Section 7

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and historian, in time and space, in a sort of external historical world, with which it is not yet in touch, and where its operations are compared to divided successive intellections or gropings ; next a painter and musician limning images on the phantasmal surface of things, and with an ear for inward harmony ; and lastly a sculptor, carving out objects in three dimen- sional space.
As may be seen from the above, the four, or rather three states — for it would be wrong to term the highest a state, in that it represents the Self in its own essence — correspond to the three great Vestures of the Soul, and we are told that an adept can separate them one from another, and clothe the Self in which he will.
These Vestures are again composed of several Garments, which are generally spoken of as Sheaths (Koshas). Starting from below, we have first the Food Sheath, formed from food by the alchemy of nature. This is transformed by the vital aurae into protoplasm, and so trans- formed into blood, flesh, bone, muscle, skin, etc., eventuating finally into our physical body — truly graphically described as a "coat of skin."
go THE WORLD-MYSTERY.
This is called the Food Garment or Sheath ( Anna- maya Kosha).^ Next we have the fivefold Garment of the life breath, the undulating pentad, for it energises in long rhythmic waves. This is called the Life Sheath (Prana-maya Kosha). Following this comes the Garment of the vibrating pentad whose wave lengths are shorter and more rapid, for thought is more rapid than even the life forces in the body. This latter Garment is two- fold : one Sheath being connected with determination, understanding and judgment ; the other wdth the faculty which refers all things to what we call " ourselves " — our illusive personalities — with the ever-chang- ing, devising, wishing mind, imagination, or fancy, and the thinking, expecting, remembering faculty. No doubt a clearer definition could be made, but the traditional method of the Vedantic schools has based its classification on
1 I should, however, like to be informed why the modern Vedantic classification omits the Anna.-yasa-ma.ya Kosha, which, in the second Anuvaka of Taittir'tyopanishad, is given as entirely distinct from either the Anna-maya or Prina- maya Kosha. The Sheath composed of the essence {rasa) of food should correspond with the Linga Sharira of the Eso- teric Philosophy.
VESTURES OF THE SOUL. 91
the five developed senses, and publicly ignores the septenary division, which alone can provide a truly scientific classification. But as the purpose of this present paper is not to criticize but to give some idea of the Garments of the Soul, we will proceed. The two Garments just referred to are called the Mind and Knowledge Sheaths (Mano-maya and Vi-gnana-maya Ko- shas). And above them is that Lethean Vesture which, though it may prevent us from knowing our true Selves as long as we identify ourselves with our temporary Garments, is nevertheless a blessed vesture of forgetfulness of the misery and shame of our past lives, when we once more don it and enter into the much needed rest from our labours. This has thus been appro- priately termed the Garment of Bliss (Ananda- maya Kosha).
But all our misery consists in our imagining ourselves apart from the Self. And to destroy this misery we must begin by freeing ourselves from the illusion of mistaking these various Garments for our real Selves. This must be done gradually, beginning wath the lowest, the Food Garment.
The illusion I refer to is stated in such false
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ideas as :^ I am a male ; I am a female ; I am born ; I live ; I grow ; I change ; I decay ; I shall hereafter die ; I am a child, a youth, an old man ; I am a priest, a physician, a trades- man ; a total abstainer, a drunkard.
Again the illusion of identifying oneself with the Life Garment is revealed by such thoughts as : I am hungry ; I am thirsty ; I am strong ; I am brave ; I am the talker, the walker, the giver ; I am dumb, I am lame.
So again with the Mind Garment, by such conceptions as : I am one that thinks, or fancies, or grieves, or am deluded ; I am the hearer, toucher, the taster and he who smells ; I am deaf, or blind.
And then with the Garment of Knowledge or Discrimination, by such thoughts as : I am intelligent ; I am going to Heaven ; I am a learned person ; I am indifferent to sensual pleasures.
And so finally with the Garment of Bliss, by thinking : I am happy ; I am content ; I am ignorant or vicious ; I am wise ; I am foolish.
' I have adapted the following from the translation of the " Meditations of Vasudeva " — Lucifer, September, 1892, pp. 24 ct scqq., now also published in book form.
VESTURES OF THE SOUL. 93
The last example must be taken as the reflection of the characteristics of this Garment in the embodied state. When freed from the body, this Garment is freed from the idea of what we call the " I."
Again, the very same ideas, though with a different nomenclature, are to be found in the books of wisdom, of ancient Egypt. Let us select a few passages from the Divine Pyinandey of Hermes Trismegistus, which still retains some of the old ideas, no matter how garbled by translation, re-translation and mis-trans- lation. In the Fourth Book called " The Key," we read (Everard's Translation, pp. 25 et seqq.) :
" 46. But the Soul of Man is carried in this manner : The Mind is in Reason, Reason in the Soul, The Soul in the Spirit, The Spirit in the Body."
