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Paradox is a source of endless fascination for this writer. It demolishes any intellectual conceit he may harbor. The notion that an idea and its opposite can both be true, is challenge enough to one’s mind; but that both have a common root, leaves the mind in awe.
At first, one feels that it is the juxtaposition of opposites, that is the source of fascination. As one continues to ponder paradox, one realizes it is really the all-pervading unity in which paradoxical opposites share their origin, that captivates and beggars the mind. It is beyond the mind. It is beyond the self. In the parlance of Rosicrucian philosophy, it is the pure, unconditioned truth of Life Spirit. The fascination of Life Spirit mystifies one, in the most positive sense of the word mystification. It is where opposites meet.
People mostly encounter paradox in philosophical logic, or mathematics. Such paradoxes are the deepest paradoxes. They reside in the region of germinal ideas of form, in the abstract subdivision of the world of thought. The region that abuts Life Spirit, so to speak. Actually, some form paradox can be found in all states of being, from abstract thought to chemical matter.
Paradox is also found in all areas of human endeavor. Analytical psychologists have their enantiodromia, a principle whereby extreme emphasis in one principle in one’s psyche, begets manifestation of its opposite principle. It is an example of symmetry issuing from Life Spirit—the beautiful, in the triad of truth, beauty and goodness. Astrology is rife with paradox. For example, a quality and its opposite can be found in the same sign, and a person’s strong point is often also the weakest point. Ironically, as these words are being written, this writer is pondering two, almost identical horoscopes (minutes and a few miles apart) whose natives are undergoing identical, active, astrological influences with opposite consequences. One is experiencing insomnia, the other narcolepsy. Paradox.
In our lives of spiritual aspiration, we also encounter paradox. It is important to us, because it is about our lives. Repetition provides a good example. Aspirants of the Rosicrucian Fellowship are admonished to practice repetitive prayer, using the Rosicrucian Student’s Prayer. The purpose of this activity is to build, organize and structure the soul body portion of the vital body. The fluidic nature of the ethers composing the vital body is subject to the rhythms of wave mechanics. Cyclical self-application in repetition, shapes the vital body. We see this in how habits are formed. Cycles are the primary engine for manifestation, development, and perfection in the divine creative scheme. There are cycles within cycles, within cycles, seemingly to infinity.
One problem with repetitive prayer, as it applies to soul growth, involves paradox. On one hand, if we are not intent in its performance, it becomes rote and mechanical. Doing that, it decreases conscious awareness in an exercise meant to increase it. On the other hand, if we are deeply intentional in its performance, it not only has a building and organizing effect, it produces a mounting inward spiritual surge of awareness. Paradox.
Linear, non cyclical, repetition has its own paradox. Probably all of us have suffered through conversations with someone who repeats him/her self, to no purpose, with a dulling effect. Linear repetition, in the hands of someone who uses it wisely, is powerful. If someone, who is wise and knowing, uses repetition, it is prudent to take notice. If that someone is Max Heindel, it is almost mandatory and incumbent on Rosicrucian aspirants to pay attention.
Max Heindel has said many things capable of changing one’s life. Some of them have been repeated several times, and are worth of our complete attention. For this writer, one repeated statement stands above all others. Amazingly, this writer has never heard it spoken of by any Rosicrucian aspirants. In The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception it is stated clearly: “… all consciousness in the Physical World is the result of the constant war between the desire and vital bodies.” Since the evolution of consciousness is one of the primary ends of our evolutionary creation, this statement well worth further investigation. Before we set out to study this statement, it seems prudent to determine if it is at least superficially true.To do this we have internal evidence form the The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception, and we have anecdotal evidence from life experiences. From the former we have the fact that the desire body is incessantly active, just as our consciousness is active. From the latter, we know that, when we experience our deepest and most intense feelings, in the desire body, as in healing prayers for instance, we are most conscious. From both, we know that when the desire body leaves the dense physical body, because the vital body has no more energy to offer, we lose consciousness in sleep. These pieces of evidence are minimal, and questionable, but they are enough to justify deeper investigation.
One way to work into ponderous issues is with simple questions. One such question might be “Why are the desire body and vital body at war?” This simple question takes us to the foundations of the cosmos. The Rosicrucian philosophy, based on many observations by many trained clairvoyants, teaches that the cosmos is composed of interpenetrating worlds. Each of the worlds has functions. One of the functions of the desire world is motivation. The etheric subdivision of the physical world has a function of vitalization, and so on. What is not so obvious, is that each world is checked and balanced, and compensated for, by the worlds adjacent to it. The desire world is checked by the world of thought above it, and cushioned by the etheric subdivision of the physical world below it. It can be accurately said, that each world has a character of its own, and that each world complements the worlds around it.
