Standard opening. Call forward Djwhal Khul to supply his group merkabah to take you to his inner-plane ashram and guide the session. Read chapter 9, "The Soul," from The Complete Ascension Manual. Discuss each class member's relationship to the higher self and the material in this session.

Take a break. Instead of doing a meditation, break into groups of two or three and have each person call in their higher self (or monad, if they prefer). Have them practice voice-channeling the higher self's overview of how they are doing on their spiritual path. The other person(s) need to ask questions of the higher self about the person's life to stimulate the flow of information. Take turns doing this so that each person has a chance to practice channeling. At the close return to the larger group for personal sharing about the channeling practice. Do standard closing. Social time

The Complete Ascension Manual
Chapter 9
The Soul

Matter is the vehicle for the expression of
the soul on this plane, just as on a higher
plane the soul serves as an expression
vehicle for spirit
Djwhal Khul
as channeled by
Alice A. Bailey

There are many ways to define and understand the soul. To begin with, one could say the soul is the intermediator between the incarnated personality on Earth and the monad or spirit in heaven. For all one's incarnations up to the fourth initiation, that the soul is the guide and teacher for personality. It is at the fourth initiation that the soul body, or causal body, is burned up in some mystical fashion and the soul returns up into the monad, its purpose and function for all the many incarnations throughout the ages over. The monad or spirit now becomes the guide and teacher for the soul.

Matter is the vehicle for the expression of the soul on this plane, just as on a higher plane the soul serves as an expression vehicle for spirit. The soul is neither spirit nor matter, but is the relation between the two. It is the middle link between God and form. The soul is another name for the Christ aspect.

The soul is also the quality that every form manifests. It is that subtle quality which distinguishes one element from another. In the plant kingdom it determines whether a flower or a carrot becomes manifest. The soul serves the same function in the animal kingdom. Everything that has been created has a soul. Man's self-conscious soul is in rapport with the souls of all things. It is an integral part of the universal soul.

The new wave of psychology in the future will eventually succeed in proving the existence of the soul. It is tragic that in the field of psychology 98% of the forms of psychology now taught do not recognize in their teachings the existence of the soul or spirit. Carl Jung, Abraham Maslow, and Italian psychologist Robert Assagioli are the only ones I can think of off the top of my head who integrate this spiritual aspect. There is a new form of psychology called transpersonal psychology that will eventually revolutionize traditional psychology. (Read any book on soul psychology.)

The process of soul contact begins when the aspirant first receives soul impressions; then more and more the soul is allowed to take control of the threefold personality. Finally, full identification with the soul is achieved at the third initiation, which is called the soul merge.

Another very interesting aspect in respect to the soul or higher self is that the soul does not really pay much attention to the incarnated personality until the incarnated personality begins to pay attention to spiritual matters. The soul is busy with meditation and other matters of service. Once the incarnated personality does show interest, the soul begins to take a very active role. The same concept can be applied to the monad in respect to the soul. The monad does not pay much attention to the soul until after the third initiation when monadic contact begins to take place.

The following table gives a synopsis of the monad, soul, and personality.

The soul could also be defined as the attractive force of the created physical universe that holds all forms together so that God can manifest and express Himself through them. The physical, emotional, and mental bodies are the garment of the soul. Later in the evolutionary process they will be garments for the spirit of the monad.

The soul can also be described as the conscious factor in all forms. The phenomenon of crib death occurs when the soul and/or new soul extension (incarnated personality) decides not to stay in the body and leaves. When the soul extension leaves, the physical body dies. It is the soul that feels, registers awareness, attracts and repels, and keeps all forms in activity.

The soul can be described as the child of the Father God and Mother Earth who has come onto the Earth in order to reveal the nature of God which is love. The soul can also be described as the principle of intelligence that inhabits all forms. In the human kingdom this manifests as mind and mental awareness which demonstrate the power to analyze, discriminate, and be self-conscious.

