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The Kabbalistic Souls and Subtle Anatomy

Even as there are five Kabbalistic worlds there are five Kabbalistic souls. Each of these souls relate to a level of human mental or spiritual evolution. Allied to the concept of the five souls are the subtle bodies or anatomy. A knowledge and understanding of the souls will help the magician better understand the overall process of initiation. An understanding of subtle anatomy will help the magician to not only understand the processes of traveling and skrying in the spirit vision but also to manipulate them.

The Kabbalistic Souls
Yechidah (Uniqueness)
The yechidah or the Unique Soul is the highest of the five Kabbalistic souls. This soul is extremely exalted in nature and corresponds to the sefira of Keter and the world of Adam Kadmon. This soul exists outside human consciousness and is considered an envelopment, or makif in Hebrew. In this the yechidah can be considered more a part of the Divine than it is a part of humanity. This means that the yechidah does not directly influence the human that it envelops but instead shines upon him or her. This soul is of the level of the unknowable Godhead and is said to enter human consciousness only in the World to Come or a higher level of spiritual, disincarnate existence; it is the essential aspect of every human’s divine nature.

Chiah (Vitality)
The vhiah or "vital soul" is the second of the five Kabbalistic souls and corresponds to the sefira of Chokmah and the world of Atzilut. Like the yechidah, the chiah is a makif, or envelopment, and exists outside of direct human consciousness, shining down upon us. The unknowable chiah is the level of the soul wherein the divine purpose of every human is contained and could be considered the True and Hidden Will or Ratzon of every human. Like the yechidah the chiah is said to enter human consciousness in the World to Come.

The yechidah and chiah, existing in every human’s personal Keter and Chokmah exist outside of time and space. Until the limits of time are overcome, the World to Come, the yechidah and chiah remain unknowable to humanity.

Neshamah (Soul, Breath)
The neshamah, the Divine Breath or upper soul, is the third Kabbalistic soul and is the first soul that is knowable to humanity. However, this soul exists at the level of the sefira Binah and the world of Briah. Thus, while it exists at a level comprehensible to human consciousness, awareness of this level is rare, incomplete and indirect. Unlike the yechidah or chiah the neshamah exists in time, though not space, and directly effects the human consciousness, urging humanity to purify itself and to become one with the Divine. However it is said that this soul remains hidden in most people and only reveals itself to the righteous.

Ruach (Spirit, Wind)
The ruach, which means both "wind" and "spirit", is the intellectual soul and the fourth of the Kabbalistic souls. The ruach is the seat of individual human consciousness and emotion and corresponds to the sefirot of Chesed to Yesod and to the world of Yetzirah and thus exists in both time and space. All mature humans are aware of some level of the ruach, though rarely of all of it, and the entirety of the ruach effects the human.

The six aspects of consciousness represented by the six sefirot of the Ruach are divided into two areas, forming the upper and lower ruach, even as the world of Yetzirah is divided into the upper and lower astral. The lower Ruach, consisting of Netzach, Hod and Yesod, corresponds to the concrete or mundane human mind. It is at this level that the average adult human functions at. The upper ruach consists of Chesed, Gevurah and Tiferet and corresponds to the abstract mind. While the average human in influenced by this level of the ruach he or she rarely has direct contact or control over it. Through initiation and mystical and magical work the magician is able to elevate his or her mind to Tiferet, the seat of the Higher Self.

Nefesh (Vitality, Being)
The nefesh, known as the lower or animal soul, is the final and lowest of the Kabbalistic souls. The nefesh, unlike the other souls, is common to all living creatures; it is the life force and corresponds to the sefira of Malkhut and the world of Assiah. The nefesh is the primary soul of all animal life and holds sway over the physical body, in humanity this includes especially the primitive parts of the brain. The nefesh is the first soul that every human comes under the influence of and hold sways over a human until they have grown enough for the ruach to begin have influence. Those who are under only the influence of the nefesh only act towards continued survival of their own physical body.

Links Between the Nefesh, Ruach and Neshamah
According to the Kabbalistic texts that discuss them, the three lower souls, the neshamah, ruach and nefesh, should be deeply connected. However, this is not always the case. Every human comes under the influence of the nefesh, the animal soul, at birth. It is this soul that drives our instinct for survival. During the maturation process the ruach descends and its various levels start to influence the consciousness as well. During most of an average person’s life the ruach and nefesh will both influence the consciousness; the Zohar describes them as being wrapped around one another. The more mentally and spiritually evolved person will slowly bring the nefesh under the control of the ruach until it is completely so and the human then functions almost totally from the level of the ruach.

The ruach is composed of two parts; the first is composed of the lower triad of Netzach, Hod and Yesod. It is at this level that most humans function. The upper triad of the ruach is capable of influencing the consciousness at this point, but such influence is subtle. The work of initiation is to eventually allow the magician or mystic to rise above this lower triad to the upper triad of Chesed, Gevurah and Tiferet. In modern magical parlance, those who attain this level of consciousness permanently are said to have found union with their Higher Self or Lower Genius.

