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ANTHROPOLOGY 8l 



The Constitution of Man. 



According to Paracelsus, the constitution of man con- 

 sists of seven principles, or, to express it more correctly, of 

 seven modifications of one primordial essence, which are 

 as follows, and to which we add their Eastern terms ^ : — 



1. The Elementary Body. (The Physical Body)— Sthula Sharira. 



2. The Archaeus. (Vital force) — Prana. 



3. The Sidereal Body. (The Astral body) — Linga Sharira. 



4. Mumia. (The Animal Soul) — Kama rupa. 



5. The Rational Soul. (The Human Soul) — Flesh of Adam. Manas. 



6. The Spiritual Soul. (The Spiritual Soul)— Flesh of Christ. 



Buddhi. 



7. The Man of the new Olympus. Atma Buddhi Manas. 



In his " Philosophia Sagax " and his " Explanations of 

 Astronomia," Paracelsus deals extensively with a descrip- 

 tion and explanation of these seven qualities. The most 

 important points referring to the higher principles are as 

 follows : — " The life of man is an astral effluvium or a 

 balsamic impression, a heavenly and invisible fire, an 

 enclosed essence or spirit. We have no better terms to 

 describe it. The death of a man is nothing else but the 

 end of his daily labour, or taking away the ether of life, 

 a disappearance of the vital balsam, an extinction of the 

 natural light, a re-entering into the matrix of the mother. 

 The natural man possesses the elements of the Earth, 

 and the Earth is his mother, and he re-enters into her 

 and loses his natural flesh ; but the real man will be 

 re-born at the day of the resurrection in another spiritual 

 and glorified body " {Be Natura Rerum). ^ 



^ See A. P. Sinnett's "Esoteric Buddhism." 



' Speaking of the day of the resurrection, Paracelsus refers to a great 

 mystery, alluded to in St. John's Revelation, and more plainly spoken of 

 by the Eastern Adepts, when at the end of the Seventh Round all the 

 higher recollections of the various personalities with which the spiritual 

 monad has been connected during its many objective existences, and which 

 have not become exhausted in Kama-loca, but have been preserved in 

 the Astral Light, will re-enter the field of consciousness of the spiritual 

 (divine) man. 



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