It is also very important to understand that the soul and higher self are in a state of evolution. I want to make it clear here that when I speak of soul I am differentiating it from the incarnated personality on Earth, which is called the soul extension. The soul or higher self is, on its level, in the process of learning and growing. Not all souls or higher selves are at the same level of evolution. One of the main ways a soul evolves is through what the twelve soul extensions do in their material incarnations.

I was under the false perception for a long time that the soul or higher self was perfect. It is not. It is way more evolved than the incarnated personalities, but it is evolving just as we are. The same can be said of the monad on its level. All monads are not at the same level of evolution. Some are more highly evolved than others. This, again, has to do to a great extent with what their twelve souls and one hundred forty-four soul extensions have done in all their incarnations. It is important to see here that we depend on our soul and monad for guidance, and the monad and soul also depend on us.

The work of the aspirant is to learn to see himself as a soul and later in the initiation process to see himself as the monad, spirit, or God in incarnation. To fully realize this it is essential to learn to see this in others as well. What one sees in others is just a mirror of what, in truth, one is seeing in oneself.

The Soul of Humanity

The signs that the soul of humanity is being awakened can be seen in the following occurrences in our society:
1. The growth of societies, organizations, and mass movements for the betterment of humanity;
2. The growing interest of the mass of people in the common welfare;
3. The great interest in humanitarian and philanthropic effort;
4. The mass effort to educate children of all nations at a level never before achieved;
5. The growing recognition that the man on the street is becoming a factor in world affairs.

The Appropriation of the Bodies by the Soul

It is often not understood that the soul takes possession of the physical, emotional, and mental bodies in a slow and gradual process. The soul comes into the body just before birth or just after birth. Djwhal Khul has said that it is usually between the fourth and seventh years that the soul makes contact with the physical brain of the child. The soul appropriates or takes hold of the astral body between the ages of seven and fourteen. The soul appropriates the mental body between the ages of twenty-one and twenty- five. Contact with the soul usually occurs between the thirty-fifth and forty- second years. The potential to contact the monad begins after the soul has passed the third initiation. This process can be gently accelerated. however. This is how Djwhal has described it in the Alice Bailey material.

Old Souls

All monads or individualized spiritual sparks were created in the beginning at the same moment. In that sense, all monads are the same age. The term "old soul" refers to how many lifetimes a soul has had in earthly or material incarnation. Djwhal has said that the average soul, with all its twelve personalities or soul extensions, has had around two thousand lifetimes. Older souls have had two thousand five hundred or even three thousand lifetimes.

Characteristics of the Soul

Unconditional love, inclusiveness, joy, happiness, the ability to be alone, Divine indifference, impersonality, detachment, freedom, serenity, inner calm, responsibility, wisdom, and intuition are all characteristics of the soul.

These are the qualities described by Djwhal Khul in the Alice Bailey material. Djwhal makes another very interesting differentiation among happiness, joy, and bliss. He says that happiness is a personality reaction. Joy is a quality of the soul. Bliss is a quality of atonement with the monad.

The Light of the Soul

The attention of a Master is attracted to the incarnated personality by the brilliance of the indwelling Light of that individual. When the Light has reached a certain intensity, the aura a certain hue, and the overall vibration a specific rate and measure, the Master comes. The choice of the pupil by the Master is governed by past karma, past associations, and the ray on which the incarnated personality is found.

The Soul and the Hierarchy

The Spiritual Hierarchy is basically the world of souls. In respect to the soul there are three types of hierarchical workers.
1. Souls: These initiates who have taken the fourth initiation and in whom the soul body or causal body has been destroyed. They are the custodians of the Plan.
2. Soul-infused personalities: Those disciples and initiates of the first three initiations through whom the souls work in the carrying out of the Plan.
3. Intelligent aspirants: Those who are not yet soul-infused personalities but who recognize the Divine Plan and seek the welfare of their fellow man.

