About how the new bodies are formed when
the human is reincarnated, Max Heidel wrote the following:
«
BIRTH OF THE DENSE BODY
The vehicles of the new-born do not at once become active.
The dense body is helpless for a long time after birth. Reasoning from analogy
we can readily see that the same must be the case with the higher vehicles. The
occult scientist sees it, but even without clairvoyance reason will show that
this must be so.
As the dense body is slowly prepared for the separate,
individual life within the protecting cover of the womb, so the other bodies
are gradually born and nurtured into activity, and while the times given in the
following description are but approximate, they are nevertheless accurate
enough for general purposes and show the connection between the Microcosm and
the Macrocosm — the individual and the world.
In the period immediately following birth the
different vehicles interpenetrate one another, as, in our previous illustration,
the sand penetrates the sponge and the water both sand and sponge. But, though
they are all present, as in adult life, they are merely present. None of their
positive faculties are active.
THE VITAL BODY OF THE CHILD
The vital body cannot use the forces which operate
along the positive pole of the ethers. Assimilation, which works along the
positive pole of the chemical ether, is very dainty during childhood and what there
is of it is due to the macrocosmic vital body, the ethers of which act as a
womb for the child's vital body until the seventh year, gradually ripening it
during that period.
The propagative faculty, which works along the
positive pole of the life ether, is also latent. The heating of the body (which
is carried on along the positive pole of the light ether) and the circulation
of the blood are due to the macrocosmic vital body, the ethers acting on the
child and slowly developing it to the point where it can control these
functions itself.
The forces working along the negative pole of the
ethers are so much the more active. The excretion of solids, carried on along
the negative pole of the chemical ether (corresponding to the solid subdivision
of the Chemical Region), is too unrestrained, as is also the excretion of
fluid, which is carried on along the negative pole of the life ether (corresponding
to the second or fluid subdivision of the Chemical Region).
The passive sense-perception, which is due to the
negative forces of the light ether, is also exceedingly prominent. The child is
very impressionable and it is “all eyes and ears.”
(All this is false because "the
different types of ethers" don't exist, because they were a lie invented
by Charles Leadbeater.)
During the earlier years the forces operating along
the negative pole of the reflecting ether are also extremely active. In those
years children can “see” the higher Worlds and they often prattle about what
they see until the ridicule of their elders or punishment for “telling stories”
teaches them to desist.
It is deplorable that the little ones are forced to
lie (or at least to deny the truth) because of the incredulity of their “wise”
elders. Even the investigations of the Society for Psychical Research have
proven that children often have invisible playmates, who frequently visit them
until they are several years old. During those years the clairvoyance of the children
is of the same negative character as that of the mediums.
THE BODY OF DESIRE AND THE MIND OF
THE CHILD
It is the same with the forces working in the desire
body. The passive feeling of physical pain is present, while the feeling of
emotion is almost entirely absent. The child will, of course, show emotion on
the slightest provocation, but the duration of that emotion is but momentary.
It all on the surface.
(Here Max Heindel exaggerates, because
the emotion in the child is already much more developed than he intended.)
The child also has the link of mind, but is almost incapable
of individual thought-activity.
(He also exaggerates here.)
It is exceedingly sensitive to forces working along
the negative pole and is therefore imitative and teachable.
Thus it is shown that all the negative qualities are
active in the new-born entity, but before it is able to use its different
vehicles, the positive qualities must be ripened. Each vehicle is therefore
brought to a certain degree of maturity by the activity of the corresponding
vehicle of the macrocosm, which acts as a womb for it until that degree is reached.
FORMATION AND BIRTH
OF THE VITAL BODY
OF THE VITAL BODY
From the first to the seventh year the vital body
grows and slowly matures within the womb of the macrocosmic vital body and
because of the greater wisdom of this vehicle of the macrocosm the child's body
is more rounded and well-built than in later life.
While the macrocosmic vital body guides the growth of the
child's body it is guarded from the dangers which later threaten it when the
unwise individual vital body takes unchecked charge. This happens in the
seventh year, when the period of excessive, dangerous growth begins, and continues
through the next seven years. During this time the macrocosmic desire body
performs the function of a womb for the individual desire body.
Were the vital body to have continual and unrestrained
sway in the human kingdom, as it has in the plant, man would grow to an
enormous size. There was a time in the far-distant past when man was
constituted like a plant, having only a dense body and a vital body. The
traditions of mythology and folk-lore all over the world concerning giants in
olden times are absolutely true, because then men grew as tall trees, and for
the same reason.
FORMATION AND BIRTH
OF THE DESIRE BODY
OF THE DESIRE BODY
The vital body of the plant builds leaf after leaf,
carrying the stem higher and higher. Were it not for the macrocosmic desire
body it would keep on in that way indefinitely, but the macrocosmic desire body
steps in at a certain point and checks further growth. The force that is not
needed for further growth is then available for other purposes and is used to
build the flower and the seed.
