The term esoteric has several meanings: The literal meaning is "occult" or hidden. For instance, the esoteric element of a religion is interior and mystical, as opposed to the exoteric components which are exterior and orthodox. Popularly, the term "esoteric" is sometimes used to mean "mystifying nonsense." But it is employed by the tradition of esotericism in a more technical sense - to mean of the soul.
The Esoteric Tradition is a worldwide phenomenon, spanning millennia, and dedicated to, among other things, the study of the soul and its wisdom. It is an informally organised system of theory and practice, with teachers in every period, culture, and field of human endeavor. It is known by different names, including: Theosophy, the Ageless Wisdom, the Perennial Philosophy, and the Primordial Tradition. But perhaps it is best to think of the Esoteric Tradition as Humanity's Wisdom Teachings, because the wisdom of the soul does not belong to any sectarian organization; rather, it is a human heritage, the birthright of anyone willing to undertake the rigors of seeking the soul and its wisdom.
And that is the traditional reason for the esoteric quest - the soul is known as a true source of wisdom; considered "occult" because it is hidden within our own being, in a dimension of consciousness that exists beyond the personality that we mistake ourselves to be. In fact, the search for the soul leads us directly to our self. But this is a pure true self - totally other than the body, heart, and mind we have come to believe that we know.
Recent studies of the wisdom teachings of our species give us an extraordinary model of the human psyche. There are a number of versions with significant differences in detail, but with remarkable core similarities as well. What emerges from wisdom teachings is an elegant and lovely theory of the soul -one half of the map that will show us the way to find the soul for ourselves.
Central to the esoteric approach is the notion that reality is composed of a vast field of energies. The human being is conceived as a unit of being that participates intimately in the being of the cosmos (as a kind of whole entity); and as a microcosm, shares the same energies as the macrocosm. In esoteric terms the basic aspects of reality are viewed as three primal energies:
1. Spirit, Power, Will, the Father Principle, the positive pole.
2. Soul, Consciousness, Love, the Christ Principle, the magnetic field.
3. Matter, Intelligence, Light, the Mother Principle, the negative pole.
In accordance with the ageless law of correspondences - (in the ancient Hermetic terms "as above, so below,") the nature of humanity reflects the nature of divinity. (Psyche=Cosmos). So the esoteric psychological model of the constitution of the human being is also essentially a threefold concept:
1. Spirit
2. Soul
3. Personality
3. The Personality (persona in Greek for "via sound," mouthpiece, or mask) is the instrument, or form. It is a reflection in matter, an unfolding display of our own true being. It is composed of three substantial but increasingly subtle bodies, each more or less spherical, and arranging themselves concentrically -ranging outward from the denser physical to the subtler causal:
A vital or etheric body - a subtle energy body of many interwoven lines of force. The weblike structure of the etheric body organises the denser aggregate of countless tiny lives known as the physical body; the one which falls away and begins to dissolve at the event known as death. In the esoteric model the gross physical body is regarded as a temporary effect, while the subtle etheric body is considered a continuously evolving instrument for contact with material reality. The vital corresponds with the element of earth. The mineral kingdom is evolving its consciousness at the level of the etheric.
This body can be experienced as a field of sensation.
An astral or emotional body- a subtle body composed of sentiency - the capacity of organisms to register impression from the environment. Humanity's stage of evolution at this point is such that the consciousness of most persons is polarized emotionally. Most people have developed a large degree of emotional sensitivity, and tend to react from this level. Humanity is often swept into motion by passion, driven by fear and desire. From the esoteric point of view, the astral body is somewhat problematic, since its turbulence is difficult to master. The astral corresponds to the element of water. The vegetable kingdom is evolving its consciousness at the level of the astral.
This body can be experienced as a field of feeling.
A lower mental body - a subtle body composed of the substance of mind - the capacity of living beings to think, to reason and ponder. Humanity is undergoing a transition, an evolutionary shift from instinctual emotional reactions toward intelligent mental responses. From the esoteric perspective, the ability to focus at the level of mind is critical for those who seek to be of service in the ways of the soul. Discernment, once freed from any distortions of attachment and resistance, is regarded as especially important. The mental corresponds to the element of fire. The animal kingdom is evolving its consciousness at the level of the mental.
(Note - the lower mental is the persona level of concrete cognition, as opposed to the higher mental which is the soul level of abstract cognition.)
This body can be experienced as a field of thought.
These three increasingly subtle bodies compose the instrumental personality, and for much of the evolutionary process of developing a fully functioning personality, the task is to coordinate the vital, astral, and mental levels into an integrated unit that is ready to serve the purposes of the soul.
The three levels of the personality are all considered to be composed of substance. Substances mental and emotional as well as etheric and physical are regarded as created from intelligence, or light - the basic material of the cosmic mother principle.
2. The Soul - (psyche in Greek) is the evolving quality of the human entity, developing over countless lifetimes through the instrumentality of the personality. The soul is essentially consciousness. It is trans-personal, meaning it exists beyond the person; it is a-mortal, meaning it is not born and does not die; and it is non-local, meaning it is not confmed to the bounds of space and time. This concept is somewhat different from the Christian notion of ruah, (Hebrew for breath) which is imaged as a ghost that enters into the body before birth and leaves it at death. The esoteric conception holds that the soul remains a transcendent consciousness throughout its experiences of embodiment. The term soul is not used by Buddhists, who tend to be committed to the notion of anatma (Sanskrit for no soul). The esoteric tradition is not ignorant of the meaning of that doctrine, and teaches a pragmatic non-dualism in which the relativistic perspective, that thinks in terms of the soul as a separate entity, is expected to evolve toward the perspective of the absolute, which knows all beings as a boundless singularity. (A Buddhist term which might serve as an equivalent for the esoteric term "soul" is alaya - used by Tibetan mysticism to refer to ordinary, or unconditioned, awareness as the basis for the existence of individual beings.)
In esotericism the term the soul is employed in a technical sense to refer to the causal body - which is a temporary sheath composed of mental substance and designed to focus spiritual energies into the dimension of substance.
