SOUL

MANY PEOPLE who have absorbed my Message very well are nevertheless not yet quite clear about the expression “soul”!

But it is necessary to be clear about this too!

It is just about the soul that mankind have always talked much too much, thus forming an everyday picture which in its superficiality has become a common conception containing nothing whatever!

Whenever the word “soul” is mentioned it rises before man like a discolored and well-thumbed painting.

Faded and devoid of meaning, it passes quietly by them.

It can tell the individual nothing because it has been used too much!

But just because it can no longer say anything it was gladly appropriated by those people who, with meaningless eloquence, wish to let their false light shine on fields that could not be opened to human knowledge because the human being of today keeps himself closed to them.

Those very people also fall into this category who pretend to deal seriously with the subject.

They keep themselves closed to it on account of their wrong way of seeking that is no seeking, because they approach such work with preconceived and much too narrowly limited opinions, which work they want to press into the interpretation of the earthbound intellect, whereas the intellect can never attain to the possibility of absorbing anything thereof of its own accord.

Give a magnifying glass which has been ground for short-sightedness to a far-sighted eye … you will see that the eye cannot recognize anything with it!

It is the same with the activity of these seeking ones whose work is based on erroneous principles from the start.

If they can find anything at all it will only appear blurred and distorted, and in no case will it correspond with the facts!

And the expression “soul” was also pushed into this seemingly obscure pool of conceptions, which appeared always distorted for lack of sufficient support, but it was rendered in such a way as if based on firm knowledge.

This was dared because each one said to himself that in any case there was nobody who could refute this assertion!

However, all this has become so deep-rooted that nobody now wants to relinquish it, because an unstable and unlimited picture presents itself ever again at mention of the word “soul”.

Man probably imagines that he cannot so easily go astray if he leaves as extensive a picture as possible instead of drawing a strict boundary.

But that which is extensive does not at the same time convey anything definite; it is difficult to survey, if not vague and indistinct, as in this case.

It does not give you anything, because it is not right.

For this reason I once again wish to explain in clear words what soul actually is, so that you will at last see it absolutely clearly and no longer vaguely make use of expressions, the true meaning of which you really do not know.

The fact that people talked so much about the soul was also due to the spirit of man not bestirring itself sufficiently to show that it also exists.

That people always spoke of their soul only, and preferred to imagine the spirit as a product of the earthbound intellect, was really the best and most striking evidence of the true and sad condition of all mankind of the present time!

The soul was considered the innermost and that was all, because the spirit indeed is asleep, or at least much too weak and indolent in order to make itself noticeable as such.

For this reason, with apparent justification, it played a subordinate role.

It, the spirit which is really everything, and also the only thing that really lives within man or, better said, that should live but which alas sleeps!

From many well-known designations the fact can be quite clearly seen that the spirit had to content itself with a subordinate role.

For example, man thinks about spirits in the first place as ghosts, and says they “haunt” this or that.

Wherever the expression “spirit” (ghost) is used in ordinary conversation there is always something associated with it which is either unwelcome and which one would rather avoid, or which is a little doubtful, not quite clean or even malicious; in short, something that manifests and takes effect in an inferior manner, except when the term “spirit” is meant to relate to the intellect.

In such cases where the expression is used in connection with the intellect it even assumes a kind of respect.

So badly distorted is the pseudo-knowledge in these fields!

You only need to consider these two expressions by interpreting them according to present conceptions: Spiritualized (intellectualized) and soulful!

According to the old habit you will also here instinctively place the expression “spiritualized” (intellectualized) closer to earthly, colder activity, i.e., to masculine activity, especially to intellectual knowledge, and you will intuitively sense the expression “soulful” as being more womanly, warmer, more exalted, but at the same time also more vague, not to be bound in words, and as being less earthly.

In other words: Of greater intensity, but indefinite, and therefore without strict boundaries, being more unearthly.

Just try it, you are sure to find the confirmation within yourselves!

These are the fruits of men’s opinions, which were so wrong and bound to bring wrong conceptions, because the spirit’s connection with its spiritual home had been cut off, and consequently it was also cut off from the supplies of power from the Light.

It was bound to become stunted and also forgotten, because here on earth it remained immured in the physical bodies, and thus as a matter of course all the opinions were also bound to change correspondingly.

A person who disappears in lifelong imprisonment is soon forgotten by the public, while all those who did not at one time live in his immediate vicinity know nothing about him whatever.

It is the same with the spirit during its captivity on earth!

However, you already know through the Message that it is this spirit which alone turns man into a human being – that man can only become a human being through the spirit!

