It took me a while to understand what exactly Omraam Aivanov, one of the closest students of teacher Petar Deunov, meant when he said that if we believe we have a soul, then we have a soul. But if we do not believe that we have a soul, then we do not have a soul. Such a statement made me look at the soul as a creation of human faith, devoid of objective reality.
However, the soul is a reality.
“The soul is a reality, my dear brothers and sisters, even if our contemporaries who deal with psychology, that is, the” science of the soul, “do not believe in it. Strange is a “science of the soul” that is done without the soul. Are they on the right track? Yes! You will accuse me of contradicting myself… No, but you must understand me. Everything is true, but we must look for the case in which this is the case. If something is true for you, it solves the problem. If you say, “There is no God,” that is true. There really is no God in you because you say He does not exist. If you say, “I don’t believe in the soul,” that’s also true. You really don’t have a soul, because if you have one, you will feel it. If you deny it, then you do not have it. Everything is true, everything exists or not. It depends on the point of view you choose. This is exactly what Jesus is saying. He says, “And it will be rewarded according to your faith!” That explains everything. “
Omraam Aivanov, “The soul – an instrument of the spirit”, p. 19
This is the answer – if we have a soul, we will feel it. This is its objective reality – the experience, the deep inner knowledge that resembles faith, but a special faith. Because it comes from the reality of feeling.
At about the same time, I came across a quote from Jung that said the same thing.
“When you say there is no soul, then there is no soul. But if you say there is a soul, then there is one. Notice what the ancients said through images: the word is a creative act. The ancients said: in the beginning was the Word. Think about it and think about it.
Carl Jung, The Red Book, Page 236
I was thinking too. I read a lot because it helps me the most in my thoughts. I read Steiner, agni-yoga, again Omraam, again Jung, Rosicrucian… But only after reading the definition of the soul in Kabbalah did it suddenly enlighten me. According to Kabbalah, the soul is a “spiritual organ that is gradually created in man .” Such a spiritual organ is present in all people, but we can speak of a soul, or more precisely of the birth of the soul, only after man begins to develop “the feeling. for the influence of the spiritual forces, the emergence of a minimal perception of the Creator. ” (M. Laitman, International Academy of Kabbalah)
In other words, it is only after our “other eyes” are opened and we begin to take an interest in the internal rather than the external, more in the spiritual laws than in the secular, in the invisible rather than the visible, in the eternal , not from the transient… this is the moment when the soul opens its eyes. Our perception of something else is born. For another truth.
So my question was solved. The soul is an objective reality, but in one case it is in a latent state, and in the other – in an active one. But what activates it?
Suffering.
Or, as Marie-Louise von Franz says, “The real process of individuation – conscious connection with its own center (psychic nucleus) or Self integrity (Self) – as a rule initiated by injury to the personality” ¹ .
Suffering from the birth of the soul, however, is a different suffering. It is the ahedonia of depression – this lack of pleasure in things that were previously a source of satisfaction and joy, but for some reason unknown to us are no longer. It is that irrational deep unhappiness that comes from the gaping hole inside you that nothing in the world of the outside can fill. It is the “nigredo” of the alchemists – this black cloud of sorrow and death that comes to you without calling it. It is the longing for something that is not of this world, but hurts from this longing.
However, I will return to Kabbalah because it says something very important. He says that we are made of desire, and the birth of the soul occurs only when that desire is directed to the knowledge of the Creator , the Source of life. It is also good to know that this moment of conversion does not depend on the personal will of the person.
Other traditions say the same thing – the soul opens its eyes when it is called. This is the very first step of spiritual initiation, and this step depends entirely on supra-individual factors. The eyes open to the light of the Sun only when the Sun decides. The eyes in this case can not decide.
To know this brings peace to people whose spiritual eyes have begun to open, but still do not see the Big Picture and therefore do not understand why others around them continue to sleep in the trance of the senses, the external and the concrete. But the sleepers are innocent. For them, the time has not yet come for which the Bible says:
“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.” John 6:44
Thus, the birth of the soul takes place through suffering. It does not come because of personal failure or something wrong that we have done. It comes as a call to wake up and look for something inside. Only inside yourself. And it’s dark there. Very dark. Especially in the beginning.