That is to say the Soul of Man, or the Self, is clothed : first with the Blissful Garment of Mind ; then with the Knowing Garment of Reason ; then with the Garment of Fancy and the rest, called by Hermes the Soul ; next with the Garment of Life or Spirit ; and last of all by the Gross Body. For as Hermes says :
94 THE WORLD-MYSTERY.
" 47. The Spirit [i.e., Life or Pranaj being diffused and going through the veins, and arteries, and blood, both moveth the hving creature, and after a certain manner beareth it.
"48. Wherefore some also have thought the Soul to be blood, being deceived in Nature, not knowing that first the Spirit must return into the Soul, and then the blood is congealed, and the veins and arteries emptied, and then the living thing dieth : and this is the death of the Body."
And further on he says, speaking of the change which takes place at death :
" 56. When the Soul [or Lower Mind] runs back into itself, the Spirit is contracted into the blood, and the Soul into the Spirit. But the Mind I Higher Mindj being made pure, and free from these clothings, and being Divine by Nature, taking a Fiery Body [or Vesture] ,^ rangeth abroad in every place, leaving the Soul to judgment and to the punishment it hath deserved."
This refers to the post-mortem state of the
1 This will explain the mystical meaning of the "chariot of fire," in which Elijah is carried to Heaven, and much else.
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cast-off lower Garments which endure for a time in a state which the Esoteric Philosophy- calls Kama Loka or the Place of Desire. Fur- ther on again Hermes speaks more distinctly of these Garments when he says :
" 59. The disposition of these Clothings or Covers is done in an Earthly Body ; for it is impossible that the Mind [the Higher] should establish or rest itself, naked, and of itself in an Earthly Body ; neither is the Earthly Body able to bear such immortality : and, therefore, that it might suffer so great virtue, the Mind compacted, as it were, and took to itself the passable Body of the Soul [Lower Mind] as a Covering or Clothing. And the Soul being also in some sort Divine, useth the Spirit [Prana] as her Minister or Servant ; and the Spirit governeth the living things [that is to say, the Body which is composed of myriads of 'lives'] .
" 60. When therefore the Mind is separated, and departeth from the Earthly Body, presently it puts on its Fiery Coat, which it could not do, having to dwell in an Earthly Body.
" 61. For the Earth cannot suffer Fire, for it is all burned of a small spark ; therefore is the Water poured round about the Earth, as a wall
96 THE WORLD-MYSTERY.
or defence, to withstand the flame of Fire. [That is to say, the Physical Body is first of all clad in an Astral Garment or Body.]
" 62. But the Mind being the most sharp or swift of all the Divine Cogitations, and more swift than all the Elements, hath the Fire for its Body.
" 63. For the Mind, which is the Workman of all, useth the Fire as his Instrument in his Workmanship ; and he that is the Workman of all useth it to the making of all things, as it is used by Man to the making of Earthly things only. For the Mind that is upon Earth ]the Lower Mind] , void or naked of Fire, cannot do the business of men, nor that which is other- wise the affairs of God.
" 64. But the Soul of Man [the Lower Manas, the Ray from the Higher Mindj , and yet not every one, but that which is pious and religious, is Angelic and Divine. And such a Soul, after it is departed from the Body, having striven the strife of Piety, becomes either Mind or God.
" 65. And the strife of Piety is to know God [the Selfj , and to injure no Man ; and this way it becomes Mind.
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" 66, But the impious Soul abidcth in its own offence, punished of itself, and seeking an Earthly and Human Body to enter into.
" 67. For no other Body is capable of a Human Soul, neither is it lawful for a Man's Soul to fall into the Body of an unreasonable living thing : For it is the Law or Decree of God to preserve a Human Soul from so great a contumely and reproach."
Here we have an unbroken ray of light shining out of the darkness from the Mysteries of Ancient Egypt. The secret teaching of the temples differed entirely from the popular superstition ; and though the populace were taught that they risked to be reincarnated in the bodies of animals, in order that fear might generate virtue, the better instructed were taught the higher doctrine. The same obtains unconsciously in Christianity to-day. Hell for the ignorant, a more enlightened teaching for those who can understand.
In the collection of heterogeneous books, commonly known as the Bible, the persistent mistranslation of purely technical terms has resulted in a simple trichotomy of man into Body, Soul and Spirit, which is in itself
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98 THE WORLD-MYSTERY.
