Understanding the Spirit-Soul-Body
There are many ways to describe and understand the spiritual journey, the spiritual hierarchy and the many aspects of ourselves. Ultimately, we are spiritual beings with many different spiritual aspects. For example, we have a spirit aspect, a soul aspect and a physical body aspect. We are multidimensional in nature.
During peak experiences it is sometimes possible to transcend upwards to levels where we have feelings of broader oneness, but this is transitory and is not our full nature. Furthermore, when we die we do not enter a state of oneness, but rather our spirit body and consciousness simply continues as it is.
It is possible to experience different aspects of ourselves. Some mystics have been able to enter into their soul to an extent where past lives have become available to experience and re-live. In one interesting near death experience, the experiencer simultaneously experienced both her human-level spirit body and a higher more disembodied spirit body – but in both cases felt like her.
It is very hard to put together a single overview of the spiritual hierarchies and our spiritual nature as we do not fully know it and there are many different accounts. However, the extracts below come from First Spiritual Temple (www.fst.org) and provide a very clear overview. They also have many similarities to the much older Hymn of the Pearl text, which is analysed in more detail here.
1. God - The Creator
God is our Creator. From God came everything, and everything that is, has been, and shall ever be has its roots within God.
God is Spirit, without gender, form, creed, or color. Subsequent to that is that we — the spirits; ALL the spirits — were created in God’s image as Spirit.
As Spirit, we were created and we live in God’s image of Spirit. Thus, within us, we have all the attributes of Divinity; we are all part of God and of God’s Spirit; and we are created of the same stuff as God; but, we are not God.
In the Hymn of the Pearl this would correspond with the original state of being in the Kingdom of the East – spirit in the presence of God.
2. Spirit - The Creation
Your Spirit is that part of you which is the direct creation of God. Your Spirit is the highest aspect of who and what you are. Your Spirit is devoid of all elements of human personality and character. It is a direct fragment of the Divine Life of God.
The Spirit is one with all and understands, fully, that oneness, as well as its oneness with God, its Creator. The Spirit is perfect and universal in all aspects, save one: the Spirit is not God.
The Spirit is the highest expression of universal individuality — an oxymoron which contains, within, many keys to truth — and has its roots in God and exists with all the spirits, within the highest realm of Creation; a realm which we cannot even begin to comprehend, here on the Earth plane.
The Spirit knows everything, because there is no new thing under the sun. Furthermore, there are no evil spirits. The most heinous people to have walked the earth were created in the very same image as were the saints. On that level of life there are neither saints nor sinners; there is only Spirit.
Your Spirit is perfect in all ways. Why? Because God is perfect in all ways. There is only One, greater and more “everything” than your Spirit: God. Remember, we were created in God’s IMAGE as Spirit. Thus, as with any image, we are not the original. God is the original; we are the image. As Spirit, we may be a perfect copy, but we are just that: a copy. As perfect an image as we may
be, we are, nonetheless an image. Thus, there will always be a distinction — ever so subtle though, it may be — between us, the Creation, and God, the Creator.Thus, it is in Heaven, so to speak. But, what about here, on earth, where we live and breath and have our being?
3. Soul - The Liaison and Guide
God created us in His image, as Spirit. In order for us to live the Human experience, we created an image in the likeness of our Spirit. That image is the Soul.
Your Soul is that part of your Spirit which has human character and which links with the human experience.
Because the Spirit is perfect, the Soul is an expression of that perfection, but to a lesser degree. Again, your Soul is an image of your Spirit; just as your Spirit is an image of God. It is the Soul which “descends” from the home of the Spirit and resides within a level of Creation somewhat removed — in terms of vibration — from that of the Spirit. Our Souls are closely linked to the Earth plane and the human experience.
The Soul is sometimes referred to as the “higher self” or that part of us which guides, through intuition and through its connection with the Spirit and with God, our earthly affairs. The Soul has its roots in what we traditionally call the Spirit World, but it dips its feet, so to speak, from time to time, onto the Earth plane.
Within the home of the Soul, spirituality is measured and made manifest not by the comparison of goodness and evil, but by the various degrees of goodness manifested within the multitude of Soul/personality lives. Where there is little goodness, there is little activity and life. As the Soul evolves, through successive incarnations, it becomes beautifully glorified and its aura takes on hues and colors unlike anything we can perceive with our physical eyes.
4. Body/Personality - Hands on Living
In order for the Soul to incarnate onto the Earth plane, it does so through the creation of a physical body… And, with the creation of the body, the Soul creates the personality.
You have one Soul, which is an image of your Spirit, which, in turn, was created in God’s image. But, you have created multiple personalities, living within multiple bodies at various points in history. Each time you decide to reincarnate, you create a new earthly personality and a new earthly body.
Through the personality, we experience so many of life’s difficulties and must determine how we shall respond or react to these challenges. It is the personality, created by the Soul, which incarnates onto the Earth plane in order to experience all that this physical world has to offer. It is the personality which is subject to the limitations of three-dimensional time and space.
Finally, and most importantly, it is the personality, which is susceptible and receptive to negativity and evil. Within the world of the personality — the Earth plane and that level of the Spirit World very closely linked to the Earth plane — both good and evil exist. Here, on the Earth plane, evil is not merely the lack of goodness; it is a very real force unto itself, created and made manifest by the various people who inhabit the earth.
To sum up: Your Spirit is always guided by God. Your Soul is always guided by your Spirit. And your Soul always seeks to guide you and your personality, here on earth, to the degree that it can, in the daily affairs of your life. But, your personality can choose, consciously or unconsciously, either to accept, not to accept, or to reject the wondrous thread of guidance given by your Soul, your Spirit, and God.
The Afterlife
Death accomplishes one thing: it allows us to shed the earthly body and move through the doorway. We do not change dramatically, nor do we become all-knowing and perfect. We are the same person on that side of the threshold as we are on this side of the threshold.
As time passes on, we integrate more and more of our recent earth life and its experiences into the essence of the Spirit. More and more of our family and loved ones join us. And eventually, we move further along the Spirit world, into areas which are more separated, in terms of vibration, from the Earth plane. We can always draw back, closer to the earthly condition, in order to communicate with earthly loved ones or family members. So, we are never separated from our beloved, no matter where they or we may be.
The whole of the Spirit world is comprised of various levels of consciousness and states of vibration. As we move along in the Spirit world, we pass through these various stages. There are even varying levels of vibration within each of the afterlife stages.
Evolution - The Grand Journey
Spiritual evolution can be summed up quite simply: reuniting that which has become fragmented. Spiritual evolution is the process whereby the earthly personality is elevated and brought into at-one-ment with the Soul; while the Soul is elevated and brought into at-one-ment with the Spirit. This process is fueled, guided, and inspired by God and God’s Holy Spirit.
In the Hymn of the Pearl this is the complete journey starting from the Kingdom of Light in the East, with the spirit then connecting down to human experience via the soul and onto Earth via a body and personality. After incarnating obtaining life experience the spiritual aspect of that person is then reunited with the soul, re-connected at a higher level with the spirit and in turn is welcomed back into the Kingdom.