When an evolving entity has sufficient experience of a world, it can appropriate the material of that world into a form for personal use. We call those personal forms bodies, or vehicles of consciousness. We humans have chemical bodies, etheric bodies, desire bodies and concrete minds. As we evolve by practice and experience, we improve our bodies. Change is not a once for all time matter. It is a continuous, ongoing, evolutionary, process. Part of the process is overcoming the inherent nature of the world, from which the body is formed. Max Heindel tells us clearly that even in the chemical subdivision of the physical world, we must overpower the chemical substance in our food to assimilate it into our dense physical bodies. To the degree that we can overpower the substance of a world in our bodies, we can make it our own. Our experience with the vital body and the desire body are not as extensive as our experience with the dense physical body. Consequently, our control of the vital body and the desire body are not as complete as our control of our physical bodies. This means that the vital body, and the desire body, are more likely to express the character of the ethers and the desire world than we would like them to. For the purposes of this brief essay, the character of the ethers, and the desire world, with relation to our physical bodies, can be stated in one word for each. The character and function of the ethers can be summed up in the word, vegetation, and the function of desire can be summed up in the word, animation. Given no restrain or limitation, the vital body would vegetate without end. Similarly, the desire body would animate ceaselessly. Sharing a common, composite organization, these elements must constantly be at war because of their very natures. We will not have peace until we have overcome all of our bodies, and brought them to work together.
Another simple question can also improve our understanding of this remarkable statement from Max Heindel. It is: “For what are the vital body and the desire body fighting?” The answer is both simple and deep. It is the dense, physical body, the chemical body, that is the prize. The physical body is the most perfected vehicle of consciousness we possess. Consciousness is what it is all about, in the evolutionary creation. The simple answer of the dense, physical body being the prize is true, but it isn’t completely satisfactory. We want to know why it is the prize, so we must dig deeper.
Why is the chemical body the prize? Again, there is a simple, answer, soul growth. Soul growth is a microcosmic part of a grand creative activity called the “spiritualization of matter” in the Rosicrucian philosophy. Within any state of matter is the potential of awakening new, spiritual consciousness. Soul growth, within the spiritualization of matter, is our means of accomplishing that end. Spiritualization of matter is not a single-step, binary, activity whereby one day something is matter, and the next day spirit. It is a long, slow, careful process. It takes eons. In this activity there is an intermediate stage, a spirit-matter stage, called soul. Soul is the product of an intimate interaction of spirit and matter. Some would say that soul is lived into being, rather than being a product of war. However, both seem to be true. When someone is soulful, that individual has an intimate understanding of the source of soul, from having lived with it.
The Self, the threefold spirit, is focused in the concrete mind at this time in our evolutionary journey. From there it functions in three states of matter (the desire world, the ethers, and the chemicals), and we produce three grades of soul material. From the Rosicrucian philosophy we learn that the soul produced by intimate interaction with the desire world is called emotional soul. Similarly, soul produced in the ethers is called intellectual soul, and soul produced in the chemicals is called conscious soul. From this we can begin to see why the dense physical body is the prize.
Clarification comes as we understand soul growth more completely. The Rosicrucian philosophy teaches that soul growth is accomplished when soul is absorbed and assimilated into the threefold spirit. Absorption is when the soul material is taken into the spirit. It is the same usage as when in our language we idiomatically say “he is absorbing knowledge.” Assimilation is when something absorbed is brought to its proper place. In physiology we say absorbed sugars are assimilated to the brain, and oils are assimilated to the heart. To begin to understand absorption and assimilation of soul, we must have at least a little understanding of the structure of the evolutionary creation.
The evolutionary creation is a reflective projection. The threefold spirit projects its creation through the lens of mind, in the center of being, into the concrete worlds of matter. It is analogous to projecting a real image through a lens, to produce a virtual image as we do in physics classes, or with a motion picture projector. The desire world is the reflective projection of the Human Spirit, for example. Similarly, the ethers are the reflective projection of Life Spirit, and the chemicals are the reflective projection of Divine Spirit. When emotional soul is absorbed, it is assimilated to Human Spirit, just as intellectual soul is assimilated to Life Spirit, and conscious soul to Divine Spirit. This is true in both the macrocosm, and the human microcosm. In this we can see that the deepest state of matter, the chemicals, reflectively correlates to the deepest state of spirit, Divine Spirit. In this relationship, we can begin to understand why the dense physical body is the prize.
In the Rosicrucian philosophy the primary characteristic of Divine Spirit is will. The will is the most subtle and powerful force in the cosmos, in both macrocosm and microcosm. Divine Spirit and Life Spirit are said to be realms of pure spirit. They are pure in that they are undivided and unconditioned in their being. The truth of Life Spirit, as when Christ says “I am the way, the truth and the life,” is unconditioned truth; whereas, the truths of the Human Spirit which are the principles of the abstract subdivision of the world of thought. They are universal but conditioned. The will of Divine Spirit is pure and unconditioned. It is the will to be, the will to be anything. Relative to the subject of this essay, it is the will to consciousness. All consciousness in the cosmos is founded in the will to consciousness. Since Divine Spirit is fed by conscious soul, and since everything in the creation seeks consciousness, it is no wonder that the dense physical body, as the source of conscious soul in microcosm, should be the prize.
