The Ego, The Soul, and The Monad

As strange as it may seem, few religious people and only a hand full of students of mystic doctrines really know how to distinguish and separate the concepts of Personality, Soul, and Spirit or Monad. Often the concepts of Soul and Spirit are mistaken and many actually think that these two words are synonymous.

Ageless Wisdom – The Ego, The Soul, and The Monad

The silence of the spheres is the music of a wedding feast. The more we persist in misunderstanding the phenomena of life, the more we analyze them out into strange finalities and complex purposes of our own, the more we involve ourselves in sadness. But it does not matter much because no despair of ours can alter the reality of things, or stain the joy of the cosmic dance which is always there. ~Thomas Merton

Many religions are not really interested in guiding their followers about the constitution of our transcendent levels: our Spiritual “biology”. Most are just content to poorly define the difference between body and soul, leaving out important concepts and elements that would greatly facilitate our understanding of the dynamics of the spirit.

We believe that this lack of explanation comes from a purpose to divert the attention to very “superficial truths” in order to hide what is essential to us. The interest of many organized religions is to maintain the status quo, to keep the level of “obedience” by the means of fear, ignorance and imposed power so that there is a perception that an intercessor is required to connect with the Divine. Many of these deep truths were labeled as “the Mysteries of Faith”, allegedly because they escape the common understanding of the common human mind, but, in reality, this way, they can keep themselves from the work of explaining, educating and ultimately giving back the keys of reconnection with our Divine Nature.

Many religions and cults that are associated with some medium phenomena usually overshadow the concept of Soul with the concept of Spirit. In her book about Human and Solar Initiation, the theosophist Alice Bailey defines Spiritual Human physiology as having a trine Nature: Monad, Higher Self (or Soul) and Lower Self. Pythagoras also had the same concept about the trine nature of man, but he used a different terminology: Spirit, Soul, and Personality.

The Monad is the Divine spark which animates and gives life to every human creature. It is to the loving “structure” of the Monad that our Souls are connected to; each different group of beings has its own respective Monad. Each Monad is connected with the higher Monads and to the Mother/Father God in a progression that is infinite and incessant.

We can witness that most people cannot assimilate or deal with the completeness of the concept of Personality, thus making the notion of conscious connection with the Monad an impossibility, almost an object of wild fantasy.

To access the Soul is an accomplishment for a very few committed Spiritual beings since many seem to have difficulties differentiating the “voices of the Egoic Mind “and the real “voice” of the Higher Self.

Still, according to A. Bailey, the personality also manifests a triple manifestation: The Mental Body, Emotional Body, and the Physical Body. It is sad to see that the greater part of mankind still only transits through these three planes, from the physical to the emotional, then reaching to the mental concrete and rational mental body, and from there on, their energy encounters the “Void”, even if they do not see it this way.

In this stage of consciousness, the preponderance of the decisions are made without consulting the Soul’s wisdom and guidance, therefore it becomes the Personality’s task to chart the guidelines and decisions to be made. As a result, mainly all the choices and judgments will be taken to solely satisfy the physical, the emotional and the logical mind.

We are not saying, that the Ego, or Lower Self, is bad, and needs to be annihilated. That is not a truthful position. In order to fully experience the Human condition, a Soul extension has to be equipped with a Physical Body and with an Ego. Without these elements, the Human condition simply would not function. Ego is necessary because it has the automatic pilot for certain functions such as the sense of preservation and basic instinctual responses. However, we cannot stress enough the need to discipline the Ego to surrender to the Higher Guidance of the Soul. Discipline is not necessarily punishment; it is a control method and regulation of its demands.

Through these lenses, our Spiritual Ideals and Life Purposes turn to distant and inaccessible dreams, and even very religious people tend to profess their faith through a very schematic and rational perspective that lacks intuition, inspiration, and Spirituality. God is an anthropomorphic creation of their minds, therefore presenting and expressing all the vast range of the vile scope of Human emotions, such a rage, and vengeance. The expression of God’s energy is defined by their levels of consciousness, and how they perceive themselves related to this energy.

The soul only can be accessed and its guidance perceived by those that are on the Path of the Spirit and are able to receive its directions and supervision towards its Lower Self/Personality. It is not reached through prayers or promises but through attitudes and a lifestyle of “righteousness” that are aligned with those of the true initiate on the path.

The Soul is a spiritual entity that is permanently in a stage of development and evolution through its multiple incarnational experiences and through the collections and assimilations of understandings of its various levels of manifested consciousness.

The personality is the physical garment which is used by the Soul during its incursions into the World of Matter. This “body” will disintegrate after the cycle of experiences programmed by the Soul ends.

The Spirit is the higher consciousness that nurtures the Soul with ideals, inspirations, and lessons towards perfection. It is the “moto-continuous” that incites the soul to the continuation of the journey of evolution and enlightenment. The Soul process of self-awareness, manifestation, and assimilation of values and morals is a never-ending process of maturing and alchemizing experience and knowledge to Divine Wisdom. The Spirit, or Monad, is the part of God that dwells inside of every one of us. God is not outside but inside our Souls.

The Soul is not the Spirit, but the Spirit is in the Soul. The same pattern manifests with the relationship between Personality and Soul. It is truly a sacred weaved web of Divine proportions; the Personality is connected and dependent upon the Soul and the Soul is directly connected with the Monad which, in turn, receives its light and directives towards continuous higher evolution.

We are not isolated beings: we are all connected and weaved together and together we manifest inside of this big opera of creation. You may even question the reason why the Divine Creator is “hidden” or concealed from us, hence is so difficult for a common individual to conceive the direct connection with the Divine. The answer is not necessarily a “mystery of faith”, but a challenge. The Divine is concealed from us in order to be discovered and reveled by us, according to the best timing from us to assimilate the vastness of his Reality.

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This article was originally published 15 October 2012