From the Rosicrucian Order’s The Sanctuary of Self: on the Mystical Life, Part 3 of 3

Today we’ll continue learning more about the different stages of the mystical life, as they were in the past and in our modern world. In the chapter titled “The Mystical Life” from his book “The Sanctuary of Self,” Frater Ralph M. Lewis elaborates on the importance of interconnectedness and balance across all levels of existence in one’s mystical life – from the material to the spiritual. “Traditional mysticism may be reduced to these fundamental principles: the soul is the spiritual self of man; the soul is part of a universal soul, a soul which permeates the entire universe. That soul is God. The material world and the physical body are the negative side of this positive, absolute soul, or God, which permeates the universe – a sort of imperfection, a falling off from the goodness; and when the soul is embodied in a physical form or body, man as a unity of both soul and body is not perfect. The body, the material, must be brought into harmony with the soul, the immaterial. Man will be confined to a body, in various lives, as long as he permits the temptations, the desires and appetites to dominate his nature. He must struggle to overcome them, to suppress them, to give himself over entirely to those spiritual urges within his own nature.”