The Barrow

Lately I've been doing a lot of thinking about the tripartite soul and its constituent parts. I know the tripartite soul is common in Platonic theory, but I'm referring to a slightly different theory of the parts of the soul. Someone recently explained it to me as consisting of a higher self, who represents our ideals and greatest potential, a lower self which represents the human animal and all its associated appetites and lusts, and a “middle self” which represents our earthly form and joins the other two.

This reminds me of the Jungian metaphor of the tree, with its boughs in Heaven and its roots in Hell. I think it's something of a mirror. Great people are capable of great good and great evil. Often, they are paired. There is great unity in opposites, in many places.

In many Indo-European spiritualities, these different parts of the soul behave differently after the death of the individual (including in Platonism). The higher soul is often the only part which can reincarnate, as the lower soul has no function without the body, and the middle soul has no function without the lower soul.

Somewhere in Evola's Introduction to Magic he also makes reference to a “psychic corpse” which behaves often quite like a physical one, and that this is what most people are experiencing when they talk of “ghosts” or “spirits.” It is the psyche of the deceased they are experiencing, though it no longer lives. It can still be seen, felt, etc. just like a physical corpse, but it is inert and dissipates and decomposes over time.

Anyway, just some Monday afternoon thoughts.

I hope you all have a great week.