Early Stages in the Evolution of Incarnated Personalities

The earliest state of evolution consists in the opening of the line of communication from the personality to the soul so that the soul may be able to assert itself increasingly through the personality. As the soul extension develops, finally the soul is able to entirely dominate and control the personality so that it will have no separate thought or will.

The absolutely untrained person on Earth has practically no communication with the soul. Anyone who ever watches the news or sees people in the world must wonder how they are able to do the awful things they do. This is partly why. They have no connection to the soul, hence they are run by the personality or negative ego. They are cut off from intuition, conscience, and the will to do good and to love, which the soul embodies. Just as it is the evolution of the personality to learn to express only the soul, so it is the evolution of the soul to express only the monad. An undeveloped soul extension, or incarnated personality, forgets about this connection with his soul and feels quite independent and separate.

The soul involves itself in a whirlwind of activity on its own plane. If one wishes to attract its attention one must demonstrate to the soul that he can make the personality useful to it. The soul knows that certain parts of its evolution can be achieved only through its personalities on Earth. If one looks at many of the personalities here on Earth one sees soul extensions whose astral bodies are filled with negative emotions and whose mental bodies are interested in money, power, hedonism, and television. It is not difficult to see that the soul might not be that interested and is focusing on another one of its eleven other soul extensions.

The soul on its plane is so expansive it is not possible for it to fully manifest through one of its soul extensions. In the same respect, the monad on its plane is not able to fully manifest through one soul.

The Spiritual Triad

The spiritual triad is the threefold spirit through which the monad expresses. The threefold spirit includes spiritual will, intuition, and higher mind. The monad expresses through these principles, just as the soul expresses through the lower spiritual triad of the threefold personality, the physical, emotional, and mental bodies.

The Soul and the Monad

The disciple needs to learn to control and train his mind to receive communications from three sources:

1. The ordinary material world;
2. The soul, thus consciously becoming a disciple, a worker in one of the Master's ashrams;
3. The spiritual triad (spiritual will, intuition, and higher mind) which acts as an intermediary between the monad and the brain of the incarnated personality on Earth. This takes place because at the third initiation the personality and soul have merged, so guidance can now come from the spiritual triad and monad. Duality has taken the place of triplicity, triplicity being the former soul extension, soul, and monad. The soul and soul extension have fused together, so a higher level of guidance is now possible.

The Soul and the Antakarana

At the fourth initiation the antakarana, or bridge for the line of communication, has been built from the incarnated personality through the causal or soul body and up to the spiritual triad and monad. The antakarana having been built, the causal body burns up and the soul merges back into the monad. (See Chapter 5 to understand the antakarana and how to build it.)

The Soul's Relationships on Its Own Plane of Existence

The soul on its own plane, realizes consciously its relationship to the Master and seeks to send this awareness to the incarnated personality. The soul is not impeded by time and space. On the soul level, time and space do not exist in the same linear sense they do here on Earth. The soul on its own plane also has relationships with other souls, usually of the same ray. (The understanding of the rays is discussed in great detail in Chapter 10.) The soul works in a group formation and consciousness. The group consciousness is something that the soul would ultimately like to see exist on this earthly plane also. This will happen when the majority of soul extensions on this plane take their third initiations.

From the angle of the Master it is the ability of the soul to control its instrument, the incarnated personality, and to work through it that is of most interest.

The Soul and the Master's Ashram

Many of the Ascended Masters have ashrams on the inner plane. An ashram is an international group composed of souls who are both in and out of incarnation. The ashram is a combination of initiates of various degrees and of accepted disciples. The Master also has a group that is different from the ashram. Many people can be found in the Master's group, but those in the ashram are chosen out of the group. In the ashram only that is to be found which is of the soul. Nothing of the personality is allowed to enter. (By this I mean nothing of the lower self.)

So an ashram is basically formed of those who, through their devotion to the path, have worked their way out of the group into the inner center which is the ashram. They are groups of souls gathered together for the purpose of service.

