‘Our Identity’, ‘Our Higher and Lower Self’. This is the theme from the SynoSphere that we will be exploring during the month of March. The Master explained this in terms of the different levels of consciousness, and our different ‘bodies’.

‘What is below is like what is above, and what is above is like what is below’, said Hermes Trismegistus in the Emerald Tablet. The existence within the human being of certain subtle principles, each of which has its own needs and activities, can be readily understood if we take the needs and activities of the physical body as a starting point.

This is what I want to show you with the help of this Synoptic Table.  In it I have tried to put together a unified, coordinated picture of the principal elements of our physical and, especially, our psychic life, which are usually scattered and disconnected. These notions could, of course, be developed and elaborated on almost indefinitely. The table does not contain everything, of course; there are a certain number of notions that you will not find in it, but you can, at least, see where the different levels or degrees of consciousness fit in: the unconscious, the subconscious, consciousness, self-consciousness and the superconscious.

Starting from the bottom…

The Physical Body – Health – Unconscious
Let’s begin with the physical body: what are its needs? First and foremost it needs health. In order to be healthy it has to eat, so it needs food. But then it must have money in order to buy food and it cannot have money unless it works for it. You see? It is simple!

And now, since what is below on the physical level is like what is above on the spiritual level, it stands to reason that we will find exactly the same pattern at work on the other, subtler levels, in connection with our other, subtler principles: our will, heart, mind, soul and spirit.

Each of these principles has its own particular goal; in order to attain its goal it needs nourishment; in order to obtain that nourishment it needs money, and it can only earn the money it needs by doing a particular type of work.

The Will – Movement and Power – Subconscious
Take the case of the will: the goal of the will is movement and power. It needs to act on other objects, beings and situations in order to shape and transform them. But in order to be active the will needs nourishment, and its nourishment is force. Only if the will is nourished by force can it manifest itself, and in order to purchase the force it needs, the will needs money, and its money is physical action and gestures.

If you want to set your energies in motion you have to begin by freeing yourself from the grip of inertia and immobility. When the will acquires the habit of acting, of moving, of doing, it purchases force and becomes strong and powerful. Every physical effort you make helps to strengthen your will.

The Heart – Joy, Warmth, Happiness – Consciousness
Next we come to the heart. What does the heart need? It needs to feel itself expanding with warmth, joy and happiness. The food of the heart is feelings, and the currency it uses to purchase that food is love. When you love, your love is ‘money’ which enables you to ‘buy’, that is to say, to experience, all kinds of feelings, sensations and emotions.

If you lose your love you lose all that warmth and happiness; you find yourself out in the cold. How can you keep the wealth that your love has earned you? By cultivating harmony in your relations with the universe and all its creatures.

And the intellect, the mind, what is it looking for?’
Read the remainder of this explanation in tomorrow’s post…

Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov

Read More in Izvor Book 222, Man’s Psychic Life, Elements and Structures
Chapter 2, The Synoptic Table