The Ravishment of Psyche.
Feminine Spirit is wedded to the
masculine and sol focused Soul.
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There is often con-fusion about the difference between soul and spirit, because of their immateriality, and also because they essentially come from the same One source, God, the mysterious and unknowable Knower; the Screen of pure awareness onto which the light of consciousness is projected, and the stories of corporeal life are acted out.
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The elemental spirit, Ruach Elohim, is basically God's fiery breath, wind, pneuma, symbolized by the Dove, or condensed as baptismal water; whereas the soul is the central part or divine spark of each person's individuality or higher self; and is related to the archetypal Christ, the collective Soul or one and only Child of God. So, just as the Son is often portrayed as sun-like (see Rev 1:16), so the soul is sol-like too. "That Soul/Self (atman) is not this, it is not that. It is unseizable, for it cannot be seized; it is indestructable, for it cannot be destroyed; unattached, for it does not attach itself; it is unbound, it does not tremble, it is not injured." Brihadaranyaka Upanishad.
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"In Surat Shabda Yoga, the soul is considered to be an exact replica and spark of the Divine. The purpose of Surat Shabda Yoga is to realize one's True Self as soul (Self-Realisation), True Essence (Spirit-Realisation) and True Divinity (God-Realisation) while living in the physical body." Wikipedia, Soul.~
It also remains to tie in the spirit and soul to consciousness and awareness, which also have differences. For me, it is consciousness or spirit which has fallen into matter, thereby knocking it unconscious. Awareness is always clear, awake, stainless, and transcendent; but also dry and aloof, requiring the return or sublimation of the spirit to humanize it.
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In many Gnostic myths only half of who I am fell to earth; the other half remains transcendent. Only my spirit (consciousness) has fallen into matter (mater, water, mother, materiality). My soul (awareness) remains free in the sky of Heaven. "What is the pearl? As one of the alternate titles of the poem, The Hymn of the Soul, suggests, the pearl may esoterically be the soul." Willis Barnstone, The Gnostic Bible.
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The spirit is usually seen as feminine, wavelike, and immanent; the sol-like soul as masculine, focused and transcendent. This is borne out in Rev 12:5, where Sophia (wisdom) goes into the desert (wilderness), but her sun-like Son is taken straight to Heaven: "She gave birth to a son, a male child, who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. The woman fled into the desert."
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Many men, like myself, retreat, and just want to go into solitude to meditate ourselves out of the body to reconnect with the transcendent self, with its clear awareness. That's why, in Theravadan Buddhism, for example, indulgence in worldly activities: dance, relationships, drugs, sex, etc, is forbidden. Women, however, generally want to talk about and process emotional issues, and work through them consciously. Both ways need to be explored: male transcendence, goal-orientatedness, and freedom; and feminine immanence, journey (smelling the roses), and relatedness.
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The study of spirit, pneumatology, and the study of soul, Christology, require two different approaches. Spirit (Ruach Elohim, wind, breath of God, water, libidinal life) requires a bodily exploration of how to free my spirit from matter? Massage, psychology, tantra, alternative therapies, etc, are all good ways of exploring how the libidinal spirit is trapped as instinctual energy (kundalini) in the flesh; and how to sublimate unconsciousness into consciousness.
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Soul (the central and individual self, divine spark) requires a transcendent approach that connects us to the collective or universal Christ. Solitude, meditation, isolation/retreat, sensory deprivation, self mortification, etc, are all transcendent practices. The collective sun-like Son and individual sol-like soul remain free, awaiting the awakening and return of the fallen spirit, consciousness.
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Those who have experienced the invocation of the Sun-god (Mithras, Christ, Buddha, Sol Invictus, Atman, Ra, etc) know his detachment, other-worldliness, transcendence, freedom, and awareness. But for the soul to become truly whole his mother/mater, Sophia, must be rescued and released from matter; so she can distil her elemental essence (quintessence) into the light-body of the soul.
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The seed of spirit (consciousness) grows (sublimates) towards the unearthly Sun, whose light draws up the bloom. After the rose flowers and its scent or essence is released, its earthly body dies. The potential in the seed cannot prematurely jump into the sky of awareness. It must grow and unfold through the thorny process of corporeal life, suffering, and death. Only then can the quintessence of earthly experience be rescued, extracted and delivered home to the Star of Christ, the eternal Self.
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The SpAce or Screen of transcendent awareness, which contains the collective sun-like Son and the individual sol-like soul, issues forth the breath of pneumatic consciousness (Holy Spirit) which falls into immanence. Unconscious and libidinal spirit (psyche) must then grow, unfold its potential, and sublimate sublime through the four lower kingdoms (mineral, veg, animal, and human) of consciousness, until its 4 elemental essences (earth, water, air, and fire) are alchemically distilled and fused into the Holy Blood of quintessence, the fifth Spirit or nectar of immortality; new wine for the transcendent Christ divine.
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In alchemy awareness and consciousness are not distinguished. The Sun is seen as masculine consciousness, and the Moon as feminine unconsciousness. Francis Melville, in his "Book of Alchemy," says: "The Sun, the hot, dry masculine principle, is vitality and consciousness. It is the individual soul as opposed to the spirit, which is represented by the Moon. The Moon rules the emotions, instincts, and the subconscious. It is feminine, nurturing reflective, and changeable." In alchemy both soul and spirit, consciousness and unconscious, have fallen into matter and need to be redeemed.
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Dragon (Spirit) and Pearl (Soul).
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