According to the Zohar, while every human is said to be born with a nefesh and ruach the neshamah must be earned. This can be interpreted to mean that neshamah consciousness, unlike nefesh or ruach consciousness, must be strived for to be attained. The magician or mystic who has come into contact with their Higher Self will begin to feel the influence of the neshamah more distinctly and more often. Those who have attained the state of neshamah consciousness are said to have attained the Higher Genius or Divine Self in modern magical parlance. In traditional Kabbalah, such a person is often described as the highest of Tzadikim; a Hebrew term for a saint-like mystic or holy person. The Zohar describes this as the neschamah encompassing the ruach and nefesh from above. As previously stated this state is very rare and only the most spiritually evolved, incarnate humans ever reach it.

The Subtle Bodies
The idea of the subtle bodies or subtle anatomy comes from Theosophy, an esoteric school, based on Eastern and especially Hindu teachings, founded by H. P. Blavatsky in the 1800s. Today there are numerous Theosophic organizations as well as other related groups, such as Rudolph Steiner’s Anthroposophy Society or Alice Bailey's Lucis Trust. Theosophy has developed numerous subtle body theories with the number of subtle bodies ranging from four to seven or more depending on the theory.

What are the subtle bodies? The subtle bodies are bodies of varying levels and types of energies that the dense physical body is structured around and is the result of; for a human they could be said to be precipitates of the various soul levels. Non-human entities have these bodies as well, in which case they can be considered to be precipitates of that which makes up their own “souls.” While there are correlations between Theosophic subtle anatomy and the Kabbalistic souls it is not exact.

The subtle bodies will often appear differently to different people. For the higher bodies, the Causal and Mental Bodies, they will appear only as they are when viewed from their own level of existence, if viewed through astral or etheric clairvoyance they will appear through the medium of the astral realm or through both the astral and etheric realm, thus distorting them. The astral body itself has a variable appearance depending on the feelings and thoughts of both the viewer and possessor of the body in question. The etheric body is perhaps the most stable in appearance of the four subtle bodies.

The four subtle bodies described below most closely match those presented by Alice A. Bailey and her Arcane School of Theosophy.

The Causal or Spiritual Body
The Causal Body is the highest of the subtle bodies; this body is associated with the Neshamah in Binah. In the aura, or tzelem, of an individual the Causal Body appears golden in color and extends from approximately two and a half to three and a half feet from the body in an egg shaped radiance.

This Body is the limit of an individual incarnate being, much as the neshamah is the highest level of awareness that an incarnate being can attain. The Causal Body is the vehicle of spiritual attainment and enlightenment.

The Mental Body
The next level of subtle anatomy is the Mental Body which is associated with the upper ruach. The Mental Body is the auric manifestation of the upper ruach, even as the Causal Body is the manifestation of the neshamah. Accordingly, the Mental Body functions on the upper astral or mental plane. Most people do not ever come to use the Mental Body fully if at all. The magician most often comes into contact with this body and its soul through meditation, the quieting of the lower mind. It is of a high spiritual nature being the body of action of the Higher Self.

In the tzelem the Mental Body appears as a deep blue humanoid figure with a surrounding ovoid aura of the same color. This ovoid extends from approximately one and a half to two feet from the body. This body is said to form the template for the etheric body.

The Astral Body or Body of Desire
The third subtle body is the Astral Body or more appropriately the Body of Desire. This body is called this because it is formed and controlled by the lower emotive part of the ruach and is especially related to the sefira of Yesod, though it is in fact a precipitate of the entire lower ruach.

The Body of Desire is discussed more often than any other body in the world of hermetics and ceremonial magic in general. It is this body that is being referred to when skrying traveling in the spirit vision, these are little more than technical terms for what is more commonly referred to as skrying or astral travel. During meditation the Body of Desire and the lower ruach are stilled and brought under the control of the upper ruach and Mental Body.

It is this body that is most often referred to as the aura, though the aura is in fact composed of all four levels of subtle anatomy. The Body of Desire can appear in many shifting colors and takes the dual forms of a humanoid figure as well as an ovoid shape or aura surrounding that figure. This body extends from about one half to one foot from the body when viewed in the tzelem. This body’s appearance is also highly effected by the state of the Causal and Mental Bodies.

The Etheric Body
The lowest of the subtle bodies is the Etheric Body. Some consider this body to be a type of physical body and will often refer to the body of flesh and bones as the dense or gross physical body. The Etheric Body is an extension or manifestation of the nefesh. It is this body that the dense physical body is most directly based off of and effected by.

It is the Etheric Body that is first and most directly effected during rituals of initiation; the energy centers, especially the lesser chakras, are aligned during initiations, allowing for a better flow of energy and awareness from the higher bodies and souls to the lower ones. Other magical techniques, such as the use of various grade signs also function on an etheric level. Others, such as the Rite of Sealing (see post on banishing) function on both the astral and etheric levels and can potentially contact the mental level as well.

The Etheric Body is receives and organizes energy from the Astral body and energies the dense physical body with that energy. The Etheric Body itself is composed of the seven chakras, the 21 senior centers and the 49 lesser centers, as well as innumerable lay lines of etheric energy often called nadis that define a humanoid form. The Etheric Body typically extends from a quarter to two inches beyond the dense physical body.

The Abramelin stuff can be a bit tricky, largely due to it having been written in a very different time from now and then re-interpreted by modern occultists. So far as I can tell the Abramelin HGA is supposed to be an actual angel and not a manifestation of our higher selves. Crowley sort of muddied the waters when he started using the term Holy Guardian Angel from Abramelin though, as it gave, and still gives, many people the impression that the HGA is somehow outside of us. I usually just go with the Kabbalistic terminology for this reason.