Soul

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Soul is a word used to translate the Greek term (ψυχή psychē), meaning "life, spirit, consciousness". The Greek verb from which the word derives means "to cool, to blow" and therefore refers to the vital breath, the animating principle in humans and other animals (the Latin term being anima from which the word "animal" is derived.

In the Theosophical literature human beings are described as being composed of seven principles, three of which are regarded as "souls." In 1883 A. P. Sinnett described them as follows:[1]

4. Animal Soul. . . . . . Kama Rupa.

5. Human Soul. . . . . . Manas.

6. Spiritual Soul. . . . . Buddhi.


Animal soul

This term in Theosophy is sometimes applied to the fourth principle in human beings (kāma), and in other occasions it refers to the incarnated ray of fifth principle, the lower manas or lower mind, which in most people act in close association with kāma.

In December 1881 H. P. Blavatsky wrote about the "animal soul" as being the "kama-rupa" of a living man,[2] while in January 1882, T. Subba Row speaks of it as the "physical intelligence."[3]


Human soul

Spiritual soul

Notes

  1. Alfred Percy Sinnett, Esoteric Buddhism (London: The Theosophical House LTD, 1972), 19
  2. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Collected Writings vol. III (Wheaton, Ill: Theosophical Publishing House, 1968), 347
  3. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Collected Writings vol. III (Wheaton, Ill: Theosophical Publishing House, 1968), 407

Further reading