The key for the disciple is to make his or her life of such a nature that it furthers the purposes of the group, enhances the group strength, and brings closer the objective for which the group was formed. The disciple is also trying to make himself useful in carrying out the Master's plans.

The Soul and Divine Will

When the attractive power of matter dies and desire is overcome, then the attracting power of the soul becomes dominant. Instead of the individual self being of importance, now the group goals and endeavors become most important. The soul attraction also now coincides with the attraction to the Spiritual Hierarchy and the Ascended Masters' work. When this shift or polarization has taken place, which occurrence I am sure all who are reading this text can relate to, the dynamic pull of the "will aspect of Divinity" can be felt and comes into play.

The Soul and the Dark Forces

Dark brothers are souls who are confused and have chosen the left-hand path instead of the right-hand path, the left-hand path being that of serving self instead of serving God and the unity of all existence. The dark brother (needless to say, I am not talking about race here) sees other people not as fellow souls or gods, but rather as objects to exploit and use for his own selfish gain. He doesn't care about the suffering or hurt he may cause. The job of all others is to protect themselves from these confused souls, both on this material plane and on the inner plane. The laws of karma will catch up with them ultimately and the pain and suffering they will go through will make them seek truth once again at a later time.

One other very interesting fact about the dark brothers is that if an incarnated personality carries on in this deluded way for too long, he can bring upon himself a destruction that is final for what Djwhal Khul has called the entire manvantara, or cycle. Somehow in the process the "physical permanent atom" becomes totally destroyed and the lost soul loses touch with the higher self for eons of time.

Alignment of the Soul with the Personality

The ideal for the incarnated personality is to align the three vehicles or bodies with the higher self or soul. When this alignment is achieved, the mental body will be calm and peaceful, the emotional body stable, even, and joyous, and the physical body healthy, with good, even energy throughout the day.

A higher level of alignment also exists for the disciple. It has to do with
1. the alignment of the soul and personality with the appropriate ashram, resulting in a conscious relationship with the Master of the ashram;
2. the alignment of the initiate of a higher degree with the spiritual triad, which results in conscious recognition of monadic energy;
3. the alignment of all the chakras in the etheric body of the disciple.

The Soul's Path of Progress

There is no limit to the amount of growth an incarnated personality can achieve in a given lifetime. It is all up to one's ability to stay focused and disciplined, totally committed to the spiritual ideal. Very often, soul extensions who make great progress are doing so because of what has been already gained in previous lifetimes.

Even though growth seems super-accelerated for some, even they are just preparing for a new period of slow, careful, painstaking growth. This slow and often laborious effort is the consistent method of all who evolve on the spiritual path, no matter what their levels of spiritual evolution. There are no shortcuts. Moment by moment, hour by hour, day by day, one's goals are achieved. It is very often the small things - a smile, a hug, a helpful hand - that are the most significant.

The Soul and Discipleship

There are three main objectives to which the disciple must be pledged above all else:
1. To serve humanity;
2. To cooperate with the Plan of the Great Ones;
3. To develop the powers of the soul and become obedient to the soul, not to the dictates of the three lower bodies and the negative ego.

Spiritual Impressions from the Inner Plane

There are four sources of spiritual impressions of which the spiritual aspirant and disciple must be cognizant:
1. Impressions from the disciple's own soul;
2. Impressions from the ashram with which the disciple is affiliated;
3. Impressions directly from the Master;
4. Impressions from the spiritual triad and monad via the antakarana.

The Soul and the Sutratma

The sutratma is the silver cord that extends down from the monad, through the soul, and into the incarnated soul extension on Earth. The soul dominates its form through the medium of the sutratma, also known as the life thread. The antakarana is a cord of energy that those on Earth have to build to the soul, spiritual triad, and monad.

The sutratma is there from birth. It is the line of energy back to the Father in heaven. It is the spiritual pipe, so to speak, that sends us our energy and keeps us alive. This life thread vitalizes our physical, emotional, and mental bodies and sets up a communication with our brains.