Three Bodies, Page 2

We are told by Moses that the Exusiai, the Elohim, whom we have long called “God,” created the heavens and the earth in six days and rested upon the seventh (Gen 1,1-2,4a). In the first essay of Vol. 2, “What is Man?”, “Alpha and Omega > Creation and Apocalypse,” we look at the meaning of these “days.” In Genesis, they relate to the “earth’s” creation, including all of its creatures. But at the outset, in Gen 1,2, we are told that three elements (water, air and fire) are already in etheric existence. We have to go to the prologue of John’s Gospel (Jn 1,1-3) if we are to reach further back to “the Word” that gave rise to these three, to “all things” that were “made.” So, in the larger context, in the fractal nature of creation, there are really to be seven “days” of even larger dimension than those described in Gen 1,1-2,4a. Abraham brought the knowledge of this with him from Mesopotamia. See 12 Brit 555, “week.” From that misty dawn of human earthly, sensate consciousness has come the names of the days of our week. The first larger day was that of Ancient Saturn, the second Ancient Sun, and the third Ancient Moon. And so from time immemorial has humanity called the first three days of its seven-day week Saturday or Saturn’s Day, Sunday or Sun’s Day, and Monday or Moon’s Day. Before human understanding of these things faded, the other days of the week were also known to relate to the larger “days” of creation, reflecting the fact that Earth is in the middle, the fourth Condition of Consciousness, and that three more will follow after the Earth ceases to exist. Tuesday (Mar’s Day, or “Mardi,” as in “Mardi Gras”) describes the first half of Earth evolution. Wednesday describes the second, Mercury’s (or “Woden’s”) Day, the period commencing with the Incarnation of Christ, the “morning star” (Rev 2,28) of Mercury. Thursday is Jupiter’s Day, “Thor’s Day,” and Friday is Venus’ Day. All the seven visible planets of our Earth evolution, with its “time” measurements, are thus reflected in the days of our week. See I-8.

The “Seed” of the physical body was laid down during Ancient Saturn, that of the etheric body during Ancient Sun, and that of the astral body during Ancient Moon. The purpose of Earth evolution, in its entirety, as the fourth larger “day,” is to implant and perfect the human Ego, the “I Am” (see “I AM”). Just as Wisdom was implanted during Ancient Moon, Love is to be implanted during the Earth Condition of Consciousness, i.e., evolution. Thus, as indicated in I-14, the fourfold human being relates to the four Conditions of Consciousness up through Earth evolution as follows:

The coming of Christ enabled the human Ego that embraces and etherically assimilates the “Blood” of Christ to commence the “Perfection” of the three bodies, starting with the astral, then the etheric, and finally the physical. During the balance of Earth evolution, perfection will only be manifested, however, through the Consciousness Soul, the highest one-third of the human soul, or Ego (see I-9).² Manifestation of the higher three states of the sevenfold human being will occur, progressively, as follows:

In the final state, that of atma, the saved of humanity will have returned to the bosom of the Father whence it first departed as the Prodigal Son, but in a condition transformed by all of its long journey into materiality. The human being will thus be ennobled as the tenth Hierarchy, just below the angels as “gods” (Jn 10,34-35; Ps 82,6), but revered by all the Heavenly Host for what it has become. This is when the “three measures of flour” will have been fully “leavened,” for then the human being is back in the “kingdom of heaven” in the fullest sense (Mt 13,33).

When Christian creeds speak of “the resurrection of the body,” they speak of a verity, but one that is hard for humanity to understand today. There is no resurrection of the mineral-physical body. To the extent that the three bodies become purified, their extracts are preserved and reborn as the soul reincarnates. Christ alone, as the “First Born/Fruit” of humanity, has attained to the perfection of all three bodies so that even his physical body was resurrected. But it was not his mineral-physical body!³ It was the body, i.e., the “Form/Phantom,” the seed that was planted in Ancient Saturn. To “see” it, one must attain high status, or be divinely blessed, as some of his apostles were. Even to see his lower bodies requires high spiritual vision. The two who appeared in “dazzling apparel” at the tomb in Luke’s Gospel were Christ’s etheric and astral bodies (Lk 24,4; Jn 20,12).

The physical body, in its highest sense, is invisible. It is like the pattern by which the mineral-physical body is built—rather like the plans conceived by an architect. The architectural activity actually occurs in the journey between death and rebirth, based upon karmic necessity. See I-33. Later, the term “Form/Phantom” will be addressed. This is the pattern (cf. Heb 8,5; Col 2,17; Ex 25,40). Nothing exists within our sensate world save that it is first designed according to such a pattern in the spiritual world (Jn 1,3). The initiate, prophet or “Seer” can observe these patterns. Normal humanity, in its present state, cannot. Cf. Flatland (FLd).

The etheric body is also known as the life body because it is the fashioner and healer of the physical body, and when it departs from the physical body, then the laws of life cease to apply and those of the mineral world take over. The etheric body does not depart from the physical during human life. When it does depart, death immediately occurs, and the mineral-physical body commences to return to the natural mineral state.

The difference between sleep and death is the locale of the etheric body (see I-10). Neither the physical nor the etheric body has any perception of pain or consciousness. As a consequence, many of the most deadly illnesses do not reveal themselves by pain until well advanced and impinging upon the astral body functions. The etheric body is also the repository for the memory of events in this and former lives, which one may or may not be able to call back to consciousness. But there is no earthly consciousness in the etheric body itself. Habits and addictions created by actions of the astral body and Ego are etched into the etheric body and, in time, into the physical body. Still, the etheric body is one of (formative) forces, fluidic and always moving. To this day, science cannot explain why the human being must have sleep rather than simply rest. This necessity is symbiotic with that to reincarnate. The astral body must be restored in the “astral world” when it is outside the physical and etheric bodies during sleep. The astral body is restored by sleep, the etheric body by death. It is impossible for the human being to stay alive and conscious in the senses for more than two or three days. This is the protection divinely given to correct daily the deadly consequences of the Fall upon the three bodies, especially the astral, during one’s life on Earth.

The astral body is the seat of all earthly senses, in both the human being and the animal. The nervous system is the creation and servant of the astral body. All passion and desire originate there. The astral body was infected by Luciferic influence prior to the entry of the human Ego, and it in turn infected the etheric and physical bodies, particularly as the young “I Am” succumbed to the infection’s irresistible power. By the time of Christ, all human “members” (Rom 7,23) were powerless to prevail against the infection. It was too strong for the human Ego not yet strengthened by the higher “I Am” of Christ.