insufficient to represent the thought of the writers of the several books. For instance, Paul, in his First Letter to the Corinthians (ch. xv), says that every seed has its appropriate body, that there are many kinds of " Fleshes," and also Heavenly and Earthly Bodies (o-oj/xara
iTTovpavia, Koi croi/xaTa CTrt'ycta). In this connection he
speaks of the Bodies of the Sun, Moon and Stars which he calls " Glories " (So^at), and which we may compare with the " Fiery Ves- ture " mentioned by Hermes — Sidereal Bodies, to use the words of Paracelsus. Later on he speaks of a Psychic and Pneumatic, or Spiritual,
Body {el caTL (TMfxa ipv)^LK6v, ecrrt Koi TrvevfxaTLKOv) ,
in connection with which he says that the " first birth " is into a Living Soul {^f/vxrjv t,u)(Tav), where- as the " second birth " will be into a Vivifying Spirit (TTvevfjLa ^oiTTOLovv). The " first man " is said to be of the earth, or rather of liquid earth, and hence called " choic " — reminding us of the Gnostic fourfold division into Choic, Hylic, Psychic and Pneumatic Bodies, but difficult to sort out from the Paulinian text as it stands. Further on we read of the " image " of the Choic Man and of the " image " of the Heavenly Man, purely technical terms again. It was in
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one of these Bodies that this Initiate was wrapt to the Third Heaven,^ which Heavens — no matter how many so ever they be — have each an appropriate Vesture of Purity. And there he heard those " ineffable words " (apprjTa p^fi-ara) which cannot be spoken ; they can no more be expressed in human speech than can the ocean oe contained in a water pot.
What the learned Gnostics and Kabalists taught concerning the " coats of skins " of our allegorical First Parents in the mystical Garden of Eden I have already told you, but in order that the idea may not rest merely on my asser- tion, here is one out of many passages from their books. It is taken from the Zohar, the kabalistic " Book of Splendour " (ii. 2296 ; quoted in Mackenzie's Royal Masonic Cyclopcedia, p. 411) :
" When Adam dwelled in the Garden of Eden, he was dressed in the celestial garment which is a garment of heavenly light. But when he was expelled from the Garden of Eden, and became subject to the wants of this world, what is written ? ' The Lord God [Elohim]
1 II. Corinthians, xii. 2.
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made coats of skins unto Adam and to his wife, and clothed them ' {Gen., iii. 21), for prior to this they had garments of light — light of that light which was used in the Garden of Eden."
For as the Zohnr says elsewhere (ii. 76a ; ihid., p. 412) :
" The mystery of the earthly man is after the mystery of the Heavenly Man. And just as we see in the firmament above, covering all things, different signs which are formed of the stars and planets, and which contain secret things and profound mysteries, studied by those who are wise and expert in those signs ; so these are in the skin [Astral Body rather^ which is the cover of the body of the son of man, and which is like the sky which covers all things, signs, and features, which are the stars and planets of the skin, indicating secret things and profound mysteries."
There is a curious Rabbinical tradition with regard to these " coats of skins " which may not be without interest, if quoted in this con- nection. It is found in the Yaschar or Scpher Hatyaschar, " The Book of the Just," more commonly known as " The Book of the Genera- tions of Adam " or " The Book of the History
VESTURES OF THE SOUL. loi
of Man " which has been translated into French by the Chevaher P. L. B. Drach. The legend runs as follows (see Migne, Dictionnairc des Apocryphes, torn. ii. coll. 1102, 1150) :
" After the death of Adam and Eve, these coats were given to Enoch, son of Jared. Enoch, at the time of his being taken to God, gave them to his son Mathusalah. After the death of Mathusalah, Noah took them and kept them with him in the Ark. Ham stole them and hid them so successfully that his brethren were unable to find them. Ham gave them secretly to his eldest son Chus, who made a mystery of it to his brothers and sons. When Nimrod reached the age of twenty years, he (Chus) clothed him with this vesture, which gave him extraordinary strength."
It was only when Nimrod was stripped of this garment that he could be killed.
We have all heard of Joseph's " coat of many colours" {Genesis, xxxy'ii. ^) — ^(tTwva ttoikIKov, as the Septuagint translation has it — but few have any idea that this is a symbolical Garment of the Soul, woven of a warp and woof of beams from the Spiritual Sun, just as the prismatic rays originate from a ph3''sical beam of sunlight.
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Such again is the Garment that all must be clothed in when the King Initiate comes in to inspect the guests, as we are told in the Gospel according to Matthew (xxii. ii.). This " wedding garment " {Ivhvfxa y6.fx.Qv) is no mortal dress, but a Garment of the Soul, a very real Vesture that we have to weave for ourselves. It must be " a coat (xtTwv) .... without seam, woven from the top throughout " {John, xix. 23), the same which Joseph's Brethren brought back to his Father (Atma) when they had sold the Beloved Son (Manas) into the slavery of incar- nation in the Egypt of the body, and for which the soldiers cast lots when the Christ is crucified.
This is a very old story, but its interpretation is as old as the story itself, for I am simply repeating what the sages of old taught their disciples. And this brings me towards the completion of my task where I would try to convey to you some slight idea of the three Great Vestures of Initiation which cor- respond to the three higher Principles of Man according to the classification of the Esoteric Philosophy. In that marvellous relic of Gnostic Philosophy called the Pistis-Sophia (see Lucifer,