In like manner the human vital body, when the dense
body comes under its sway, after the seventh year, makes the latter grow very rapidly,
but about the fourteenth year the individual desire body is born from the womb
of the macrocosmic desire body and is then free to work on its dense body.
The excessive growth is then checked and the force
theretofore used for that purpose becomes available for propagation, that the
human plant may flower and bring forth. Therefore the birth of the personal
desire body marks the period of puberty.
From this period the attraction towards the opposite sex
is felt, being especially active and unrestrained in the third septenary period
of life — from the fourteenth to the twenty-first year, because the restraining
mind is then still unborn.
FORMATION AND BIRTH
OF THE MIND
OF THE MIND
After the fourteenth year, the mind is in turn brooded
over and nurtured by the macrocosmic mind, unfolding its latent possibilities
and making it capable of original thought.
The forces of the individual's different vehicles have
now been ripened to such a degree that he can use them all in his evolution,
therefore at the twenty-first year the Ego comes into possession of its
complete vehicle.
It does this by means of the blood-heat and by
developing individual blood. This is done in connection with the full
development of the light ether. »
And to illustrate his explanation, Max
Heindel put the following diagram:
(All this is in his
book "The Rosicrucian Cosmos-Conception",
chapter 3)
OBSERVATIONS
As I understand Max Heindel's explanation, he says
that:
The physical body (dense body) is very helpless for a
long time because the subtle bodies, although they are already present, they are
not yet active (they are like the fetus, in the process of formation and
finally born).
The vital body begins to form when the child born, and
it slowly develops within the matrix of the "macrocosmic vital body" that
temporarily takes care of the child until age 7, when then the vital body of
the person born and assumes this function.
At seven years, the body of desire begins to be formed
and it slowly develops in the matrix of the “macrocosmic desire body” that temporarily
takes care of the teenager until age 14, when the body of desire of the person born
and assumes this function.
And at fourteen years, the mind begins to be formed
and it slowly develops within the matrix of "the macrocosmic mind" that
temporarily takes care of the young person until age 21, when then the mind of
the person born and assumes
this function.
~ * ~
But Max Heindel's explanation is very different from
the explanation given by the Masters of wisdom, since they explained that
humans are made up of the seven principles which are:
·
Atma is our divine nature (the
Spirit)
·
Buddhi is our spiritual nature (the soul)
·
Manas is our human nature (the mind)
·
Kama is our animal nature (the body
of desires)
·
Prana is our energetic nature (the
vital body)
· The double is our astral nature (the
astral body)
· And the body is our physical nature
(the dense body)
(And as you can see, the structure used
by the masters is different, because the structure used by Max Heindel
corresponds to an altered structure invented by Charles Leadbeater.)
The three higher principles are immortal, that is,
they continue to exist throughout reincarnations. While the
four lower principles are mortal, they die at the end of each reincarnation,
and therefore they must be rebuilt at the beginning of each new reincarnation.
The upper triad cannot descend to Earth because she is
too “light” and therefore she remains in the Divine World, all she can do is
project a ray of Manas (which is usually called the "lower mental").
The lower mental is basically you (that is, the
"I" you pronounce when you think of yourself). And for you can
interact with the physical world, you need your four lower vehicles, which are:
1) The vital body that keeps alive
the other three lower vehicles during reincarnation. It is the
"battery" that maintains the lower quaternary functioning.
2) The astral body that gives it its
shape to the physical body, because without the astral body, the atoms of the
physical body would begin to disperse and life in the physical world would be
impossible.
3) The
physical body that is what will allow you to have an existence on Earth,
because without it, then we would be like ghosts enable to interact with the
terrestrial world.
4) And the body of desire that serves
as an intermediary between us (lower manas) and those three vehicles.
We could therefore compare our lower quaternary to a
carriage:
- We are the passenger.
- The vital body, the astral body and the physical body are the three horses.
- And our body of desire is the driver who directs them.
And the formation of these bodies are completely
opposite of how Max Heindel says.
The one who is formed first is the body of desire so
that the lower mental can cling to him as an anchor.
And on Earth, at the same time, the embryo is forming
in the mother's womb. But as we have seen above, the
physical body cannot exist without its two subtle counterparts. So, at the
same time that the physical body is forming, the vital body and the astral body
are also forming, developing and activating as well.
And the new personality (that is, the lower mind with
its desire body) begins to settle inside the baby approximately after the third
month of gestation and completes its installation at the seventh month of
gestation.
And once the child is born, his connection with his
upper triad through the energy channel called the Antakarana, ends up being established at age seven.
At no time did the masters mention that "the
macrocosmic vital body" and "the macrocosmic body of desire" and
"the macrocosmic mind" intervene, because as we saw above, the subtle
bodies begin to function from the beginning.
And those who are responsible for the development of
subtle bodies are not the "macrocosmic bodies", but the auric egg,
with the help of skandhas, the forces of nature, and the parents' DNA.
CONCLUSION
As you can see, Max Heindel's
explanation is a distorted version, based on the lies invented by Charles
Leadbeater, which does not correspond to the Masters of Wisdom teachings.
