its higher reason seeks to subdue, and his divine spiritual nature to which it gravitates, whenever it has the upper hand in its struggle with the inner animal.  The latter is the instinctual “animal Soul” and is the hotbed of those passions, which, as just shown, are lulled instead of being killed, and locked up in their breasts by some imprudent enthusiasts.  Do they still hope to turn thereby the muddy stream of the animal sewer into the crystalline waters of life?  And where, on what neutral ground can they be imprisoned so as not to affect man?  The fierce passions of love and lust are still alive and they are allowed to still remain in the place of their birth—­that same animal soul; for both the higher and the lower portions of the “Human Soul” or Mind reject such inmates, though they cannot avoid being tainted with them as neighbors.  The “Higher Self” or Spirit is as unable to assimilate such feelings as water to get mixed with oil or unclean liquid tallow.  It is thus the mind alone—­the sole link and medium between the man of earth and the Higher Self—­that is the only sufferer, and which is in the incessant danger of being dragged down by those passions that may be reawakened at any moment, and perish in the abyss of matter.  And how can it ever attune itself to the divine harmony of the highest Principle, when that harmony is destroyed by the mere presence, within the Sanctuary in preparation, of such animal passions?  How can harmony prevail and conquer, when the soul is stained and distracted with the turmoil of passions and the terrestrial desires of the bodily senses, or even of the “Astral man”?

For this “Astral”—­the shadowy “double” (in the animal as in man)—­is not the companion of the divine Ego but of the earthly body.  It is the link between the personal Self, the lower consciousness of Manas and the Body, and is the vehicle of transitory, not of immortal life.  Like the shadow projected by man, it follows his movements and impulses slavishly and mechanically, and leans therefore to matter without ever ascending to Spirit.  It is only when the power of the passions is dead altogether, and when they have been crushed and annihilated in the retort of an unflinching will; when not only all the lusts and longings of the flesh are dead, but also the recognition of the personal Self is killed out and the “astral” has been reduced in consequence to a cipher, that the Union with the “Higher Self” can take place.  Then when the “astral” reflects only the conquered man, the still living, but no more the longing, selfish personality, then the brilliant Augoeides, the divine Self, can vibrate in conscious harmony with both the poles of the human Entity—­the man of matter purified, and the ever pure Spiritual Soul—­and stand in the presence of the Master Self, the Christos of the mystic Gnostics, blended, merged into, and one with IT for ever.[D]