secondary or twenty-secondary application.
This origin and constitution of the dual soul and addition of the third soul at the period of puberty naturally left all children without the genuine soul—the soul that had power to perpetuate itself-—the child could not procreate, ergo, did not possess the eternal soul. Hence the belief that children had no souls, or that they wandered about as elementaries, for this supposed new doctrine of elementary souls is as old as Faeryology, and belongs to it.
Bertha, the German goddess, has a vast retinue of these elementaries in her train of still-born and unbaptized children, who act in her special service as elementaries (see Grimm’s Mythology). I could fill a book with these things—they are a part of my subject. Upon this primeval constitution of the soul the rite of baptism and conferring a name is founded. The doctrine is universal of conferring the third soul by proxy. Hence the god-father and god-mother, or the father-god and mother-god of earlier beliefs who represent the adult creative source. Hence, also, the power falsely claimed by the Ghurch to save the souls of children by baptismal grace, in response to the false belief that children would otherwise be lost. These elementaries wandered about as elves wanting a name, for to confer a name is synonymous with constituting a person—this is illustrated by the Scotch story. An “unchristened wean” was seen wandering about at Whittingham, in Scotland, who could not obtain foothold in the other world, being minus in the matter of a third soul. Many saw, but none dare speak to it, for fear of having to give up their third soul to it. One night, however, a drunken man addressed the elementary, “How’s a’ wi’ ye the morn’s morn, Short Hoggers?” (Short stockings without feet. He had walked so long.)
And the elementary, having a name conferred, cried joyfully, “Oh, weel’s me noo, I’ve gotten a name. They ca’me Short Hoggers o’ Whittingham!” and vanished—having got his third soul.
What will be the effect of this sort of thing being foisted upon Spiritualism and the Spiritualists—the most fervent of people in pursuing any red herring trailed across the scent?
Villa Bordighiera, New Southgate, N.
* I quote the Egyptians, having spent six years in collecting the proofs that in these things there is one origin for all, and that is Egyptian.
† Sepher Gilgulim, f. 40, e. 1. Stehelin, v. 2, pp. 247—8
The Good Samaritan
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Editor's notes
- ↑ The Good Samaritan by unknown author