In the beginning I asked myself what is the first and what is the second – does suffering awaken the soul or does the soul wake up and that is why we begin to suffer. But since I started thinking synchronously, this question has ceased to matter. Now I think they happen at the same time, simply because they are the same thing. The soul, enclosed in a human body, is equal to suffering. She is the Spirit in a bottle . Therefore, what is really important is not how she woke up, but how to use this suffering to create the thing for which she found herself in the body.
There is still a lot to learn in this regard. I have the consolation that at least the base is stable. I owe it to Jung.
The making of the soul in his analytical psychology corresponds to the notion of individuation, and it is relatively clearly described by him because it is one of the most important there. It refers to this natural process of mental development, in which the processes of differentiation and transformation intertwine, until finally the third thing crystallizes, which leads to the integration of opposites.
Then comes the second birth – of the divine child. The first is the opening of the eyes of the soul. Corresponds to being “born of water.” Then comes the second – the birth of the spirit. Psychologically, it refers to the transcendent function, and its Christian correspondence is the Holy Spirit.
“It seems to me that it is the task and obligation of the Holy Spirit to unite and reconcile the opposites in the human individual through the special development of the human soul.” K.G-Jung (Carl Jung, CW 18, Para 1553)
It is the Holy Spirit who brings grace – he solves the drama of duality and the tension of opposites. But until that happens, one stands helpless for a long time, crucified on the cross of one’s own contradictory feelings and internal conflicts, and with each passing day of life one understands what it means to be like Christ, the symbol of the human soul. To our common soul.
After much reading of esoteric literature and Eastern philosophy, I continue to wonder what the soul is and how it is made. Each answer leads to new questions and the feeling is that I am faced with a puzzle of thousands of parts that can never be put together.
What I do know is that the first part of this puzzle, and the most important, is called desire. Another important part is called suffering. And suffering is also a kind of desire. Moreover, a sacred desire, because it refers to the making of the soul. It, if I quote Jung again, is the Hero.
The creation of the eyes of the soul is the birth of our inner Hero.
Of course, in the beginning, at the stage of blackness, this is the last thing a person thinks about himself. I mean, he’s a Hero. However, he is a Hero. In fact, that’s why he’s a Hero. He is a hero because he fights an Enemy that makes him feel like a Non-Hero.
All Heroes at different stages of the path think they are not Heroes. The reason is that they have a preliminary idea of what heroism is. And the heroism of the soul is to suffer, but not to give up. It is difficult for you, but not to give up and to endure to the end. To be alone – misunderstood and even rejected, but your loneliness should not be at the expense of your sensitivity to people’s needs. To suffer from the injustice of life, but not to harden your heart, or even to become softer and more compassionate.
So, if you have a desire, if that desire has already opened your eyes to the Sun, here are some guidelines on how to make a soul:
- Investigate how much you want what you want. If you want it with all your heart and you will not give it up in case of difficulties, know that it comes from your soul.
- And once it comes from there, it must be followed. It has something to teach you. It is the fuel to become Heroes.
- It doesn’t matter what the desire is. In fact, in my experience, it was my most material desires that led me most to making a soul, because while I was trying to realize them, I was creating the most difficult parts of myself. If it weren’t for them, I don’t know if I would have found the courage to leave the comfort zone and realize that I could do things I thought I couldn’t.
- To turn the achievement of material desires into a means of making a soul, always ask yourself what you want to turn the difficulties in the way of achieving them. This is always a spiritual quality. It is the treasure that is made as we achieve our goals in the outside world.
- This question of the transformation of difficulties into spiritual qualities is the most important alchemical question. Besides him, you will have to ask many other questions, to question many things that you have been taught to believe. In short, you will have to use your mind a lot and think critically.
- And, most of all – persevere. Never give up on anything in the world. Believe in yourself. You will fall and rise thousands of times. You will wander and despair thousands of times. But, if you develop this dual attitude – to let go of control, but not to give up the fight, the flow of Life will lead you to the covenant shore.
- Life has thousands of ways to help those who walk the Narrow and Steep Road with a headwind. And you have everything you need because you have yourself.
