Korpo

On Elementals, Part I

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In theosophy there exists the idea that when souls incarnate on the planet they take on three energetic sheaths - the mental, astral and etheric bodies. The souls's energy attracts certain configurations in these sheaths as its drive towards incarnations drops down through the planes into the physical one.

From Kurt I know that the energy bodies can also be referred to as elementals. The theosophists believe that the elementals are formed from the elemental matter of a plane upon creating a new incarnation, and that the nature of this matter defines their actions and reactions, and that refining them is the soul's job during the incarnation to accomplish its goals on the physical plane.

One thing the energy bodies are then are storage mediums. Incompletely processed experiences for example can accumulate in an energy body and alter its tendency towards certain actions and reactions. This ultimately results in some form of acting out if it happens without some kind of intervention.

In this negative scenario the energy body acts as a storage medium for stress one could say. Stress is accumulated and released in outbursts. Many spiritual and self-help practices aim at breaking this cycle and reversing it. In this aspect they are tools of basic maintenance of day-to-day existence. This is how meditation can keep you sane even in tough times.

All experience then is filtered through the elementals. They are not only storage mediums in that they change based on the experiences one takes in, how they are handled, reacted to and what decisions and actions are made based on them, they are also a means to experience the physical and other planes of existence. Human consciousness requires energy bodies to get sensual input.

Coming into a body and incarnating is the most direct way to experience the physical plane. While a soul may be capable of reading all the energetic patterns surrounding the physical plane from the higher plane, the lower bodies provide all the other information. Being incarnated also means taking in lots of information to process, and it would be not possible without slowing it down like living in time and space does for us.

In this sense the etheric body provides us with a sense of managing our energy while incarnated, and together with the astral body helps us process sensation. Sensation and feeling then are the domain of the astral body, and analysis and reflection the domain of the mental body. Just as in Buddhism the thinking mind is seen as yet another sense human beings possess, as is the feeling mind, in the model of the energy bodies our experience is simultaneously filtered through several distinct layers of processing that interact with each other.

As I said, the energy bodies are both storage mediums and means of perception at the same time. Taking these ideas together one can easily see how energy blocks in these bodies (stresses stored in the elementals) can influence and distort our perceptions. Smear a lense and you won't get a good picture. Accumulate a lot of stress and see how narrow your perceptions become, how short-circuited your analysis and decision-making, how more dramatic and threatening events can appear.

One thing to take note of in this model the theosophists came up with is the fact that the lower three bodies get formed at incarnation. This is essentially part of this mostly clean slate we come into the world with. As we enter this world we are neither master of our physical, etheric, astral or mental bodies, nor do we know who we are. Some think of this condition as innocence, but I wouldn't necessarily agree.

In my opinion the training we undergo as children defines if we can truly preserve innocence. True innocence to me is bringing as much of the soul through every day as we can. It's what we are in a truer sense, and if we can find any way to express that, it has an irresistible quality that is pure, and also in some ways innocent. In children this quality can shine through indeed, but in my opinion it never needs to get lost. Again, stresses in the lower bodies will gradually shade it out. But innocence is not lost. It can be recovered, and it is at the root of what I think is the beginning of becoming in touch with our Buddha nature.

Yet it is not enough to just look at the child and think the Buddha nature will just shine through. A child has to learn to master the physical elemental to walk, run, skip, jump, learn to master the etheric elemental to manage its energy levels and deal with sensation, learn to master social interactions, having a grip on its own emotions and recognising them in others, and have to master analysis, concentration, focus, pattern recognition and much more.

As you may see this work is not done by adulthood. We could constantly hone all of these aspects, and in effect it is also part not only of our spiritual evolution, but also essential to the needs of the elementals. Just as the physical elemental needs food, sleep, protection from the elements, the creature comforts, Kurt found that the other elements have needs, too.

The etheric elemental needs authentic sensation, like for example provided in nature, but also touch and other things. Ever wondered why people own pets? They help providing this. The astral elemental wants authentic heart-to-heart connection to others, intimacy and the ability to communicate your problems and joys to others. The mental elemental enjoys the exchange with those of similar ideas or open mind.

These things may be more abstract than hunger and thirst, but take a look at any person who lacks them and how it atrophies them, takes something away from them, deprives them. People join cults because they can't find other people who understand and see them as who they are, so they fall for those who pretend they do. People hunt down one sexual encounter after another when they lack intimacy. People get bored and confused and sit in front of computer and TV all day while lacking any true authentic sensation to stimulate them, like the wind, the smells of the forest, the touch of a beloved one or the giggle of a child.

These needs of the elementals are real and minding them can lead to greater happiness and contentment. They can help in understanding the needs of a child who cannot articulate it yet or finding the root causes of problems an adult has whose acting out we don't understand. And they can lead the way to balancing our lives out and providing greater access to the impulses of the soul.

Even the out-of-body traveller is affected by this. Why were there so many sexual tensions in early projection experiences Robert Monroe had? I think it was because certain stresses needed to be released from his astral body, which is the body of desire. He had to clear these out, and being out of body on the astral plane he naturally attracted experiences that did so, if he wanted or not. Such is the nature of nonphysical reality where the laws of attraction work in much more immediate ways.

As children start the process of harnessing control of more and more of their elementals, they also begin to attain the skills (Kurt calls them faculties) these energy bodies provide in physical life. Harnessing the mental body is in part the discipline of concentration, learning to stay with a certain topic for a certain amount of time. We call it attention span. Scientists have been saying our attention spans are dwindling, but is this a surprise in this fast-paced world with quick-cut videos, media bombardment and other factors that overwhelm our mental bodies?

Other faculties may include the ability to read another person's emotional state, their energetic health, things ranging from the seemingly mundane to the outright psychic. The ability to hold one thought to the exclusion of others might not seem very mystical at all, yet it will also translate into being able to maintain a state of consciousness when having a projection experience. Because whatever they mean to our physical lives, the energy bodies don't end there. Each of them is also a vehicle of consciousness on its own plane, a means to take in nonphysical information and experience.

As a person integrates these aspects, all of life takes on a mystical quality. The energetic lessons and information from the higher planes transforms physical life on Earth. And physical life on Earth transforms how these experiences are taken in.

According to Kurt, any event taken in on a nonphysical planes filters through the energy bodies, their perception filters and their level of understanding. But we have much less experience in coordinating this function of the energy bodies than how we use them in the physical plane, so misunderstandings, distortion and nonsensical, bizarre and absurd elements seem to abound.

Yet see how any experience on the physical plane is a complex interaction between all of the elementals to see, hear, feel, process and understand what is going on. We take decades of training before this seems to go on effortlessly. Expecting it all to work out of the box in nonphysical reality is a bit much to ask for really, because the interplay is different and needs to be balanced anew from the ground up.

So, elementals are storage mediums for experience, means for experiencing any kind of reality, and they possess needs that need to be maintained. What else?

More in the next installment.

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