A matter of this magnitude of importance begs another question, “How is conscious soul compounded?” Max Heindel answers this question in one word, impact. When we hear the word impact, we think of things like autos crashing into each other, or meteors striking the earth, actions of magnitude. These events surely are impacts, and some form of awakening is their result, but much more is meant by the word impact. Over millions of years, response to something as low in impact as light, helped us to produce the eye, which opened our consciousness to the magnificent reality that is the visble world. In simple, conscious soul is the product of direct interaction with the chemical world. It is a bilateral activity. We awaken, while awakening the minerals. Both agent and object, awaken consciousness in such an interaction, no matter how small the increment of awakening. This truth from the Rosicrucian philosophy, gives us a different view of raising consciousness than is normally presented to seekers. Normally we are led to believe that consciousness is raised by sitting and meditating. At some stages of development that is an important activity, but only when it is for processing the soul substance generated by interaction with the external world.
Not all awakening of the minerals is a directly personal activity. We mine, we separate metals from other minerals, we smelt the metals, and we manufacture devices to work on other minerals. All of these activities awaken consciousness in the minerals, and educt specific qualities from them. However, our most important interaction with minerals is personal. When we take in minerals, as components of our food, and incorporate them into our bodies, it is a special interaction. The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception gives us the law of assimilation. From it we know that we must overpower our food in order to make it part of our bodies. The materials from our food, remain in our bodies as long as we keep them overpowered. We use will to develop greater will. We use consciousness to develop greater consciousness. There is a special alchemy, whereby the elements in our food are transformed, by being infused by our consciousness. The elements are spiritualized and our bodies are spiritualized. It is embarrassing when we juxtapose these spiritual facts, with the way we often eat, which is often anything but reverend. Of course, this is a slow, careful process, as all things in evolution are. Evolution is as certain as it is slow It is so certain, that it occurs whether we are aware of it or not. Even someone in a coma is compounding conscious soul, as long as there is metabolism.
What about consciousness itself? We experience various grades and degrees of consciousness, but we are not always aware of what, or even where, it is. Perhaps a prosaic example can help us to understand these things a little. Suppose one cuts one’s finger, and there is pain. In pain, one is conscious. The pain means a nerve has been harmed. The nerve in question transmits its condition to the brain. From the physical brain the impulse is carried into the etheric brain. From the etheric vital body it is transported to the desire body. In the desire body it is registered as the feeling of pain. Feeling is one of the functions of the desire body. Some would say consciousness of pain is in the desire body. That would not be completely correct. The desire body, like the other bodies, is a vehicle of consciousness. It is a vehicle for the Human Spirit, in the threefold spirit, or Self. Consciousness is in the spirit, but consciousness in the spirit is different from consciousness in the bodies. The spirit cannot be harmed in the way a body can be injured. The spirit is invulnerable. Consciousness in the spirit is universal and impersonal. It is aware of the meaning of experience, beyond the phenomenon of experience.
Now that we have a minimal understanding of consciousness, and it’s awakening, we can return to our original statement from Max Heindel, to what it means to our lives of spiritual aspiration. We have seen that, ultimately, all consciousness, pure and basic consciousness, is in, and of, Divine Spirit, the realm of the Father. As Max Heindel loved to say, “In Him we live and move and have our being.” We can see that the consciousness of Divine Spirit is awakened and nourished by conscious soul which is compounded in the chemical subdivision of the physical world, by means of our dense, physical bodies. Applying the principle of analogy, we can see that consciousness of different degrees, and qualities, can be awakened and nourished, by the soul material compounded in the bodies corresponding to the other two attributes of the threefold spirit, i.e., in the desire body and the vital body. In this we see another facet of the war between the desire body and the vital body. It doesn’t have to be a war, though is must be an all-out activity. It doesn’t even have to be a conflict. In transcendence it can be a dialog. The desire body is the reflective projection of the Human spirit, or Self, and the vital body is the reflective projection of the Life Spirit. When we, in our spiritual selfhood, commune with Christ in Life Spirit, we are using the transcendental counterparts of the participants of the war between the desire body and the vital body. Our ability to commune with Christ, is a consequence of our vigorous participation in the battle between the desire body and the vital body. Max Heindel loved The imitation of Christ by Thomas Á Kempis, which is written in the form of this inner dialog. When we commune with Christ, we are using the attributes of the spirit to direct the interaction between the desire body and the vital body. We can do this in our retrospections by confessing to Christ. Doing this is analogous to using the will of Divine Spirit to overcome chemical matter and compound more conscious soul to nourish the Divine Spirit. This is practical, with transcendental practicality. Mystics are often considered impractical. Max Heindel, an accomplished mystic, used the word efficient as much as a production consultant does. Applying the divine, inner, dialog to the war between the desire body and the vital body; and receiving the soul product reciprocally, is efficiency of the highest order. It is also a glorious, uplifting, experience in consciousness.
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