“The philosophy of psychic, spiritual, and mental relations with man’s physical functions is in almost inextricable confusion. Neither the old Aryan, nor the Egyptian psychology are now properly understood. Nor can they be assimilated without accepting the esoteric septenary, or, at any rate, the Vedantic quinquepartite division of the human inner principles. Failing which, it will be forever impossible to understand the metaphysical and purely psychic and even physiological relations between the Dhyan-Chohans, or Angels, on the one plane, and humanity on the other. No Eastern (Aryan) esoteric works are so far published, but we possess the Egyptian papyri which speak clearly.
“Occultists will demur to this statement, for it is based on the erroneous conception that Prana and Atma or Jivatma are one and the same thing. The author supports the argument by showing that with the ancient Hebrews, Greeks and even Latins, Ruach, Pneuma, and Spiritus – with the Jews undeniable, and with the Greeks and Romans very probably – meant Wind; the Greek word Anemos (wind) and the Latin Anima ‘Soul’ having a suspicious relation.” ~H. P. Blavatsky
Confusion in Spiritual Philosophy
There is little doubt that there is a great deal of confusion in spiritual and religious philosophy. There are a number of reasons for this. Perhaps the primary one is that languages designed to describe the physical are inadequate to explain the spiritual. As a result, the prophets and others who have spiritual visions can only give them an approximate description using the written or spoken word. Another is the tendency to interpret everything according to what you already know or believe. A good example of this is the way that members of certain Christian churches see the face of Jesus in any shape that vaguely resembles a bearded man. The interesting thing is that if you compare a number of these images, you will see that they don’t look very much alike, yet all are assumed by those people to be Jesus. The same thing happens in interpreting words and phrases that can have several meanings. Continue reading “Philosophy, Physical and Spiritual”