Karma and Reincarnation, Page 3

The soul’s journey after death can be succinctly stated. Death is followed immediately by a perfect “memory tableau” in the etheric world of the entire life just ended, lasting up to about three days. The second stage, from which the Roman Catholic doctrine of Purgatory was properly, if imprecisely (see fn 11 below), taken is known in the Orient as “kamaloca,” and takes place in the astral world, lasting approximately one-third of the duration of the immediate past life. Here the entire life is experienced in reverse order from death back to birth (see “Purifying Fire”). Thereafter the soul enters the spiritual world proper, which is itself divided into the lower and higher heaven (in Oriental terminology, “lower devachan” and “higher devachan”). (From the nature of his description, we may reasonably infer that the “third heaven” to which Paul was carried [2 Cor 12,2] was the higher devachan, the three being, in order, the astral world, lower devachan and higher devachan.⁵ ) This period customarily lasts for some centuries. Its midway and highest point is referred to as the soul’s “Midnight” hour, from which it begins its descent back into incarnation as a new and unique personality.⁶ In its descent, the soul traverses in reverse order the stages of its ascent, taking into the fourfold makeup of its prospective earthly personality what each realm has to offer to the soul for its own progress toward “Perfect(ion).” Now we will look at the stages in more detail.

The human Ego perceives phenomena through its astral (sense) body, but attains to earthly memory only if the astral body is able to imprint the perception upon the etheric body. Upon death, the etheric (life) bodyseparates for the first time from the physical body and is thus no longer constrained by it. The etheric body, still attached to the astral body and Ego, makes available to the Ego, through the astral body, perfect perception of the entirety of the life just ended. This perception is not subject to happiness, pain, or the like, but is entirely objective. In this tableau, nothing is lost that made an impression upon the astral body during life. As soon as the etheric body loses the form it had while connected with the physical body during life, this tableau ceases. Its duration is equal to the maximum period the person could have gone without sleep while alive (approximately one to three days). At the end of this time, the etheric body dissolves back into the general world ether, but for the soul’s future incarnations an extract is preserved that contains only the “fruit” of the past life.

“There now begins for the soul an essentially different period, the period of breaking its attachment to the physical world” (RE, Lect. 4). Now the astral body and Ego alone dwell together. All the soul’s sensual urges and desires are intensely present, but without the physical body’s organs they cannot be satisfied. With respect to these, it is a time of unslakable “burning thirst” (Lk 16,24, Mk 9,44,48-49 and Jn 4,13-14). The soul in the astral world experiences its past life in reverse order. The soul experiences any relationship it had with another being from the viewpoint of the “other” being. Thus, in the Sermon on the Mount, we are told:

So whatever you wish that men would do to you, do so to them; for this is the [karmic] law and the prophets. (Mt 7,12)

No soul can enter the spiritual world (lower devachan) so long as any earthly appetite, passion, desire or the like remains. This is the time of the “refiner’s fire” (Mal 3,2) and, up to a point, may appropriately be considered as the fire of hell. The apocalyptic fire “prepared for the devil and his angels” (Mt 25,41,46 and Rev 20) is a far distant ultimate spiritual reality, not to be faced until long after the time for the “Grace” of reincarnation has expired (see I-2). The soul (Ego) can alleviate suffering in the astral world only to the extent that it becomes the master of the astral body’s appetites, passions, desires and the like during life. Or, in one’s relationship with any other (or others, including, for instance, all the suffering world, e.g., Mt 25,31-46), such alleviation will occur only to the extent the Ego acted in relation to such other(s) in accordance with the “golden rule” above (e.g., Lk 16,19-31 and 1 Jn 3,17-18). Fortunately, to the extent that the Ego governs its earthly passions, desires, and dealings with others in aChristlike manner, the journey through the astral world can be joyful instead of painful. The period in the astral world is approximately one-third that of the past life, but more precisely equals the time spent in sleep during that life.

When the soul has worked backwards in this manner from its old age to its infancy, burning out all unworthy elements, it is now prepared to enter the spiritual world, lower devachan, the “kingdom of heaven” and “a life free from sorrow” (RE, Lect. 4). When this is understood, a higher meaning of “unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 18,3), is revealed.