NEUOFFENBARUNGThe soul and spirit in a human being (20 March 1847)
1. What concerns the natural earth, we have dealt with as precisely as possible in the natural part of this communication; but that this apparently natural earth is nothing less than natural, i.e. material, we will recognize even more precisely by the present further revelation than we have recognized it so far.
2. But in order to reach a thorough knowledge in this matter, we must understand quite fundamentally what soul and spirit actually are.
3. This difference has already been shown, and what has already been said would be sufficient to distinguish the essence of the spirit and the soul from each other for very enlightened minds; but for you who do not yet have the right contemplation in the subject of the inner life, the matter must be explained somewhat more clearly, so that you can thereby attain a correct understanding.
4. The soul is the receptive organ for all the endless ideas of the primordial ground, from which it emerged like a breath; it is the carrier of the forms, the relations and the modes of action; all these ideas, forms, relations and modes of action are laid down in it in the smallest wrappings.
5. A just measure of all that combined into one being, forms a perfect human soul; but because the soul is a compendium of an innumerable quantity of different substantial particles of intelligence, it can also be separated again as a composite in it's parts, as it were, like the air, which also forms and represents a continuum, but is nevertheless capable of an infinite separation.
6. The fact that air can be separated from each other in larger, smaller and smallest particles, is proven by the next best foam, which consists of nothing but air bubbles created by the movement of a somewhat viscous liquid. When the bubbles disappear, the air sealed in them is immediately one again with the whole mass; but as long as the bubbles remain, they enclose a part of the air within themselves and, as you like to say, hermetically seal it off from the outer air through the transparent wall.
7. Thus also the whole universe, yes the whole infinity is filled with the ideas of the Godhead, and the same, which fill the whole infinity, are also to be found in a monad, but of course in the most limited scale possible, just as the air in the smallest soap bubble contains all the same parts, which are to be found in the general air. That would be the soul.
8. Yes, what is the spirit after all? Many a psychologist will ask.
9. The spirit is not a form in itself, but it is the very being that creates the forms; and only when the forms are created, can it itself appear as a form in these created forms:
10. Every force, if it is to confirm itself as such, must provide itself with a counterforce; only on the basis of this created supporting point, can the force express it's effects and bring them to manifestation.
11. The spirit is therefore like the light, which remains eternally light in itself, but cannot become visible as light as long as there are no objects to illuminate.
12. The light, as you see, for example, also with the sun, constantly and evenly goes out from it; but without an object, no eye can notice it's existence. A moonless night has just as much light emanating from the sun as a moonlit one; but in the first case, the light has no object up in the high ether, and therefore no-one notices that it is present. But if the moon stands as an efficient body in the high ether at night time, the outgoing sunlight is immediately perceived very powerfully, and everyone who is only
somewhat familiar with astronomy, will easily notice how and from where the moon is illuminated by the sun.
13. You may easily notice the spiritual effect of light in nature. It is true that everything is present in the earth and in the air; all forms of being and becoming lie together in seeming matter, motionless and unfeeling, and nothing stirs in them, but when the light comes, the forms that lie dead together, come to life, join with each other and become new forms. Just compare winter with summer, and you cannot miss the spiritual work of the light.
14. Now you also know what the spirit actually is; it is the light, which produces itself from it's own warmth from eternity to eternity, and is like the warmth the love, and like the light, the wisdom.
15. If a man has a soul, however perfect it may be, but has little or no light, he will have little or no activity in his soul and also in his body. But if light comes into this soul, it becomes active according to the measure of the light in it.
16. The soul of a cretin, for example, is just as perfect in itself as that of a doctor of philosophy; but the body of this soul is too clumsy and heavy, and lets only extremely little or no light into the soul; or the spark of light which is put into the soul cannot flare up, because it is pressed too much by the clumsy mass of flesh. The soul of a philosopher, however, lets through much light; the mass of flesh has become looser through much learning, and does not press the spiritual flame to one point so much.
17. For this reason, in the first case, one will find either no activity at all, or only very little; in the second case, however, the enlightened individual will have almost no rest and quiet because of all the activity.
18. Of course, we are not yet talking about wisdom, where everything becomes light in the soul, but only about little or no light, and about more and much light; from this it can already be seen quite clearly that without spirit or light, everything is dead and not capable of any further development and perfection – while in the light, everything becomes alive, active, forming and perfecting itself.
19. Light has certainly also no form for itself; but it creates the forms, and then works itself as form in the forms. The forms can be bound separately or together, and new ones can be formed innumerably; the light, however, cannot be separated, but it penetrates everything without interruption, what is receptive for the light, but what is not receptive for the light, that remains dark and dead in itself; because a lightless state of the soul is it's death.
20. It is self-evident that we are speaking here of the eternal Light, which alone causes life, and not of a shooting light, lightning light, that is, an anger-light, which gives a doubtful enlightenment only for a moment; but when it ceases, then it becomes ten times darker than before. Such a light is like the infernal light; there are also such flare-ups, but after each one, there is always a tenfold greater darkness.
21. Now that we have hopefully seen the difference between soul and spirit clearly enough, we can then also easily grasp that the earth in it's stronghold is nothing but Satan's captive soul, while his spirit clings to it, bound in new impenetrable bonds.
22. We will next time take a closer look at this matter.