Soul and Personality
(Integration)
In occult, esoteric texts and also in poems of clear mystical tendency, one can read that the first obligation of every good "disciple on the path" is to achieve integration between the Soul and the Personality, without this first step there can be no second.
The personality is a force consisting of three lesser forces, the so-called lower basic triad of physical/etheric¹, emotional and concrete mind, all of which together create a strong personality, a personality with an emotional and mental body expressing itself with "power" (success) on the material plane through its etheric/physical body.
Clearly, not all personalities in the world are like this, but in the vast majority of cases the imbalances and separative aspects are more than evident and many suffer from the "lack" or "excess" of one of their two higher parts (mental or emotional), with a clear reflection on the physical body¹.
For example, it could be the case of a very emotional person with great sensitivity but a weak mind and therefore, due to the conditioning effect that the emotional body will exert on this mind, they will often misinterpret (miscalculate) their "feeling" capacities, even suffering in their vital body (physical/etheric brain¹) the erroneous result of this "miscalculation".
Or, on the other hand, a person with a powerful (intelligent) mental body may have their sensitivity excessively controlled or inhibited, bringing with them sadness and/or emotional coldness towards themselves and their more objective physical environment.
Between the two examples, due to the consciousness' tendencies and degree of evolution + its conditioning karma, there are infinite nuances.
But what role does the Soul play in these processes of integration of the lower triad into a whole called Personality?
In Alice Bailey's books, she often writes that the Soul is the Child or Love aspect of divinity, "that" which stands between Personality and Spirit, and that it, with its flexible, loving and understanding capacity, is both the promoter and the result of the relationship and union between the two.
We are also told that a Soul only begins to relate "face to face" with the personality when the consciousness is on "the return path", i.e., that there is only the possibility of such a relationship when the "the prodigal son", having satisfied his desire for material expansion, has the need to return to the "Father", and not before.
“We must remember that, when Christ was relating this story, He made it abundantly clear that there was no impulse to return until the pilgrim in the far country had come to himself or to his senses, as a result of satisfied desire, through riotous living. This was followed by consequent satiety and loss of contentment, and then by a period of intense suffering, which broke his will to wander or to desire.”
Alice Bailey - Esoteric Psychology II - page 166
Therefore, it’s when this lower triad begins to falter and no longer feels sufficiently attracted (with its respective needs) to "the life of desires" that the crisis really comes, "the gaze turns inward" and the personality becomes receptive to the Soul. It is then that the Soul can use the "critical" state as the opportunity to relate constructively to this "wounded" triad and thus become receptive (consciously predisposed) to contact.
In some way pain is the power (of the personality) which invokes the Soul, and the Soul shows signs of relief through its primary quality, unconditional and intelligent Love, thereby seeking to make contact with the lower forces according to their receptive power.
That is to say, if the "prodigal son" in question has a powerful emotional body, conscious contact with the Soul will be through the sensitive body or Heart, (noble feelings and ideals), thus in time giving rise to a mystical, magnetic, loving and aspirational personality. If, on the other hand, your healthiest body is the mental one, conscious contact with the Soul will be through the Higher Mind, (the world of values and ideas), thus in time giving rise to a brilliant intellectual with a dynamic, directed and radiant spiritual intention, esoterically an occultist.
All these processes are necessary for the conscious evolution through experience in matter of every Soul, and so in many lives the experience of a physical body conditioned by the emotion-heart and in many others one conditioned by the mind - the Will - will predominate, but it is in the gradual fusion of the two that The Way is forged, which in its culmination we esoterically call a Master of Wisdom.
And what is wisdom, if not the loving intelligence that unites the mind and the heart? So let us observe ourselves and gain experience and knowledge through the most powerful and easily managed part of our personality, but never forgetting the weaker part², that requiring more attention, as it is most definitely the"cornerstone"or complementary aspect for our final correct expression on the etheric/physical plane.
Letting the Soul do its work is a "divine good", a healing act that links us first with the words discipline, discrimination, discernment, generosity and construction; and then, because of disappointment or disillusionment, to recognise the healing aspect of detachment and acceptance as the path to inner peace; the silence that gradually brings with it the constant attention, the attitude that invokes the inspiring intuition applied as active service.
All these steps are essential to deepen our understanding of the true meanings of our Soul in relation to its sister Personality.
Esoteric Astrology
It is clear that these processes are gradual and take many lifetimes to achieve their fullness, and from this blog, predominantly astrological in nature, we advise you to reflect on the esoteric meanings of the Ascendant sign in order to facilitate the process. All that is easy and natural is related to the Soul, and this healing spontaneity resides in the ASC sign.
For esoteric astrology, the energies, qualities and meanings of the Ascendant sign (to a much lesser extent also those of the Sun sign) mark the path of the Soul. That is to say, in the daily application of its meanings through a free mind, unconditioned by desires, is the recognition of our higher self, the "you who speaks to us", that being so distant but so close that we know it as the SOUL.
¹ For esoteric psychology, the physical body has no generative power of its own, but is a body subordinated to the influences of the astral body of desires or the mental body. In this sense, the etheric aspect is the (neutral) energetic fabric which, conditioned or directed by the two superiors (mental - emotional) enlivens this physical body through its 7 chakras.
² Often the weakest part is the one we believe to be the strongest. This is a self-deception very often unconsciously induced by the personality's compensatory need to show what it lacks, hence the importance of the honesty of self-analysis. That which is correct or true does not need self-assertion, but is easy, almost unimportant.
David C.M.
logos.astrologiasesoterica@gmail.com
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