Three Bodies, Page 5

Scriptures Most Directly Indicative of “Three Bodies”

Two Selected Examples:

1. Mt 13,33: He told them another parable. “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened.”

This succinct parable is a paragon of simile. How could the imagination of the three bodies, each with the germ (i.e., “leaven”) of its spiritual counterpart implanted, attaining their higher states associated with the Kingdom of Heaven be more perfectly described? The reader is encouraged to investigate the commentaries on this passage. Those in the Bibliography herein, including the excellent New Interpreter’s Bible (NIB), fall far short, by comparison with anthroposophical insight, in revealing the simple perfection of this parable’s description.

Who is the “woman” who hid the leaven? Anthroposophy is her namesake. She is the holy virgin Anthropo-Sophia. See I-18 and Prokofieff's The Heavenly Sophia and the Being Anthroposophia (HSBA); see also Prov 8,22-31. She is the focus of the Apocryphal Wisdom of Solomon (see 43 AB) and Wisdom of Ben Sira (see 39 AB), both found in the Catholic Bible (NJB and NACB) and some protestant versions. The “three measures” are the “three bodies” created in the first three Conditions of Consciousness, Old Saturn, Sun and Moon. As each “body” existed in its original “Condition,” it represented harmony between its inner and outer, or higher and lower, parts. Thus, on ancient Saturn, the physical body was spiritual heat that became the human phantom (see “Form/Phantom”), and at that harmonious stage comprised what is known as “atma,” or Spirit Man. During the ancient Sun Condition of Consciousness, this physical body divided into its higher and lower parts. Similar processes occurred with each of the “three bodies” as Condition succeeded Condition. These ancient Conditions were recapitulated during the first Conditions of Life and Form of Earth evolution (see I-1). These are set out in some detail in OS and are summarized in the first essay in Vol. 2.

The “woman,” Anthropo-Sophia, is a real sevenfold spiritual being who comprises the combined spiritual activity during Earth evolution of the lowest seven Hierarchies, from the Kyriotetes (Spirits of Wisdom, or Dominions; see I-6) down to the tenth hierarchical rank, the Human Being. The Anthroposophia is visually presented in the first two columns of the chart in I-18. During Earth evolution, the Anthroposophia, the combined activity of these Hierarchies, placed the “leaven,” the “Seed” of the three human spiritual states, in the human being's “three bodies,” the “three measures of flour.” The Christ, the higher “I Am,” acting through the agency of the Anthroposophia and her own agents, especially the Archangel Michael, “leavens” the three lower human “measures” into their three corresponding spiritual states. Only the first can occur as a result of Earth evolution. The purified astral body will be transformed into the bridal manas (“Manna,” or Spirit Self) in the Jupiter Condition, the Holy City, the New Jerusalem (Rev 21).

The full transformation of the “three bodies” (“measures of flour”) into “leavened” loaves is reflected in the sevenfold human being. It is brought about by the sevenfold nature, the “seven pillars,” of the Anthroposophia. Under the “As Above, So Below” law of creation, she “has built her house, she has set up her seven pillars” (Prov 9,1). When the third “measure,” the physical body, has been transformed into atma, Spirit Man, in the Venus Condition of Consciousness, then the “kingdom of heaven” will be fully present in the human being as the tenth rank in the Hierarchies (Jn 10,34; Ps 82,6).

The early Church Fathers did not dwell on this passage. Their only significant reference to it may be the brief one by Clement of Alexandria (A.D. 153-217)⁷ in The Stromata, or Miscellaneous, Book V, Chap. XII (2 Nicene-1 463). He opens this chapter by quoting “the truth-loving Plato,” then “Orpheus, the theologian” to lay the groundwork for quoting Paul’s reference to “the third heaven” (2 Cor 12,2). He then discusses Plato’s Timaeus and comes to the “unleavened cakes” (referring to Gen 18,6) and Philo’s interpretation of them.⁸ Clement says that “the prophet [Moses] meant [when he ordered the cakes to be made] that the truly sacred mystic word, respecting the unbegotten and His powers, ought to be concealed.” Going on he says, “And now, by the parable of the leaven, the Lord shows concealment,” and he quotes Mt 13,33. What he says next is revealing (emphasis mine):

For the tripartite soul is saved by obedience, through the spiritual power hidden in it by faith....

Where did this knowledge of “the tripartite soul” go between the time of Philo, Paul and Clement and the time of Steiner? The blessings of insight from the Apostolic Age faded. The teachings of Clement’s student, Origen, on the pre-existence of the soul were anathematized; the darkness of the Middle Ages deepened and the Eighth Ecumenical Council in A.D. 869 declared the spirit nonexistent, concluding that while the tripartite body, soul and spirit had until then been thought to compose the human being (1 Th 5,23), thereafter (in orthodoxy) only the body and soul would do so. Finally the time came when even the highest initiates on Earth had no direct spiritual vision but had to rely upon the authority of scripture, other prior writings, and the growing intellect. Such was the case in the time of the towering Aquinas. The exalted Christian Rosenkreutz (see “Pillars on the Journey”) would soon thereafter incarnate, leading to the Renaissance, literally the rebirth, of humanity—the time when the Consciousness Soul (see I-9), the highest part of the “tripartite” soul would slowly begin to develop.

If the soul or Ego is thus threefold, surely the human being of which it is a part must be also. And if the human being and the human soul or Ego are thus threefold, does it not suggest that the body and spirit must each be threefold as well? Even the principle and processes of cell division would tell us this. It is in the fractal nature of things.

Both 8 NIB 309 and INTPN, “Matthew,” p. 157 recognize the probable relationship between Christ’s “three measures of flour” (Mt 13,33) and Moses’ “three measures of fine meal” (Gen 18,6). Surely a marvelous depth of spiritual reality must exist in this seemingly simple, but heretofore mystifying, simile. Its most perfect application is to the three bodies of the human being.