A fully individuated Divine Spark has passed through the Planes from the Divine to the Material.
Different traditions have different anatomies to describe the Divine Spark, some with different numbers of Bodies and Souls and some with different names of Bodies and Souls. Each tradition has something to teach and the descriptions and symbols used by the tradition are appropriate for its teachings.
Inspired by Greek Cabala
The first separation of the Divine Spark into a Body and Soul occurs in the Causal Plane. Then the Divine Spark involves to the Spiritual Plane, separating into another Body and Soul. The third separation occurs in the Mental Plane. At this point, the Divine Spark has three Bodies (Causal, Spiritual, and Mental) and three Souls. A Divine Spark cannot have more than three Bodies at a time, so when the Divine Spark involves to the next plan (the Astral Plane), the Divine Spark loses its Causal Body. When the Divine Spark involves to the Etheric Plane, the Divine Spark loses its Spiritual Body. And when the Divine Spark involves to the Material Plane, it loses its Mental Body.
Divine Sparks in Assiah (the Material World) have three Bodies and three Souls:
- the Unconscious Soul and the Material Body
- the Subconscious Soul and the Etheric Body
- the Conscious Soul and the Astral Body
There are entities who exist on the higher planes who assist the Divine Sparks on the lower planes evolve back toward the Divine. The description that follows uses the Greek pantheon, as I find the allegories and symbols in Greek mythology enlightening.
The Unconscious is the realm of Hades, God of the Underworld. The Unconscious contains our ancient memories. We are not consciously aware of these memories, but the fears the memories inspire are real. Forms are created (by Hephaestus) and Forms are destroyed (by Ares). Creation and destruction are necessary for growth. Once death is understood to be a transformation and that the Soul continues after the death of the physical body, death is no longer something that inspires fear and dread. However, for those who do not understand that the Soul continues, death is the end of existence and that is appropriately terrifying. The Unconscious is the domain of the drives and reflexes that push for continued existence: for feeding, for sleeping, for reproducing, for surviving.
The Subconscious is the realm of Poseidon, God of the Oceans. (Poseidon also rules bodies of water such as seas and lakes. Rivers, however, are currents of energy and are not under Poseidon’s dominion.) The Subconscious contains our emotions and current memories. (Current meaning this incarnation.)
The Supraconscious is the realm of Zeus, God of the Sky. The Supraconscious is “over” the Unconscious and the Subconscious and the Conscious, i.e., it is on a higher plane. The Supraconscious Soul is paired with the Mental Body, the Mind. We do not have Mental Bodies. A Divine Spark can only have three Bodies. As we evolve, we develop a Mental Sheath, which will some day be a full-fledged Body.
The Conscious is the realm shared by Hades, Poseidon, and Zeus. It is the realm of our Thoughts. Since Hades and Poseidon share this realm, our Thoughts are affected by our Unconscious and our Subconscious. And, as we develop our Mental Sheaths, we can use our Supraconscious to affect our Conscious.
Inspired by Rosicrucianism
Max Heindel and Oswald Wirth have slightly different takes on Bodies and Souls, which were useful in understanding parts of Splendor Solis. My analysis is posted with Splendor Solis – Plate 8.
Inspired by Inayatiyya
My understanding of Souls and Bodies according to Inayatiyya is that as the Soul involves through the Planes, it accumulates a Body from the material of each Plane and keeps that Body through its entire involution. Then, as it evolves back up the Planes, the Body associated with the Plane is dissolved when reentering that Plane. Inayatiyya also describes the Bodies as being formed from “material” in the Plane that is attracted to the Soul like a magnet and that the Soul is captive in an illusion created by its own reflections. The following metaphor was developed while meditating on this description (so it is not intended to represent the teachings of Inayatiyya, just an understanding inspired by the teachings).
Light is an electromagnetic wave. It is a Unity that is a Trinity: the electromagnetic wave has an electric component and a magnetic component, that can be visualized as being perpendicular to each other.
Light is also a particle, a photon. So Light is another Trinity: the force of an electromagnetic wave and the form of a photon.
“Science” likes to consider the speed of light in a vacuum as a constant. The speed (S) is the product of multiplying the wavelength (W) of light by the reciprocal of the frequency (F) of light. S = W x 1/F
The wavelength of light is the distance between crests of the wave. The frequency is the number of crests that pass a point in a period of time.
The human eye can perceive some frequencies/wavelengths of light, such as the colors of the rainbow. Some frequencies/wavelengths of light cannot be perceived with our eyes, but can be perceived by other senses, such as infrared light which we sense as heat. And some frequences/wavelengths of light we do not perceive at all, even though we can sense their effect on our physical bodies, such as ultraviolet radiation causing a sunburn.
When light travels from one medium to another, its wavelength changes. To see this for yourself, fill a clear glass about halfway full with water and place a straw or pencil in the glass. View the glass from the side; the straw (or pencil) looks bent.
This phenomenon is known as refraction. Different substances have different indices of refraction, which means different substances will refract light in different amounts.
Substances have different indices of refractions primarily due to differences in density. Some substances are so dense that light is refracted so much that it is actually reflected. (We tend to think of reflection with smooth objects, such as a mirror, but a concrete block is also reflecting light. But, since it isn’t smooth, the reflected light is scattered.)
Now, how does all of this relate to Souls and Bodies?
Consider the Divine Spark as Light… a photon and a wave emanated by the Divine. When that Divine Spark involves to a lower plane, the density is higher. This “slows” the Divine Spark down. (Consider how fast you can walk on land vs how fast you can walk through three feet of water… air is less dense than water, so you cannot walk as fast in water as you can on land.)
Once the Divine Spark is in the lower plane, it starts attracting some of the material of that plane to it. Remember, the Divine Spark as light is a wave with a magnetic component. This magnetic component attracts some things (and repels some things). This material accretes around the Divine Spark, making a shell.
The Divine Spark is the Soul; the shell is the Body.
The next Plane is not really below the current Plane; it is within the current Plane. Consider the Divine Plane as a sphere; the other Planes are concentric spheres within it, with increasing density as you approach the center. Each time the Soul travels to a denser plane, another Body is built around the Soul but within the previous Plane’s Body.
I don’t see these three descriptions as being incompatible. The Greek interpretation sees three Souls; the Inayatiyya interpretation sees one Soul. It is not difficult to see the three Souls as subdivisions of the One (a Trinity that is a Unity!). The Rosicrucian interpretation sees the Spirit dividing into Soul and Body; the Inayatiyya interpretation sees the Body as an accumulation of astral/ether (which some traditions consider to be Spirit) outside the Soul. I see the Body that is split from the Spirit as the windshield, and the accumulation of on the windshield as a shell that accretes on the Body.