Over-Soul

Over-Soul is a term used by Ralph Waldo Emerson in one of his best essays, first published in 1841. In this essay he says:

The Supreme Critic on the errors of the past and the present, and the only prophet of that which must be, is that great nature in which we rest, as the earth lies in the soft arms of the atmosphere; that Unity, that Over-soul, within which every man's particular being is contained and made one with all other; that common heart.

For Emerson the term denotes a supreme underlying unity which transcends duality or plurality, much in keeping with the philosophy of Advaita Vedanta. In Theosophical literature the term is used as a synonym for anima-mundi or ālaya.

Further reading

• The Over-Soul at American Transcendentalism Web