The vital body is the expression of the soul energy and has
the following function:
- It unifies and links into one whole the sum total of all forms. [45]
It gives to every form its particular quality, and this is due to:
- The type of matter drawn into that particular part of the web of life.
- The position in the body of the planetary Logos, for instance, of any specific form.
- The particular kingdom in nature which is being vitalized.
It is the
principle of integration and the cohesive force of manifestation, from the strictly
physical sense.
This web of life is the subjective analogy to the nervous system, and beginners in the
esoteric sciences can, if they remember this, picture to themselves a network of nerves
and plexus running throughout the entire body, or the sum total of all forms, coordinating
and linking, and producing an essential unity.
Within that unity is diversity. Just as the varied organs of the human body are
interrelated by the ramification of the nervous system, so within the body of the
planetary Logos are the various kingdoms in nature and the multiplicity of forms. Back of
the objective universe is the subtler sensitive body - one organism, not many, one
sentient, responsive, connected form.
This sensitive form is not only that which responds to the environment but is the
transmitter (from inner sources) of certain types of energy, and the object of the
Treatise might here be stated to be that of considering the various types of energy
transmitted to the form in the human kingdom, the responsiveness of the form to the types
of force, the effects of that force upon man, and his gradual responsiveness to force
emanating: [46]
- From his environment, plus his own outer physical body.
- From the emotional plane, or astral force.
- The mental plane or thought currents.
- Egoic force, a force only registered by man and of which the fourth kingdom in nature is
the custodian and which has mysterious and peculiar effects.
- The type of energy which produces the concretion of ideas on the physical plane.
- Strictly spiritual energy, or force from the plane of the monad.
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