Theos-Talk Archives (July 1997 Message tl00412)

Giselle and Keith wrote:

>> Giselle:  If we think of the single individuals, the single egos, as little circles,
>> for external physical observation they will be separate beings.  But one
>> who observes these single individualities spiritually sees them as though
>> embedded in an etheric cloud, and this is the incorporation of the
>> folk-soul.  If the single person thinks, feels, and wills something, he
>> radiates his feelings and thoughts into the common folk-soul.  This is
>> colored by his radiations, and the folk-soul becomes permeated by the
>> thoughts and feelings of the single persons."

> Keith:  Oh, my dear, you are really getting into some heresy here!!! :0) 
> The idea of human group soul is anathema to the true believers.

I have heard of this before and it makes sense to me. People, by and
large, are not completely autonomous individuals. We all participate in
group psychology at many levels; family, school, profession, church,
community, nation, etc. We share and share alike. We build group thought
and feeling forms, largely share common cultural values (conflicts
notwithstanding), and get much of our socialization from these "clouds"
of knowledge and attitude. Consciously or unconsciously, they impact us
through our community and broadly through our "civilization". It happens
subtly. It's one of the major factors that help to form our personality
in childhood. We have connections with small and large groups of people
in many different ways.

It's no wonder that there might be equivalents of these on the inner
planes that could be viewed, nor that they are participatory or active.

I don't think it's so much a heretical issue of comparing us to animals.
It could be some sort of vestige or remnant of animal group psychology.
We are sooooo much animal, in ways we often take for granted to be
human, it's not funny. Formation of healthy personality and true
individuation of ego vis-a-vis self, is a process that has not
completely occurred, by and large. We are still very much in it. 

If you take it theosophically, we're in the middle of the fifth root
race. It's in this period that we are, as a race, supposedly compeled to
utilize, refine and develop lower manas. The result of which creates
strong egoic personalities, and hopefully some growing sense of
awareness of something higher. This only happens by individualizing out
of a psychological collective. It needs context.

Blavatsky said there are "soulless" people that we meet on the street
every day. It's true. There are relatively unindividualized people who
mill about in their lives unconsciously acting as automatons of cultural
collectivism, doing more or less "what they're told to", what's
"expected" of them or what they "should". You could call them people of
the "folk soul", or of the "mass consciousness". If you honestly and
bravely look hard enough within yourself, you can see places where
you're doing it to, and then, there it is, right under your feet, the
road to individuality.

> I think the turkey archetype is on the ascendent today in America!

That's really very funny, and probably true, gobble, gobble.

Mark
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