This again proves that all those creatures on earth today who keep their spirit imprisoned cannot be regarded by the Light as human beings either!

The animal has nothing of the spirit, therefore it can never become a human being.

And that man who buries his spirit and does not let it work, which is just what makes him a human being, is in reality no human being!

At this point we arrive at a fact which has so far been observed too little: I say that it is the spirit which stamps a man as a human being, which makes him one.

The expression “to make a human being” contains the hint that only through its activity does the spirit form the creature into a human being!

Therefore to carry the spirit within does not suffice to be a human being, for a creature does not become a human being unless it allows the spirit as such to work within!

Take this as a basis for your life on earth!

Take this as a basic conception for your future life here on earth!

It will then become evident of its own accord outside the coarse World of Matter as soon as you no longer wear your physical body.

But whoever allows his spirit to work within himself as such will never again be able to let the Darkness arise anew, nor would he let himself be caught by the Darkness.

You were allowed to recognize, and you must now also see the end to which everything leads when the spirit within men cannot come to activity, because it is gagged and kept away from any supply of power from the All-Holy Light of God!

Just as only he who allows the spirit to work within himself is considered a human being by the Light, so shall it also become on this earth!

That is the foundation for ascent and for peace!

For whoever allows the spirit to come to activity within himself can only walk on the path to the Light.

This will ennoble and uplift him ever more, so that finally wherever he goes he will spread blessing around him!

Now I wish to repeat what the soul is, so that you will drop all the old opinions and henceforward have a firm support in this matter!

It is best if you first of all tell yourselves that before all the gross material creatures on earth it is the spirit that makes man a human being.

But we may equally well and justifiably declare that the spirit is the real human being, which must develop in various cloaks from the germ to completion, because it always carries the urge to do so within itself.

The outermost point of its development (which as being farthest away from the Light is also that point where the spirit under the pressure of the heaviest, densest cloak must develop its own volition to the greatest strength, whereby it can and also must become aglow to enable it to ascend closer to the Light again) in Ephesus is the gross material substance of this earth.

Therewith the sojourn on earth becomes the turning-point of all the wanderings!

Thus it is especially important!

But it was just here on earth that the spirit was fettered and walled-in by men themselves through the wrong volition under the influence of the creeping Darkness.

Thus at the very place where it was meant to achieve the most resplendent radiance through the most intense and strong activity, the spirit was compelled to inactivity from the very outset, which brought in its train the failure of mankind.

Therefore the activity of the Darkness is most intense at this turning point which is so important for the human spirit, and consequently the battle is fought out here.

The end of the struggle must bring the complete defeat and destruction of Darkness if humanity on earth is ever again to be helped so that they will not become utterly lost. —

Thus the Darkness has always been most actively astir here on earth, because it is here that the turning-point of the wanderings of the human spirit is formed; and secondly, because it was easiest for the Darkness to interfere just here, as here man is furthest away from the starting point of the helping power of the Light, and can therefore become more easily susceptible to other influences.

Nevertheless this is no excuse for the falling human spirit; for he only needed to will through honest prayer in order to receive a pure connection with the Power of the Light immediately.

Besides, on account of its density, his physical body in particular gives him a special protection against influences of another nature than those which he himself seeks to bring along through his wishes.

However, you already know all this through the Message, if you wish to find it therein!

Therefore think of the spirit as being the real essence of man, as the core wearing many cloaks for the purpose of development and unfolding its inherent strength, which core must rise to the most severe test through the physical body in order to attain to victorious perfection.

These ever-increasing loading tests, however, are through their simultaneous reciprocal effect also the furthering stages of development, the earth thereby being the outermost plane for the turning.

Thus let us confidently assert that the spirit is the actual human being, all else being only the cloaks.

By wearing them the spirit becomes strong, and the consequent compulsion to bestir itself ever more increases its glowing.

The glow into which the spirit is thus transposed does not die down when the cloaks are laid aside, but raises the spirit and leads it upwards into the Spiritual Realm.

Just through being forced to bestir itself under the weight of its cloaks the spirit finally grows so strong that it can bear the stronger pressure in the Spiritual Realm and remain conscious, something it was unable to do as a spirit-germ.

Such is the course of its development which took place for the sake of the spirit.

The cloaks themselves are to be considered nothing but the means towards the end.

Therefore nothing changes when man on earth lays aside his physical body.

He is still the same human being, only without the physical cloak, with which there also remains the so-called astral covering necessary for forming the gross material earthly body, and which originates from medium gross matter.

As soon as the heavy earthly body together with the astral body has fallen away the spirit remains clad in the more delicate cloaks only.

In this condition the spirit is called “the soul” in contradistinction to the earthman of flesh and blood!

In his further ascent the human being also gradually lays aside all the other cloaks, until finally he only keeps the spirit body with a spiritual cloak, and in this way enters the Spiritual Realm as a spirit without any cloaks of other species.

This is a natural happening because then no alien cloak can keep him back any longer, and consequently he must in the natural course of things be uplifted through the species of his own nature.

Therefore this is the difference which very often causes you difficulty in your desire to understand, because you had no clarity and thus the conception of it remained vague.

In reality only the spirit comes into question with a human being.

All the other designations depend purely on the cloaks he wears.

The spirit is everything, it is the essence, thus the human being.

If together with the other cloaks he also wears the earthly cloak he is called earthman; when he lays aside his earthly cloak he is considered by earthman as soul; when he also lays aside these delicate cloaks he remains spirit alone, which he always has been in his species.

Thus the various designations are merely adjusted to the species of the cloaks, which could themselves be nothing without the spirit, which glows through them.

It is something other with animals; for they have within themselves something animistic as soul, the nature of which men do not possess!

Perhaps so many errors arose through men thinking that animals also have a soul which permits them to act.

For this reason they think that, since man has spirit in addition, spirit and soul should be something separate and perhaps even able to work separately.

But this is wrong, for man has nothing of the species of the animal soul within himself.

With man it is the spirit alone which glows through all the cloaks, even when it is walled-in and bound.

When the spirit is fettered through the intellect the animating warmth of the spirit is directed into wrong channels, which the un-perverted spirit would never itself choose if left a free hand.

However, the Message gives clear information about all the distortions and faults of men, especially about how man has to think and to act if he wishes to reach the Luminous Heights.

Today it is only a matter of clarifying once more the expression “soul”, so that false thinking about it may come to an end.

The best for human beings would be if I would now proceed one step further in this, and tell you that only the animal has a soul that guides it.

Man, however, has spirit!

Therewith the difference is precisely designated and in the right manner.

If up till now I have still used the expression “soul” it was only because it is so deeply rooted within you that you cannot so quickly give it up!

Now, however, I can see that it will leave nothing but errors unless I make a sharp cut of separation in this matter.

Therefore as a foundation impress firmly upon your minds: The animal has soul, but man has spirit!

In this way it is correct, although it now appears strange to you because you have often praised the soul.

But, believe me, it is only being tied to the known expression which gives an uplifting feeling when you hear the word soul, as a consequence of the songs which you always sought to weave around the term “soul”.

Now praise the spirit instead, and soon this expression will rise brilliantly before you, much clearer still and purer than the expression “soul” could ever give it to you!

Accustom yourselves to it, and then you will also have advanced one step further in the knowledge leading to the Truth!

However, it is solely as the foundation of your thinking that you shall now carry this difference knowingly within you.

Besides this you may continue to retain the expression “soul” also for man, because otherwise it would be very difficult for you to keep the necessary steps of development properly separated.

The soul is the spirit which has already been severed from the World of Gross Matter and which retains both ethereal and animistic cloaks.

For your conception the spirit must remain soul until it lays aside the last cloak when, being nothing but spiritual, it is able to enter the Spiritual Realm.

If you carry the knowledge within you in this way, then the expression soul may also be appropriated and retained for men.

It is best if you form the development of the spirit-germ into these three sections: Earthman – human soul – human spirit!

As long as you have the right conception thereof let it go at that, but otherwise it would not be advisable, because really the animal alone possesses a “soul” in the truest sense.

A soul which is something for itself alone!

Besides his spirit, however, man has no soul which is independent as such.

However, in connection with the human being you cannot very well state in place of soul: The spirit with cloaks, and just as little the veiled spirit, or later on the spirit without cloaks, the unveiled spirit.

This would actually be right, but it is too involved for the purpose of forming a conception!

Therefore we want to retain the former expression, as Jesus also did when He spoke of the soul.

You will now understand even better His reference to the necessity for the soul to sever itself; for to sever the soul means nothing else than to lay aside the still existing cloaks holding back the spirit, thereby severing the latter from their heaviness and freeing it for further ascent.

But Jesus could not speak to the earthmen of that time in such an intellectually adapted manner.

He had to express Himself more simply and thus retain the customary way.

It may remain in this way even today as long as you only know the precise facts!

Engrave it upon your minds: The animal has a soul, but man has spirit!

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